Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

How About This Theory: Villa Rica Bang Was a Meteor?

Was it a meteor?

How about two?

The mysterious big bang that has been the talk of Villa Rica and the surrounding three-county area since it occurred Friday night is still unexplained, though some think they know what it was and others say it wasn't the first unexplained sound in the area.

Some people have contacted the AJC saying they saw a large meteor around the same time as the noise, and others say a meteor can make a sonic boom if it gets close enough to the ground.

But if that's what made the loud sound heard in Carroll, Douglas and Haralson counties around 9:45 p.m., then what caused a similar noise two weeks earlier?

Several people have contacted the AJC to say that the recent explosion was preceded by a slightly quieter one on, or around, Nov. 13.

Meteor

More Booms Reported Rattling Brunswick County

Brunswick County residents in Bolivia, Oak Island, Holden Beach and Southport areas reported a series of mysterious booms and rattles Wednesday morning.

No one seems to have any idea what could be causing the loud noises, but speculation has ranged from the continental shelf shifting and earthquakes to military exercises and Seneca Guns, the unexplained phenomenon that sounds like rolling thunder or distant cannon fire.

Meteor

Giant Stealth Planet May Explain Rain of Comets from Solar System's Edge

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Our sun may have a companion that disturbs comets from the edge of the solar system - a giant planet with up to four times the mass of Jupiter, researchers suggest.

A NASA space telescope launched last year may soon detect such a stealth companion to our sun, if it actually exists, in the distant icy realm of the comet-birthing Oort cloud, which surrounds our solar system with billions of icy objects.

The potential jumbo Jupiter would likely be a world so frigid it is difficult to spot, researchers said. It could be found up to 30,000 astronomical units from the sun. One AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun, about 93 million miles (150 million km).

Comment: See: Something Wicked This Way Comes


Meteor

Meteor,space junk, jet, or ufo?

Lakeland, Florida - Several Polk County viewers called FOX 13 yesterday evening to report something in the sky.
meteor
© naA FOX 13 viewer sent this photo of the object in the sky over Polk County.

meteor
© naA FOX 13 viewer sent this photo of the object in the sky over Polk County.
The callers believed the object may have been a meteor or other object entering Earth's atmosphere.

Photos sent by one viewer showed the bright object with some sort of vapor or smoke trail behind it. They were taken at around 5:45 p.m.

It's not clear if the object was a passenger jet with its exhaust trail illuminated by the setting sun, or if it was a meteor or piece of space junk being burned up as it entered the atmosphere.

FOX 13 has been unable to reach any experts who could confirm either theory.

Two weeks ago, video taken by a news helicopter near Los Angeles created a buzz when it appeared to show a mystery missile being launched from the Pacific Ocean. The military later determined it was likely an aircraft's contrail being illuminated by the evening sun.

Meteor

Mystery of Green Fireball 'UFOs' Solved?

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© Courier Mail / Channel 9 TVGreen fireballs seen in the Australian sky were captured in photos, this one taken by a member of the public in Brisbane.
Green fireballs that streaked across the sky and rolled down an Australian mountainside four years ago, spurring reports of UFOs in the area, might have been meteors and ball lightning, a researcher suggests.

At least three traffic-light green fireballs brighter than the moon but not as bright as the sun blazed over northeast Australia on May 16, 2006. A farmer saw one with a blue tapering tail pass over the mountains of the Great Divide about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Brisbane, then watched a phosphorescent green ball about 12 inches wide (30 centimeters) roll slowly down the side of a mountain, bouncing over a rock along the way.

Green fireballs have been seen many times in the sky, and are typically explained as meteors whose shockwaves lead to electrically charged oxygen similar to that seen in auroras. In fact, a commercial airline pilot who landed in New Zealand that day reported seeing a meteor breaking up into fragments, which turned green as the bits descended in the direction of Australia. The timing of the fireballs suggests they might have been debris from Comet 73P/Schwassmann - Wachmann 3, said physicist Stephen Hughes at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.

Comment: The reader may enjoy a more in-depth look at fireballs: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls


Question

US: Mystery Sonic Boom Rattles Georgia

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© Unknown
In the evening hours, residents of three Georgia counties, Carroll, Douglas, and Haralson, were settling down to a relaxing post-Thanksgiving Friday. Then, their night was shattered by a huge explosion. The noise is easily explained away, but the cause remains to be determined. When an airplane travels faster than the speed of sound, the resulting noise is a horrifying explosive thunder known as a sonic boom. Usually, the only airplanes breaking the sound barrier are military aircraft, but according to the FAA, there are no military flyover zones in the area of Georgia where the mysterious sonic boom was heard. Rural Georgia was rocked by a sonic boom that seems to have no cause.

Not only were there no military aircraft in the area, there were also no meteors spotted, according to amateur astronomer Michael Covington. There were no bright lights that would be associated with a meteor, no explosions, and no damage to anything in the area where the booming was heard.

Meteor

'Fireball' Lights up Northern Ireland Sky

Fireball
© BBCAn artist's impression of a meteorite fall.

A fireball was spotted in the skies over Northern Ireland on Sunday evening, Armagh Observatory has said.

A spokesman said they had been "inundated "with calls about an object in the sky which was on fire.

A caller from Coleraine said the object burned bright yellow and orange and had a long tail.

A caller from County Down said it was a ball of fire.

The Observatory spokesman said it was probably a piece of space debris, either man-made "space junk" or a small asteroid or fragment of a comet, entering the Earth's atmosphere at many kilometres a second.

It may well have finally burned up over the North Atlantic Ocean off the Donegal coast.

Question

US: Mystery Blast Likely a Sonic Boom, Official Says

Was it an explosion? An earthquake? A Klingon attack vessel?

Residents of Carroll, Douglas and Haralson counties, west of Atlanta, heard a big boom last night, and officials for all three counties spent considerable effort trying to figure out what caused it.

They're still trying.

Douglas County Communication Director Wes Tallon said "911 calls lit up" the switchboard after the 9:45 p.m. mystery noise rattled windows across a large area of west Georgia.

"There was no catastrophe, we know that," said Tallon early Saturday morning, who said the public did not report any fires or explosions.

And no utility companies reported trouble either. "We've called everyone under the sun trying to figure this one out," said Tallon. "We used the process of elimination and the only thing we can think of is that is was a sonic boom of some kind. To be able to be heard and felt 30 miles away in Haralson County it had to be something like that."

Meteor

US: Fireball Over Tampa

Jet, Fireball, Meteor, space junk, or UFO?

Several Polk County viewers called yesterday evening to report something in the sky over Tampa Bay, Florida.

The callers believed the object may have been a meteor or other object entering Earth's atmosphere.

Photos sent by one viewer showed the bright object with some sort of vapour or smoke trail behind it. They were taken at around 5:45 pm.

It's not clear if the object was a passenger jet with its exhaust trail illuminated by the setting sun, or if it was a meteor or piece of space junk being burned up as it entered the atmosphere.


Meteor

Canada: Great balls of fire?

County - A bright sight in the skies in the western part of Lunenburg County during the November 18 supper hour is said to be part of the Leonid meteor shower.

There was information from an ambulance travelling in the Italy Cross area reporting a fireball had fallen from the sky.

Initial radio dispatches indicated a possible plane crash had happened. Paramedics were placed on standby as police rushed to find out more details.

But the authorities came up with nothing. Police and Halifax's joint rescue co-ordination centre (JRCC) later confirmed no aircraft were missing, nor had any hit the ground.

"We checked through JRCC and there's no aircraft anywhere in the area, there's no radar contacts of any kind and it was at the height of the meteor shower," Lunenburg County RCMP Cpl. Don Gray said.

He said the paramedic saw "something burning in the sky," but it disappeared quickly.