Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Argentina: More Fireballs Reported


Inexplicata
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:42 UTC
Just as television viewers everywhere marvel about the daylight meteor/fireball/unknown object videotaped over Texas, Inexplicata has received an e-mail posting from Jorge Luis Figueras, photographic analyst with the Fundacion Argentina de Ovnilogia (FAO):

"[The incidents] occurred on Saturday, and regional members of the FAO are involved in researching it. At this time, eyewitness accounts span locations as distant as Casa de Piedra in the south of La Pampa, Viedma in eastern Rio Negro, Sierra Grande and Ramos Mexia, Cutral Co, Bariloche on the western end of the province, Neuquén proper, Zapala, Las Lajas and Chos Malal -- that is to say, two entire provinces 600 kilometers from north to south and some 500 from east to west. There is a strong likelihood that it was also seen in Chile.
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Meteor

Military denies link to 'fireball' reports, satellite collision

Susan Carroll and Jennifer Latson
Houston Chronicle
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:55 UTC
The U.S. Strategic Command said there was no connection to reports of a "fireball" in the sky over Texas on Sunday and Tuesday's collision of satellites from the U.S. and Russia.

"There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry," said Maj. Regina Winchester, of STRATCOM.
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Meteor

Video Update: Texas Fireball


Sky News
Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:30 UTC
Authorities in Texas are baffled after being flooded with reports of burning debris falling from the sky.

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Meteor

Texas, US: 'Fireball' not satellite debris, FAA says

Colin McDonald
My San Antonio News
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:55 UTC
It streaked across the Central Texas sky Sunday morning in a bright yellow flash with a boom, leaving a trail of smoke. The FAA thought it might be from Russia.

The media, bloggers and the Twitterverse followed the feds' lead.

But they were all wrong.

It turned out it wasn't debris from Tuesday's collision of two satellites over Russia after all, according to the Domestic Events Network of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Federal authorities now believe the source was not manmade.
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Umbrella

Loud Boom Rocks Southern Kentucky


wkyt.com
Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:14 UTC
27 Newsweek started receiving phone calls tonight telling us a loud boom, or series of booms were heard this evening in Southern Kentucky.

So we called emergency officals, to find out what is going on.

Brian Reams of the Laurel county EMS tells us they've had calls from Jackson to London, about a loud boom.

He says there are no reports of any injuries or damage.
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Phoenix

Ex-southerner watched Australian 'fireball' from the roof of his house

Jared Morgan
Southland Times
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:53 UTC
A former Clutha district man living in bushfire-ravaged Victoria watched in horror on Saturday night as a "fireball" loomed on the horizon.

As Scott McHaffie's Healesville home of four years appeared to be in line with a rapidly approaching fire front he watched from his roof as surrounding mountains erupted in flame. Only good luck and the whim of the weather saved his town from direct attack.

The former Popotunoa, near Clinton, man said it had been expected the small town only 60 kilometres east of Melbourne's central business district, in the heart of the winemaking Yarra Valley region, would come under direct attack from the Victoria fires and it was placed on an urgent threat level with residents warned to watch out for ember attacks.
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Meteor

Observations of a very bright fireball and its likely link with comet C/1919


Science Daily
Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:28 UTC
Bejar bolide
© J. Perez Vallejo/SPMN)A close-up image of the Bejar bolide, photographed from Torrelodones, Madrid, Spain.

Last July, people in Spain, Portugal and France watched the brilliant fireball produced by a boulder crashing down through the Earth's atmosphere. In a paper to be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomers Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez (Institute of Space Sciences, CSIC-IEEC, Spain), José M. Madiedo (University of Huelva-CIECEM, Spain) and Iwan P. Williams (Queen Mary, University of London) present dramatic images of this event.

The scientists go on to explain how the boulder may originate from a comet which broke up nearly 90 years ago and suggest the tantalising possibility that chunks of the boulder (and hence pieces of the comet) are waiting to be found on the ground.
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Meteor

Last Summer's Fireball in Pieces on the Ground?

Anne Minard
Universe Today
Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:19 UTC
Astronomers have analyzed the cometary fireball that blazed across the sky over Europe last year and concluded it was a dense object, about a meter (3.2 feet) across and with a mass of nearly two tons - large enough that some fragments probably survived intact and fell to the ground as meteorites.

Fireball
© J. Perez Vallejo/SPMNThe Bejar bolide photographed from Torrelodones, Madrid, Spain. The incoming fireball is the streak to the right of the floodlit house. The bright light at the top is the overexposed Moon.
Last July, people in Spain, Portugal and France watched the brilliant fireball produced by a boulder crashing down through the Earth's atmosphere. In a paper to be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomer Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez, of the Institute of Space Sciences in Spain, and his co-authors present dramatic images of the event. The scientists also explain how the boulder may originate from a comet which broke up nearly 90 years ago, and suggest that chunks of the boulder (and hence pieces of the comet) are waiting to be found on the ground.

"If we are right, then by monitoring future encounters with other clouds of cometary debris, we have the chance to recover meteorites from specific comets and analyse them in a lab," Dr Trigo-Rodríguez said. "Handling pieces of comet would fulfil the long-held ambitions of scientists - it would effectively give us a look inside some of the most enigmatic objects in the Solar System."
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Radar

Damage Control? Sonic booms increase with weather, training

Eunice Lee
Desert Dispatch
Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:18 UTC
The recent bout of cold weather and a wave of training exercises have contributed to an upswing in sonic booms, according to officials from nearby air force bases.

The noises frequently occur during routine aircraft testing at sites like Edwards Air Force Base, 50 miles west of Barstow.

When colder weather hits, sonic booms can travel well beyond their normal 70 to 100 mile range, especially during the months from November to April, according to John Haire, director of operations and media relations chief at the base.

The sound travels better when temperatures drop, said Haire, adding that cloud cover also causes the sonic booms to reflect off both the ground and the cloud ceiling, bouncing the sound waves farther.
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UFO

Eke, Belgium - Two Red/Orange Fireballs

Brian Vike
HBCC UFO Research
Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:38 UTC
Posted: February 5, 2009

Date: February 3, 2009
Time: 8:52 p.m.
Number of witnesses: 2
Number of Objects: 2
Shape of Objects: Round without tail.

Full Description of Event/Sighting: Two red/orange fireballs without tail moving from SSW to NNE. Very bright light, like a rounded candle flame that just got lit. Moving with a continuous speed, horizontally in the night sky. At one time, the second object seemed to stand still for a couple of seconds, moving a bit from left to right and back. And then continued it's way afterwards to disappear in the far sky.
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