Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Did the earth move?

Was it a bird? Was it a plane? Or was it, goodness gracious, great balls of fire?

To be honest, no one is entirely sure, but police were inundated with calls from Warana and Kawana residents who heard "some sort of explosion" just before 10.30pm on Wednesday.

Some reported seeing a bright flash in the sky at the time of the bang, with others claiming their house shook from the noise.

Kawana's Island Keys resident manager Chris Hobart and her husband Bob likened the noise to an explosion.

"We were working inside and heard it, and being a manager of a complex, we thought the gas bottles had exploded or something," she said.

Meteor

Stones keep falling on our heads: Experts checking reports on another Altai bolide

Experts of the "Kosmopoisk" all-Russia scientific research association are now checking the recent reports on a bolide, which had allegedly dropped to the earth in Altai Territory on Monday, Vadim Chernobrov, leader of the expedition, which is now searching for the meteorite that struck the earth there in January, told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

He said local people had notified the expedition members that a new celestial object had hit the earth on Wednesday evening.

"They said a bright celestial body flew from west to east over Klyuchevsky and Rodinsky districts at 22.23 local time (19.23 Moscow time). It is difficult to say whether the object struck the earth or not," Chernobrov said.

However, local people claim that they saw how the "celestial guest" had descended and dropped east of Rodinsky District, setting the forest on fire.

Arrow Down

Researchers Find Meteorite Fragments In Altai

A group of Russian researchers looking for a meteorite that fell in January in the Altai Territory in southern Siberia has found an extraterrestrial substance which could be meteorite fragments, a coordinator said Monday. "We have collected about 50 samples, and vitreous threads (traces of comet substance) were discovered in the first of them using a microscope," Vadim Chernobrov of Kosmopoisk (space search) said.

"We will reach the meteorite site in a few days, but rocks which are probably meteorite fragments have already been found," Chernobrov said.

Telescope

Flashback Fireball over Colorado - sonic booms

This fireball occurred at 11:00 PM MDT [April 20th, 2007] over western Colorado. Witness reports for the event began pouring in almost immediately, mostly from the Denver area.

©Cloudbait
Captured image of meteorite that produced sonic booms in the Rockies.

Telescope

Fireball over Colorado - outshines full moon

This fireball occurred at 5:12 AM MDT over central Colorado.

©Cloudbait
From the Cloudbait camera. The setting full Moon is seen at the horizon to the right (azimuth 218°)

Comment: Yes, just the usual Aquarid shower - just ignore the fact that it outshone a full moon - nothing to see here - move along.


Attention

Meteor photographed exploding above Zagreb, Croatia

A Meteor weighing about 300 grams and falling in an angle at about 90 deegres and with a speed of about 40 km per second exploded above Zagreb at an estimated height of 60 km, just 1,5 second before hitting the ground, and made a flash as strong as 300 to 400 megawatts.

Comment: There is the usual disclaimer of these events, that it is just part of the Lyrid meteor rain and implied therein, that there is nothing to worry about.

If there is nothing to worry about then why is there a total media blackout of this event outside Croatia?

That is more telling than anything, especially in light of numerous similar events in recent times. If you are interested see our meteor suppliment Here



Question

'UFO debris' may be lava or meteor chunk

The University of Washington research engineer who analyzed a mysterious black fragment that some thought was debris from a UFO said it's probably a meteor chunk or old lava.

Related content

· Is strange rock from UFO or just a piece of poppycock?

"I'm not a geologist, but this looks like old lava or maybe ancient mud to me, because it's all full of little gas pockets, and gas pockets have crystals coating the inner walls," chemistry department researcher Bill Beaty said in an analysis

Watch a video of the analysis


"If it's got little crystal incrustations, then at one point it had to be deeply buried."

Meteor

Green fiery ball streaks across Colorado skies

A bright flash in the black and white video posted on the web site cloudbait.com shows what many people on the front range witnessed firsthand Friday night, a meteor burning up in the skies above western Colorado. Astronomer Chris Peterson runs the website from his home in Guffey which doubles as an observatory and astronomy lab.


Peterson says Friday night's meteor was pretty rare, normally happening only once or twice a year. "These things are so bright and so sudden and they're so beautiful they're kind of a once in a lifetime thing when you see one and people really really remember them," Peterson said.

Comment: "Peterson says Friday night's meteor was pretty rare, normally happening only once or twice a year."

Remember this sighting that was reported in early January as 'space junk'.

Looks like Denver has hit its quota for the year and it is only April.


Meteor

... or maybe it was space junk: fiery ball presents puzzle

It wasn't a bird, and it sure wasn't a plane.

In fact, Dave Gough isn't quite certain exactly what he saw streak through the sky above the Churchill Plaza around 11 a.m. Thursday morning.

"I saw a fiery ball fly through the sky from east to west," said Gough, 54.

Local astronomy experts say it could have been anything from a meteor to a piece of space junk.

Bomb

Meteorite Traces Deep In The Ocean

A theory suggests a giant meteorite falling on Earth 65 million years ago and killing all dinosaurs. Russian scientists have found traces of this meteorite. During a marine expedition, organized by the Institute of Marine Geology and Geophysics (Russian Academy of Sciences) and aimed at ocean studies, the crew of the science and research ship "Morskoy Geofizik (Marine Geophysicist)" discovered an astroblem - a circular structure, which usually forms after a celestial body falls down from the sky - at the bottom in north-west of the Pacific. Researchers gave found astroblem the name "Sakhalinka". .

Comment: Comets and meteorites crashing into earth throughout its history is a reality.

The next round is coming. Read the signs.