Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

US: Streaking fireball a vivid spectacle in daytime sky

Tucson, Arizona - A fireball hurtled across the southern Tucson sky in broad daylight Saturday morning, startling and inspiring awe in those who saw it.

Chelsey Dever was working a yard sale at her grandmother's house on the Northwest Side around 10:30, she said, when she looked toward the south and saw the ball arcing through the sky.

"At first I was like, 'Is that an airplane that's on fire?' " she said. Then she realized it wasn't. The other two people outside with her at the time didn't see it.

Meteor

Fireball Outburst

Yes, it pays to watch the sky. This morning, Sept. 9th, with no warning whatsoever, a flurry of bright fireballs appeared over eastern parts of the United States. "Our SENTINEL all-sky camera picked up 25 bright meteors in a shower that began at 0620 UT and lasted approximately 4 hours," reports NASA astronomer Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This video "frame-stack" shows the outburst at a glance:

fireball outburst
©Cooke

Question

US, North Carolina: Residents report 'boom' that shook houses

Residents in the Clayton and Wendell areas reported hearing several loud "booms" that shook their houses between 5:30 and 6 p.m. Sunday.

Emergency officials said fire officials were investigating, but have found no evidence of an explosion that could have caused the loud noises.

Also, officials at both Raleigh Durham International Airport and Seymour Air Force Base said they knew of no aircraft in the area that could have produced sonic booms.

UFO

UK: 'Massive Fireball' caught on camera above Bradford



Clayton UFO
©Richard Ing
The 'UFO' caught on camera by Richard Ing

Meteor

US: 'Shuttle-Like Sonic Boom' Heard Before Townhome-Destroying Fire

Orlando, Fla. -- A space shuttle-like "sonic-boom" sound was followed by a fast-moving fire that left several people temporarily homeless at a subdivision near the University of Central Florida.

Meteor

UK: Mystery fireball falls from sky

A Bexley woman is hoping News Shopper readers can throw some light on a mystery object seen falling from the sky at the height of last night's storm.

Jean Carpenter, who lives just off Bexleyheath Broadway, was watching the spectacular lightning display from the back step of her home with her son.

Mrs Carpenter, who is in her 70s, said: "We were looking southwards towards Bexley Village at about 9.40pm when we saw an object falling from the sky.

"It was all lit up, as if it was on fire and was just dropping straight down."

Comet

Fireball over Cumberland County, Pennsylvania?

All Jeana Green could think of was that something had exploded in the sky Sunday night.

The North Middleton Township resident, her husband and two of her neighbors sat on a deck talking when the sky lit up about 10:15 p.m.

"It looked like a shooting star, but it was a lot bigger," Green said. "There were pale sparks and orange flames that turned blue-green. Then it was like a fireball, and right before it disappeared, there was a flash like it exploded and it was gone. It lit up the sky like heat lightning."

Meteor

Canada: Kincardine baffled by booms that shook town

Call it the Kincardine X-file.

A mysterious, explosion-like boom last Thursday evening that rattled this quiet town northwest of Toronto has yet to be explained.

Meteor

New Jersey, US: "Blue, sparking orb" was likely a meteor

What witnesses described as a "blue, sparking orb" prompted several calls to police in Wall and Howell before it apparently broke apart and disappeared late Sunday night, police said.

Whatever it was, it was visible for at least 35 miles and prompted a police notification to McGuire Air Force Base.

Bob Hampton of Ocean Township said he was driving on the New Jersey Turnpike near Kearny when he saw the blue-white object streak across the sky traveling from east to west. He spotted it about the same time some Howell residents thought it settled in the woods near Fort Plains Road.

Meteor

Pennsylvania, US: 'Fireball' streaks across Bucks sky

Beth and Dan Curley were driving down Route 611 when the basketball-sized flame shot across the sky.

It was white when Dan spotted it. By the time Beth looked up, it had turned stoplight green. The flame died out a few seconds later.

"It wasn't far off in the sky - it was there," the Warrington woman said. "It was the coolest thing we've ever seen."