Fire in the SkyS

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Canada: Bright object falling from sky believed to be bolide meteor

An ancient remnant from the formation of the solar system may have lit up the sky over Kingston this week.

The Whig-Standard and a renowned local astronomer received reports of a glowing object falling to earth Monday evening.

The skywatchers reported seeing what appeared to be a glowing object in the northwest sky that was plunging toward the ground around 10 p.m.

Question

UK: Not an earthquake, but town is shaken by a sonic boom

Did the earth move for you last Wednesday night?

It did for quite a few Bridlington residents who contacted the Free Press to find out if we had another earthquake.

In fact, local phone lines were red hot as friends and neighbours rang each other to see if they had also heard and felt a loud thud or bang.

Dave Garrity was at home in Wentworth Road at 8pm when he heard a noise like someone jumping up and down on the top of his bay window.

"I went out to have a look and found practically the whole street had come outside to see what was going on."

Question

Flashback Mystery source, likely sonic boom, shook Southeast Missouri last week

A possible sonic boom heard last week by residents across southeastern Missouri and eastern Arkansas could help researchers better understand earthquake hazard.

At 2:48 p.m. last Wednesday people for more than 200 miles, from Forrest City, Ark., to Cape Girardeau, felt what they thought was an earthquake.

Scientists at the Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis in Tennessee know it was not.

Question

UK: Fighter jet's sonic boom behind 'tremor'

A sonic boom caused by an American F-15 fighter jet carrying out a supersonic run was behind a mysterious "tremor" felt across Norfolk on Thursday and not an earthquake, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

Norfolk police received a flurry of calls shortly after midday from worried residents reporting a possible earth tremor - and the strange event was the talk of the force's Wymondham headquarters where members of staff also felt the earth move.

Bizarro Earth

Flashback Arthur C. Clarke on the tsunami's aftermath and the roles of science fiction and technology in predicting future disasters

Colombo, Sri Lanka -- Although the devastating tsunami struck coastal areas only a few kilometers from Colombo, I have not ventured out to see any of its damage. I am not sure if I can bear to look at what the killer waves have done to my favorite beaches in Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, and elsewhere along Sri Lanka's southern coast.

The New Year dawned with the global family closely following the unfolding tragedy via satellite television and the Web. As the grim images from Banda Aceh, Chennai, Galle, and elsewhere replaced the traditional scenes of celebrations, I realized that it would soon be 60 years since I conceived the communications satellite (in Wireless World, October 1945 -- I still think it was a good idea).

Telescope

Another Fireball Spotted Over Canada

Another fiery object was seen falling in the sky near Sudbury during the weekend.

Telescope

Two meteors fall to earth in Canada in one week

Hopes of tracking down the elusive bounty that fell from Ontario's sky recently are fading faster than a meteor trail in full sunlight.

Meteor

SOTT Focus: Letters From the Edge

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Today I'm going to write a letter; a letter to all our readers. I'm also going to include a transcript of a very interesting letter SOTT.net has received from Prof. Victor Clube. I hope that these letters will change your life, your future, and mine as well.

Here at SOTT.net, we have been pretty busy working on our legal defense, as if you couldn't guess! I'm sure that everyone notices that we are nowhere near our goal for having enough funds to cover this expense. All of you just remember, if 1,000 people can donate $100.00 each, we are in the clear. If 2,000 people donate $50 each, we are in the clear. And certainly, with over 10,000 of you reading this site every day, we ought to be able to do that!

Just keep in mind what you would be missing if we were gone! Who else would spend days, weeks, months and even years digging down to the deepest levels of our reality to bring you reports and analyses of what is really going on? After all, it is not just a matter of the political chaos out there; there are cosmic reasons for that chaos and historical cycles demonstrate clearly that times such as these generally manifest other symptoms that we all need to be aware of. For example...

Comment: Continue to Part Nine: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls


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Canada: Meteor? Did You See It?

Prince George, British Columbia - The search is on for a fiery object spotted over Prince George.

Callers tell Opinion 250 that just before 1:00 this morning, a large object with a fiery tail crossed over the city in a northwest direction. One caller says truckers were on their radios saying they thought it was a plane of some sort.

Sherlock

Astronomers searching for meteorite that crashed in Ontario

Astronomers from the University of Western Ontario are searching for a meteorite that landed in central Ontario last week.

The "large fireball" was captured falling last Wednesday at 10:59 p.m. ET by sky-monitoring cameras at the London, Ont.-based university. Astronomers narrowed the impact site down to about 12 square kilometres centred on Parry Sound, which is around 220 kilometres north of Toronto.

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©University of Western Ontario
The astronomy department at the University of Western Ontario captured this rare footage of a meteor streaking to Earth last week over Parry Sound, Ont.