Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Really? UK Ministry of Defence Claims RAF Jets Rushing To Intercept Private Helicopter Caused Massive Boom That Shook Homes Across England


UK Telegraph
Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:24 UTC
Emergency services across swaths of England were inundated with calls from worried residents amid reports of a mysterious "loud bang" which turned out to be a sonic boom from two RAF Typhoon jets.

Concerned locals across the Home Counties, Cotswolds, Wiltshire, Somerset and parts of the Midlands reported hearing the deafening noise shortly after 6pm on Thursday amid fears of a large explosion.

But rather than anything sinister, it was a sonic boom caused by a pair of Royal Air Force Typhoon jets breaking the sound barrier, the Ministry of Defence said.

The Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) crews were scrambled after a civilian helicopter emitted an emergency signal in the Oxford area.

MoD sources said the "idiot" pilot, who has not been identified, had used a wrong frequency to emit the emergency signal that usually indicates an aircraft has either been hijacked or had "gone rogue".

Fearing that a serious incident was unfolding, MoD officials gave the jets the green light to go "supersonic, which resulted in the sonic boom".

Comment: Really? This sounds like the MOD making up a lame plausible answer to what is clearly not a sonic boom. Sonic booms are not heard across hundreds of miles of countryside. And why would RAF jets be scrambled and allowed to go supersonic (which is only authorised in extreme circumstances) in response to what was a fairly benign situation? In addition, this boom was heard six hours before another massive boom was heard across a wide area of Ohio, USA. Given the large number of meteorite sightings across the globe in recent years, including loud unexplained booms, the most likely explanation is that what people heard, both in the UK and Ohio, was the overhead detonation of a meteorite fragment.

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Meteor

Hundreds Report Seeing Fireball in the Sky Over Chicago


SunTimes
Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:19 UTC
Skywatchers across the Chicago area reported a streaking fireball in the sky so intense that some thought they'd witnessed a fiery plane crash on the Southeast Side.

Reports of the fireball starting coming in about 8:25 p.m., according to a meteor and meteorite sighting blog, with over 100 people from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa reporting the light show.

Descriptions ranged from simply a blue-green fireball to a yellow fireball with a red center and a trailing blue-and-white tail.

John from North Chicago wrote "12sec NW green/blue very bright unknown it only lasted about 12sec but it was a sight to see truly amazing."

But while many delighted in the display, others thought they'd witnessed something much grimmer as emergency crews responded to 126th Street and Avenue 0 on the Far Southeast Side of the city to investigate a possible plane crash.
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Meteor

Trooper, motorist: Mysterious object fell from sky


Associated Press
Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:55 UTC
Meteor
© WWLPFile photo.
Authorities in northwestern Connecticut say they didn't find anything after a state trooper and another person reported a large object falling out of the sky in Litchfield.

The Republican-American of Waterbury reports that a person driving in Litchfield at about 2 a.m. Tuesday reported that a green, glowing object the size of a whale fell from the sky and crashed into Bantam Lake. Officials say that at about the same time, a state trooper 10 miles away in Warren called dispatchers to report that something fell out of the sky and landed near Bantam or Morris.

Morris firefighters made several passes up and down the lake in a boat looking for a possible plane crash, but didn't find any debris.

Authorities called off the search, leaving the mystery unsolved.
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Meteor

NASA reinvents history to make increasing numbers of fireballs seem normal

Natalie Wolchover
Live Science
Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:21 UTC
Texas Fireball
© YouTube | CelestialconvergenceA spectacular fireball streaked across the Texas sky April 4.

A great ball of fire streaked across the Texas sky during the daytime last week, much to the surprise of thousands of people who witnessed it. So bright that it looked "like a little piece of the sun falling," as one San Antonio resident told the local news station, the rare daytime meteor event was yet another example of the scientific mystery known as spring fireball season.

According to NASA, 30 years of observations show that there's a consistent uptick in the number of fireballs - meteors that glow brighter than the planets as they scorch through Earth's atmosphere - during the spring compared with other times of the year. "There are two peaks: one around February and the other at the end of March and early April," said Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "And this remains a mystery."

The Texas event was bright enough to have corresponded to the atmospheric burnup of a space rock at least a yard across, Cooke told Life's Little Mysteries. But no one knows why springtime meteors are 10 to 30 percent more common. "I can tell you a lot of the bright and slow fireballs appear to be coming from the direction opposite the sun, but they have not much in common other than that," he said. "You see a lot more ordinary meteors in the fall, but the spring seems to have the big slow movers - the ones that are really impressive."

Comment: This phenomenon is certainly anything but 'rare', as the original headline of the above article claimed:

First 'February Fireballs', now 'April Fireballs': Daytime Meteor Streaks over Texas

As for NASA. they're just making this stuff up to fool folks.
"There are two peaks: one around February and the other at the end of March and early April," said Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.
Really? That's not what Bill said back in February this year when the so-called 'February Fireballs phenomenon' was first promoted:

"Fireballs of February"?

No mention of this "second peak in late March or early April"...

Go to Wiki's page on meteor showers. See anything listed for late March or early April? Nope, NASA is just making BS up as it goes along.

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Meteor

Propaganda Alert! Defunct Russian satellite to ram into Earth again


Pravda
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:56 UTC
Image
© unknown

Molnia (Lightning) satellite, which Russia launched into space during the 1990s to control missiles, may crash on Earth during the upcoming several days.

The location of Molnia's crash has not been determined yet. The satellite may cause considerable destruction during the fall. It weighs 1.6 tons. However, the spacecraft may partially burn in the atmosphere when falling.

The satellite may fall down on the planet before April 9th. Most likely, it will crash somewhere in the center of the Arab Peninsula.

Russian specialists monitor the spacecraft. The service time of the satellite is two years, the Fifth Channel reports.

Molnia-1T satellites were replaced with Meridian military spacecraft during the 2000s.

Two spacecraft went off Earth's orbit last week. They were the first Soviet satellite Meteor-1 and one of the first US research satellites Explorer-8.

The satellite may fall down on the planet before April 9th. Most likely, it will crash somewhere in the center of the Arab Peninsula.

Russian specialists monitor the spacecraft. The service time of the satellite is two years, the Fifth Channel reports.

Molnia-1T satellites were replaced with Meridian military spacecraft during the 2000s.

Two spacecraft went off Earth's orbit last week. They were the first Soviet satellite Meteor-1 and one of the first US research satellites Explorer-8.

Comment: More disinformation as fireballs rain down...

First 'February Fireballs', now 'April Fireballs': Daytime Meteor Streaks over Texas

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Meteor

Fireball spotted over Lake Michigan

Samantha Hernandez
greenbaypressgazette.com
Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:25 UTC
Image
© John Chumack/FILE PHOTOComing to a neighbourhood near you soon? Another fireball streaks through the sky.
A call that brought out search and rescue crews off the Lake Michigan shore Tuesday night may have been sparked by a falling meteor.

The U.S. Coast Guard Canal Station in Sturgeon Bay responded to a sighting of an off-shore white flare near Jacksonport Tuesday night.

"We had a call at approximately 9:15 p.m. local time of one white flare an undetermined distance off the shore" near Jacksonport, said BMC Justin Longval, executive petty officer at the station.

A white flare does not necessarily mean distress - a distress flare is red - but the Coast Guard launched its 45-foot response boat and called in an aircraft from the Air Station in Traverse City, Mich., for the search.

The Coast Guard searched by air and water for two hours without finding anything or anyone, Longval said.

A helicopter from Traverse City conducted a first-light search Wednesday morning. It found nothing.
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Meteor

First 'February Fireballs', now 'April Fireballs': Daytime Meteor Streaks over Texas


WOAI 4 News
Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:11 UTC
Image


Comment: The phenomenon known as 'April Fireballs'? When a spate of fireballs rained down in February, NASA labelled them the 'February Fireballs', even though no such thing existed before this year...

"Fireballs of February"?

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Meteor

San Antonio Fireball leaves area residents wondering


MySanAntonio.com
Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:02 UTC
People who reported seeing a fiery ball of light in the cloudless noon sky Monday really did see an unidentified flying object.

The flying object has not been identified. But no one has conjectured that it held little green men with giant eyes.

It was likely falling space debris or a meteor, according to the National Weather Service.

"It could definitely have caused that," said meteorologist Pat McDonald. "It's the only thing we can think that could have caused that."

A space rock or piece of an old satellite burning up as it hits the Earth's atmosphere is not a rare occurrence, said Joe Wheelock, the public affairs specialist at the McDonald Observatory.

"It's not uncommon at all," he said.

Jane Marke, an amateur astronomer, said she was at a traffic light near the airport when she saw a bright light streaking across the eastern sky at 11:49 a.m.
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Meteor

'Unbelievable' meteor seen in the skies over New Zealand - residents report 'loud boom' from large fiery meteor


New Zealand Herald
Mon, 02 Apr 2012 17:32 UTC
Image
© weatherwatch.co.nz/Hayden RogersA trail left by the meteor, taken from Karori, Wellington.
A spectacular, bright meteor that left a long trail in the sky has stunned witnesses in Wellington and Christchurch tonight. The WeatherWatch website has been inundated with reports of the fireball, which witnesses say rushed across the sky at about 6.30pm. A Nelson resident described it as an "unbelievable'' green, orange and white ball flying past at "super speed'', leaving behind a massive trail that lasted for nearly 10 minutes before dissipating.

A Hanmer Springs resident said they heard "a loud boom'' about two minutes after it streaked past. "Not sure if hit the ground or sonic boom, perhaps the latter, very exciting! Much more exciting than putting the washing out.'' A Wellingtonian said the meteor was "full on magnesium bright and flaming'', while another said it was "almost fluorescent and very intense''.

A Cantabrian said the whole family were excited by the meteor, which came low to the horizon with two bright flashes and trails of smoke. "Like an arc welder torch, it seemed VERY close and low to us, was waiting for the bang it seemed so close and bright, but obviously moving at tremendous speed. I have never seen anything like this!''
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Meteor

Suspected meteor's fate fascinates astronomers


TVNZ
Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:05 UTC
Image
© Alex McNeilThe meteor from Bulls
(New Zealand) Astronomers are hoping to find out if what was thought to be a giant meteor has landed on Earth.

Eye witnesses from Northland to Christchurch spotted what is believed to be a meteor flash across the sky just before 6.30pm last night.

Police up and down the country were inundated with calls from people describing a fireball that flashed green and orange, followed by a spiral trail.

People in the South Island reported a sonic boom.

Astronomers say it poses no risk.

Do you have any pictures or video of the 'meteor'. Send them to ONE News at news@tvnz.co.nz

The Carter Observatory said on its Facebook page it appeared to be a meteor burning up in Earth's atmosphere.

The astronomers hope to find out today if any of the meteor could have survived the re-entry to reach the ground and where it could have landed.
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