Fire in the SkyS


Question

Gulf of Mexico, US: Mysterious booms thought to be caused by Eglin AFB jets

Military jets performing training maneuvers over Gulf of Mexico waters are being credited with creating sonic booms heard along Florida's west coast earlier this week, to include Pasco, Hillsborough, Marion, Levy, Hernando and Citrus counties.

The sheriff's offices in Pasco and Citrus counties have said the most likely explanation is that jets based at Eglin AFB in Florida's Panhandle had created the booms that shook windows and rattled dishes.

That was confirmed by an Eglin AFB Public Affairs spokesman, who said the "atmospheric conditions" most likely caused the booms to be heard as the military was performing maneuvers over the Gulf.

Meteor

Meteorite Lit Up The Sky, Fragments Found In Catamarca, Argentina

A glittering stone caught a woman's attention Fiambalá, Argentina, the rock with now be analyzed by specialists.

Some inhabitants of the Catamarcan town Fiambalá (in the Northwest of Argentina) claim to have seen a meteorite and its fragments fall last Monday night. A woman found them, and they will now be analyzed by specialists from The National University of Catamarca.

The event took place in Juan Manuel Salas, one of Fiambalá's quarters, in the Tinogasta Department, situated at approximately 350km in the West of the province's capital where its inhabitants claim a fireball fell at about 10 p.m., followed by a trail of light.

The neigbors thought that this could be a meteorite, no bigger than a football.

Norma Olmedo, who lives in the area, declared today for the radio station FM Ancasti that she filmed the fall with her cell phone which was how she was able to locate the fragments.

Olmedo, who at that time was with her son, stated that "Monday, after 10 p.m., a source of light" lit up the sky behind her and caught her attention.

As she turned around, she "saw a reddish ball falling from the sky, leaving behind a very bright trail", she declared.

She claims that on arriving in the area where she and her son believed the fireball hit the ground, she discovered "a stone that was still glittering".

Meteor

Update: Rare Fireball Puts on Spectacular Show

Family
© Randy Hanson Members of the Pierce and Jacobson families pose near the spot where some of them witnessed a meteor pass over the town of Hudson. Lisa Pierce, back left, contacted the Star-Observer about the sighting, resulting in comments on www.hudsonstarobserver.com from many other readers who saw the meteor. Pierce is with, front from left, her son Charlie, neighbor children Emma and Sam Jacobson, and son Michael, back right.
Hudson-area residents lucky enough to have been looking at the stars sometime before 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 3, were treated to what will no doubt be a once-in-a-lifetime sight.

Judging from reader comments on the Star-Observer's Web site, a rare meteor fireball passed over the community at a low altitude.

Michelle Judge, who lives about five miles east of Hudson on the south side of I-94, was returning to her house from doing chores in the barn when she saw the fireball.

"I could see the actual fire in a ball. It was very good-sized -- and it was totally quiet," Judge said when contacted by the Star-Observer, after reporting the sighting online.

Judge said the fireball traveled almost directly west at an altitude of what she thought wasn't more than a few hundred feet.

It disappeared over her field, Judge said, "and then the rumble came and the turkeys went crazy."

Meteor

Mysterious boom confounds Pasco residents

New Port Richey -- Many residents of Pasco County are still wondering: what was that boom they heard Wednesday night?

The Pasco County Sheriff's Office received about 20 calls from around the county reporting a loud boom around 5 p.m.

Sheila Perry lives in Millpond Estates in New Port Richey. She said the boom rattled the windows and shook her house.

"First, I thought do we have earthquakes here because there's been so many earthquakes," she said. "I just have never had anything shake the house like that before."

Officials think it might have been a sonic boom or sound waves, but no one is really sure.

The sheriff's office said it doesn't have any information about military operations or explosions in the area.

No damage was reported as a result of the boom.

Meteor

Update: Amateur astronomer in Georgia snaps picture of what may be a meteor

A meteor hurtling through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound likely caused the sonic boom that startled many north Louisiana residents late Monday afternoon.

The apparent sonic boom happened just before 5 p.m. and affected the area southwest of Shreveport to around Vidalia.

Experts had suggested Tuesday the sonic boom could have been caused by high-speed aircraft or a meteor.

Lawrenceville, Ga. resident David Jones was driving on Interstate 85 in Atlanta early Monday night when he noticed a large, electric blue ring-shaped cloud in the western sky.

The amateur astronomer and lifelong weather watcher snapped a photo of the noctilucent cloud that likely formed when water molecules surrounded meteor dust particles stirred up when a meteor moved through the atmosphere.

Noctilucent clouds are rare and typically only form in polar regions.

Comment: This is an update to an earlier story.


Meteor

Meteors put on cosmic show over Derry

New Hampshire - A suspected meteor shower lit up the night skies over Derry at the weekend.

The celestial objects were spotted shooting across the sky in the early hours of Sunday morning by Derry man Niall Smith who says he saw the meteors as he drove up Brookhill at around 1230am.

"There were six of them in total," he told the Journal yesterday.

"They were bright orange almost red, like balls of flames burning with a tail behind them."

"It was an exhilarating experience to see them," he said.

He said the lights passed over the hills of Donegal before disappearing from view.

Meteor

Loud sound that rattled windows possibly a sonic boom or meteor

Louisiana - A loud sound similar to an explosion that rattled windows in the region late Monday afternoon was most likely a sonic boom caused by high-speed aircraft or a meteor coming through the atmosphere, a pair of local experts said.

The apparent sonic boom happened just before 5 p.m. and affected the area southwest of Shreveport to around Vidalia.

"Looking at the path of the reports, there's a definite linear path," said Don Wheeler, a meteorologist at Louisiana Delta Community College.

Wheeler said there was no irregular seismic activity in the area during the period immediately before and after the apparent sonic boom.

"If indeed there was a meteor, they can come in at supersonic speeds," Wheeler said.

Question

Australia: Possible meteorite hit a house

WA Museum curators will investigate claims a meteorite crashed into a home of a north-eastern suburb in Perth.

A museum spokesman said a woman had claimed a meteorite hit her Beechboro home last night.

"All we know is a house has been hit by a suspected meteorite but we have not had a chance to verify this," a museum spokesman said.

"We are trying to get it over to the museum for one of our scientists to have a look at but at this stage we do not know if it's a rock or a meteorite."

Meteor

Possible Meteor Sighting Near Hudson, Wisconsin

There are two meteor showers happening in the sky this week and one of the fiery rocks may have landed just across the river near Hudson.

People living east of the city saw bright flashes and a burning object fall from the sky.

Reports to the local newspaper describe the odd flash, even explosion with a multi-colored tail from Hudson to New Richmond.

According to the American Meteorological Society, February, March and April bring the highest occurrence of fireballs and unusually bright meteors.

Meteor

Fireball Over Norway

A bluish green fireball flew over the bright sky in the East - and the Southern sky on Tuesday, at almost quarter past eight in the evening. The entire event lasted 4-5 seconds.

Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard would like to get a hold of this object.

This was a super powerful meteorite, and it could have fallen in Norway. Most of them explode in the atmosphere, but the large ones can reach the ground, says Ødegaard.

It would have been fun to get know whether people had seen or heard something.