It's a UFO no more. An unidentified flying object spotted over the mountains between Salt Lake and Tooele has been identified as a rare daytime fireball; a meteor big enough and close enough to be spotted when the sun's still out.
We had several e-mails, and so did NASA's ambassador to Utah Patrick Wiggins. We asked him what conditions need to be in place to see a daytime meteor. He said, "Size would be part of it, certainly how fast it's going, if it was going really slow for a meteor; that is, it wouldn't get bright enough."
A woman spotted a UFO in the skies above Flintshire, in the latest in a string of bizarre sightings around the region.
Jen Reeves
KOMU.com
Wed, 28 May 2008 16:13 UTC
Boone County Joint Communications says there is no damage reported after a large boom rocked portions of Columbia.
A large boom was felt and heard in many portions of the city a little after 1:00 PM.
Hoshiarpur (Punjab): A ball of fire came hurtling from the night skies and fell in a field adjacent to a petrol pump on the Hoshiarpur-Tanda road here, convincing owner Palwinder Singh that it's a meteorite.
Valerie Castro
KOB-TVMon, 12 May 2008 05:16 UTC
It turns out a mysterious flash of lights over the Sandia Crest was most likely a meteor.
The bright streak was spotted just after 2:00 Monday morning.
Video of the flashing light was captured by an observatory near Santa Fe.
According to a UNM scientist, it was most likely a meteor passing through the earth's atmosphere.
It's a rare sight for anyone to witness, but the real treasure is finding the meteorite once it lands.
This very bright fireball occurred over Colorado's Western Slope at 11:51 PM MDT, April 24th. One witness north of Montrose reported a bright, bluish white object showing at least two distinct fronts as well as a persistent trail.
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Comment: For videos of the increasing number of fireballs over Colorado, captured by Cloudbait Observatory, go
here.
On May 12th, a brilliant green fireball (probably meteoritic) flew over eastern New Mexico and lit up the ground like a full Moon. Using a Sandia Labs all-sky camera and a 60-80 MHz radio receiver, Thomas Ashcraft not only photographed the fireball but also recorded distant radio stations echoing eerily from the fireball's ionized tail.
Click here and enjoy the show.
We've had lots of phone calls into the newsroom today about a loud booming sound this afternoon. Some viewers even felt their homes shaking.
North East Air Defense Sector officials say there was plenty of air traffic today, and the sound could have been a sonic boom. But that is not confirmed.
Translated from Hebrew
YnetSun, 09 Dec 2007 14:11 UTC
Concerned citizens reported to Ynet about loud sounds of explosions in the area of Central District. Some feared it was an earthquake, although Geophysical Institute refuted this possibility. Later this day IDF responded that it is probably a sonic boom.
Several loud explosions were heard at the afternoon in Central District area. IDF responded that apparently those were sonic booms, and the matter is under investigation. They added that during their activity, IAF makes all the possible effort to avoid interfering with citizens' quality of life.
Not long after 16:00, Ynet was flooded with "red email" reports from concerned readers. Many readers from the Central District reported extremely loud noises and strong tremors.
Comment: According to one of our Israeli readers, those booms were heard and felt along the coastline (from Ashkelon - South of the country, to Hedera - North of the country) and not only in the Central District. And although several reported sighting of two jet fighters above the sea, it still doesn't explain the intensity and the distance those booms could be heard.
So I was out trying to image another Sunset when out of the blue a fireball appeared. To give you some idea of how rare these fireballs are, a trained observer, such as moi, can expect to be treated to one, once every 200 observing hours, factor in that it was a daytime fireball, more rare, also factor in the fact it was close to the Sun, more rare again and....catch breath... the fact that I had a focused camera ready to go, and that I would actually capture an image just after the break up with an image of the fragments, the chances of this happening, well, it boggles the mind just thinking of it, well it boggles my mind, mind you I'm easily boggled.
Comment: A rare occurence? See the Signs Meteor Supplement