Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Northampton 'explosions' treated as unexplained

Image
© GoogleThe fire service attended a report of an "explosion" in Castle Street
Three "explosions" heard in the early hours of the morning in Northampton are being treated as unexplained.

Northamptonshire Fire Service investigated the separate reports in St Mary's Street, Castle Street and Silver Street but "didn't find anything".

Andy Gineikis, who lives nearby, said he heard a "loud bang" similar to a shotgun blast at about 03:30 BST.

Western Power Distribution said there had been a power cut in the Abington area of Northampton at about 04:40.

Fireball 4

Did you hear a big boom in the area of Smyrna, Tennessee Monday night?

WGNS has received multiple phone calls and emails from residents in the area of Smyrna telling us that they heard a loud "BOOM" sound Monday night. The sound was heard around 8:30 in the evening.

WGNS checked with the Smyrna Police Department where we talked to Police Chief Kevin Arnold. Arnold told us, "We received several complaints last night about that. The Sheriff's Office also received complaints. From the log this morning it appears nothing was found."

We then headed to the Smyrna / Rutherford County Airport. There, we were told that no "BOOM" sounds involving airplanes were reported on Monday night. Several workers there told us they did not hear the "BOOM."

So that leaves us with the big question... What was that big "BOOM" sound that was heard Monday? It seems as if we cannot find the answer to that mystery.

Fireball 4

Fireball over Taiwan, 31 May 2013


Fireball 5

Meteor spotted over Florence, South Carolina

Florence - If you saw what is described as a "fireball" around 11:05 p.m. last night, you were not alone.

The Recorder received a report about a meteor flying over Florence last night. According to the American Meteor Society, more than 50 witnesses reported a large fireball meteor over Ohio May 30.

The fireball was seen primarily from Ohio and Indiana, but witnesses from Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina also made reports.

The society has developed technology that can plot the path of any fireball reported to their system. According to amsmeteors.org, the accuracy of these paths is dependent on the number of witnesses who report the event and their distribution around the fireball.

This particular event provided a large volume and good geographic distribution of witnesses.

The society urges witnesses of the fireball to fill out an official report with them. Visit their website to do so.

Fireball 4

Extremely large meteor lights up skies over Finland, booms heard

Finland Fireball
© Aki Taavitsainen The fireball was captured by a photographer in Mikkeli, eastern Finland.
An unusual light and sound phenomenon that was sighted in Finnish skies in early May has been confirmed as a fireball, in other words a very bright meteor. The light was seen on May 8th in parts of southern and central Finland.

The Ursa Astronomical Association confirmed that a bright light and loud boom seen and heard by almost 300 Finnish citizens on May 8th was a meteor. The space rock was estimated to be about half a metre long and weighing 50 kilos.

Fireball 3

Trajectory modelled for fireball that exploded over Southern Finland with supersonic boom, 8 May 2013

Image
© Kuva Ursa / Mikko Suominen / CelestiaEstimated trajectory of today's overhead explosion in Finland
Translated by SOTT.net reader Seppo Ilmarinen

The flight route of the bright fireball that flew over Southern Finland on Wednesday 8th of May has been modelled. Esko Lyytinen, mathematician of URSA astronomical association and member of URSA Finnish Fireball Working Group, estimated that about 5kg of the fireball ended up on the earth's surface, in the southern part of Huittinen. There were over 300 sightings of the fireball reported in the URSA database.

The exact flight route estimation was based on the meteor camera pictures of URSA Finnish Fireball Working Group. Photographers of the fireball route were Johan Linden in Turku and Aki Taavitsainen in Mikkeli.

The cause of the fireball light phenomena was a meteoroid that passed through the atmosphere. Based on the simulation, the mass of the meteoroid was about 50 kilograms, and it's diameter was about 30 centimeters. It arrived in the atmosphere at a 43 degree angle.

The speed of the object was about 23 kilometers per second when it arrived the atmosphere. It ignited into a glowing fireball near Mynämäki at the height of 60 kilometers, from where it travelled into north-east. After crossing Lake Pyhäjärvi, the fireball flamed out northeast of Säkylä, at an altitude of about 23 kilometers.

Comment: Ah, the normalcy bias: "Earth has always been impacted by hundreds of tonnes of small objects from space, so the spectacular fireballs phenomenon everyone the world over has noticed in the past few years has always been so, except that now, people suddenly notice them more..."

Does that sound credible to you?

Note the casual remark at the very end, after giving us 'the dry facts' about fireballs:
"...and the supersonic explosion it caused."
Say what?!

That is rare! Well, it was rare. It's more normal now! But only because something wicked this way comes...




Fireball 2

Bright fireball seen streaking over southern Ontario

Meteor
© Wikimedia CommonsThis particularly bright Leonid meteor was captured in November of 2009.
Some sky watchers out to view the grouping of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter got an extra treat on Sunday night as a particularly bright meteor - called a bolide - zipped through the skies a little after 9 p.m. local time.

Glimpses of the bolide were reported from Maryland in the U.S., to Ajax, Ontario as it burned up in the atmosphere. People reporting the event on American Meteor Society website called it one of the "brightest fireballs [they'd] ever seen" with a wide, bright flame trail.

'Fireball' is the name given to a meteor that appears to be brighter than Venus - one of the brightest planets in our sky, and a 'bolide' is a fireball that burns so bright that it can outshine the full moon. While spotting a fireball is rare, the meteors that cause them aren't; according to the AMS, several thousand occur in Earth's atmosphere each day.

Fireball 5

Meteorite hits car in Quebec, 21 May 2013

In the following excerpt from radio-canada.ca TV news, a man describes his car windshield being smacked by a small dark meteorite on May 21, 2013.


Source [From 10'30"]

Fireball 2

Fireball fragments over Arkansas, 16 May 2013, Second fireball turns night into day from Gulf of Mexico to Great Lakes, 18 May 2013

Image
© LunarMeteoriteHunter / Google Earth
Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

18 May 2013 - Tristen Dixon Vilonia, AR 22:45:00
5 seconds duration. I faced east, it went from south to north. Green/white color and very bright.
18 May 2013 - J.B., Augusta, Arkansas, USA 22:40:00
Approx 4 seconds duration. S-N direction. Bright blue and green with white flashes. Bright as the moon, flashes as bright as the sun, like lightning. Small pieces like sparks. Could swear I heard a distant jet-like noise which may have been an actual jet but it did directly coincide with the meteor, so... ????
18 May 2013 - Michael Schoelzel, Mascoutah, IL, 22:40 cst
I saw the last 2 seconds. It started east and traveled west. I was looking south. Super brilliant white & green. Super bright! Fragmentation, looked like it disintegrated with green fragments as it was breaking apart. Probably second most amazing thing I've seen, right after last week's observation, interestingly in the same area of the sky from my point of view. Simply breathtaking! Something is really not right here, I've been fascinated with the sky all my life, but only in recent years, or better yet months, have I ever witnessed such wild activity, thank you for the interest, I feel better now having reported it!

Fireball 3

Three days after comet fragment appears in sky for 40 minutes, multicoloured fireball explodes above Australian Sunshine Coast

Image
Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

23 May 2013 - Andrew, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, 19:35 AUST EST
2 to 3 seconds duration. I was facing NW, it came from SE and was heading NW. It appeared at 1 o'clock in the sky and everything disappeared at about 10 o'clock in the sky. Multicoloured! First greens and blues, then orange and a faint but noticeable boom about a minute later. It was very bright, although the moon was nearly full in the eastern sky. There was fragmentation into about 4 or 5 smaller chunks as well as what looked like the usual 'sparks' but only in the last 1 second. This is the first time I've heard a boom accompany a fireball. This one was very large and I have witnessed many large ones - a couple during daytime - but this one is definitely the best and biggest so far!
23 May 2013 - Luke K Moggil, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, approximately 19:30hrs
3 seconds duration. E-W, right to left, I was facing north. Blue trails followed scattering chucks, then an orange flame explosion. As bright as Venus. Multiple fragments trailed behind main body. It looked pretty amazing, with a very short-lived but colourful explosion.
23 May 2013 - Corbet Tamborine, QLD, Australia, 27.9°S, 153.1°E 19:35 GMT+10 (AUST EST)
2 - 3 seconds duration. Starting about 45 degrees above northern horizon, travelling to the north. White color, very bright, but not as bright as the nearly full moon. It was a single fireball with a tail.

Comment: Comet fragment wows stargazers with celestial maneuvers over Australia's Sunshine Coast, 20 May 2013