Fire in the SkyS


Fireball 2

Bright fireball streaks across Nova Scotia sky, 8 February 2013


lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Sat, 09 Feb 2013 05:28 UTC
08 February 2013 - Mike, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada 2:15 Atlantic Time
2-3 seconds duration. South-West direction. Bright green color, as bright as the moon.
08 February 2013 - Justin Gale, New Germany, Nova Scotia, Canada 2:15 Atlantic Time
1-2 seconds duration. South-East direction. Bright blue like an arc welder with a red tail. Near the brightness of the sun. No fragments. It streaked across the entire view of the sky and burned out just before hitting the horizon.
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Fireball

Can you hear meteors?


EarthSky Org
Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:45 UTC
Meteor Shower
© EarthSky Org
Is it possible to hear a meteor as it streaks past? Some report hearing meteors with a sizzling sound - like bacon frying. There might be a scientific explanation ...

Sometimes, after a meteor shower, people report hearing the meteors. Some exceptionally bright meteors have been reported as being accompanied by a low hissing sound - like bacon sizzling.

For years, professional astronomers dismissed the notion of sounds from meteors as fiction. Typically, a meteor burns up about 100 kilometers - or 60 miles - above the Earth's surface.

Because sound travels so much more slowly than light does, the rumblings of a particularly large meteor shouldn't be heard for several minutes after the meteor's sighting. A meteor 100 kilometers high would boom about five minutes after it appears. Such an object is called a "sonic" meteor. The noise it makes is related to the sonic boom caused by a faster-than-sound aircraft.
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Fireball 2

'Loud boom' alarms residents in Springfield, Missouri

Melody Pettit
kspr.com
Sun, 03 Feb 2013 03:39 UTC
People in several counties in our viewing area wondering "what was that sound?"

Dozens of you have let us know about a "loud boom" or explosion between 6:30 and 8:30 Saturday night.

KSPR has received reports about it from Mount Vernon, Nixa, Ozark, Aurora, and Reeds Spring but so far authorities say they've been unable to determine the source of the blast.

We can rule out an earthquake, the last one recorded anywhere near the Ozarks was more than 12 hours ago near Oklahoma City.

Comment: This was probably another overhead airburst from a meteor or cometary atmospheric explosion. As readers can see, these are happening all over the world on a daily basis now, and in ever-increasing numbers...

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Fireball 5

Incoming meteor filmed near Birmingham Airport, seen from across England and North Wales, 30 January 2013


BBC News
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 19:13 UTC
Birmingham Fireball
© Paul Duggan
A taxi driver has captured film of a suspected meteor over Birmingham Airport.Paul Duggan filmed the object on a dashboard camera he uses to record bad driving, at 21:05 GMT on Wednesday. Mr Duggan said he initially thought it might be an aircraft crashing. Gary Fildes, from the Kielder Observatory in Northumberland, said the meteor was visible for 10 to 15 seconds - 10 times longer than usual - and was "quite a sight".



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Fireball 4

Green fireball flashes across night sky in Lincolnshire, England

PWhitelam_LE
ThisIsLincolnshire
Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:28 UTC
Fireball
© This Is Lincolnshire
Sightings have been reported of a green 'fireball' flashing across the sky over Lincolnshire last night.

Lincoln City goalkeeper Paul Farman was among those who saw the phenomenon and wrote on Twitter at about 9pm that he'd seen a meteoroid or a shooting star.

RAF Waddington spokesman Lindsey Askin said no flights from the base were in the air over Lincoln.

Astronomer Paul Money, who lives in Horncastle, caught a glimpse of the spectacle out the corner of his eye as it disappeared to the north.
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Fireball 2

Bright meteor streaks over Japan, 20 January 2013


lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 06:23 UTC
Eyewitness reports

20 January 2013 - Ellen Musahino, Tokyo, Japan 3:40 a.m.
2-3 seconds duration. East, very bright yellowish white. There was a flash and then a diving star bright as the moon with a long and beautiful tail. Little sparks along the tail. It was bright enough to be confused with the flash of a camera in a dark room.
20 January 2013 - A Shorb Nasu, Tochigi, Japan 2:42 JST
Around 5 seconds duration. Travelling West to East. A large flash of light like lightning followed by a bluish-green ball. Maybe as bright as the moon? It seemed very close. I've found some Youtube videos of the meteor, taken from from near Tokyo:
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Fireball 3

Loud unexplained boom heard by residents of Alice, Texas

Ofelia Garcia Hunter
Alice Echo-News Journal
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 16:01 UTC
A suspicious loud noise or explosion was heard about 10:30 p.m. Saturday by residents in Alice, but law enforcement officials weren't able to pinpoint the source.

Some reports said it came from the southside area and others said it was near the Alice airport. But sources so far have not located anything.

Acting Police Chief Albert Martinez said the department received about 15 calls that night about the boom, but were unable to locate anything. He added that a sonic boom was a strong possibility.
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Fireball 5

Wednesday's 'boom' has officials still looking for answers

John L. Ross
The Times-Tribune
Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:51 UTC
Corbin, Kentucky - "It sounded like an explosion."

"I thought I heard thunder."

"It may have been a sonic boom."

"We felt the house shake."

"I heard something twice."

"My wife and I felt an earthquake."

Dozens of reports similar to this flooded all areas of law enforcement Wednesday, from Whitley County, to Laurel, Knox and McCreary counties.

The general consensus is the first "boom" was approximately at 1 p.m., the second around 2 p.m.

However, as of press time, no official answers were available.

"There's no determination yet that this was a quake," said Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell. "This was just a real freak thing."
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Fireball 5

'Experts' say fireball with 'glowing train of fire' seen from Canada to Georgia on Sunday was 'probably a falling satellite'

Tim Ciesco
WSLS
Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:45 UTC
Roanoke, Virginia -- An object that looked like a giant fireball made a brief appearance in the sky at around 9:30pm Sunday -- and while no one can say with 100 percent certainty what it was, experts tell us they have a pretty good idea.

Aerospace Corporation -- a federally funded research and development center based in California that works with the Air Force and NASA -- says the timing and witness descriptions are consistent with a satellite that fell back into Earth's atmosphere.

That satellite, called Cosmos 1484, was launched by the Soviet Union back in 1983.

Sightings were reported from Canada all the way down to Georgia. Aerospace says that's a much greater distance than you typically see with these events, which is why they're continuing to investigate. The American Meteor Society received several dozen reports, including a handful from our region.
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Fireball

100 people report 'fireball' streaking across the Virginia sky Sunday night


WSET-TV
Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:43 UTC
Fireball
© Sky and TelescopeA fireball from 1998.
Lynchburg, Virginia - Dozens of viewers, nearing over 100 as of Sunday Night, report seeing a very bright "fireball" streak across the night sky.

Witnesses report a vivid tail of fire-like red particles extending from the fireball.

The fireball was likely a large, or close meteor. These events are more common than many people think.

Debris from space enter Earth's atmosphere all of the time and burn up in our sky as meteors. Occasionally, a meteor will be vivid or large enough to be described as a "fireball".

For more on "fireballs", click here.
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