Fire in the SkyS


Meteor

Cosmic shock and awe: Fireball explodes over Argentina


Momento24
Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:27 UTC
Fireball over Argentina
A glowing trail left down by the meteor that exploded over Mendoza, Argentina on 29th September 2009.

Yesterday afternoon the inhabitants of Mendoza, La Pampa, San Luis, and Cordoba saw a meteorite coming down the sky. It finally desintegrated with a loud explosion before it hit the earth.

The object, which initially scared the residents, was seen yesterday in the General Alvear Department. It could be a meteorite or space junk, but the place where it fell isn't known, according to what the Copernicus Institute said today.

From 18.30 there was a cloud in the sky and the explosion was felt almost by all people, asaid Julio Alcaraz, police officer of Santa Isabel, a town located 320 kilometers west of Santa Rosa and 40 miles south of the border with Mendoza.

The chief of the Copernicus Institute, Jaime Garcia, said that "by the color, it would apparently be a meteorite." He added that "the meteorite's location is unknown but according to the information collected it wouldn't have landed on Mendoza".
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Meteor

Flashback Siberia meteorite flattens 40 sq miles

Robin Shepherd
Times Online
Sat, 07 Jun 2003 14:30 UTC
If it had hit Central London, Britain would no longer have a capital city. The force of the meteorite that hit eastern Siberia last September destroyed 40 square miles of forest and caused earth tremors felt 60 miles away.

An expedition from Russia's Kosmopoisk institute has only recently reached the site in a remote area north of Lake Baikal because of bad weather and difficult terrain, the Interfax news agency said yesterday.
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Meteor

Sept. 25, 2002: Mysterious Meteorite Dazzles Siberia

Randy Alfred
Wired
Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:47 UTC
Siberia Meteorite 2002
© NASA
2002: A large fireball flashes across the night skies of the Irkutsk region of Siberia. What may have been a comet causes electrical circuits to come alive and leaves residents worrying about radioactivity.

Eyewitnesses saw the sky light up. More than a hundred people in the sparsely settled area reported seeing it.

At least one person fell to the floor in horror, believing that some religious doomsday had arrived. Others were sure that nuclear war had broken out.
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Telescope

Was Vancouver light show a meteor or space junk?

Kimberley Shearon
The Province
Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:01 UTC
It wasn't a bird and it wasn't a plane. Was it a meteor?

Around 8 p.m. Saturday night a great, big ball of yellowy-white light streaked from east to west across the darkening sky.

Astronomer David Dodge said that the fireball was probably a meteor - basically a rock falling from space.

"It probably wasn't a piece of space junk. The reason why I saw that is that it was going from east to west, and 99.9 per cent of space stuff sent up there is not going east to west."
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Meteor

US: Huge Green Fireball Descends From Sky


UFOs Northwest
Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:50 UTC
Date of Sighting: August 30, 2009
Time of Sighting: 12:50 AM PDT
Location of Sighting: Yakima, Washington

Description:

We just saw something falling from the sky in Yakima, Washington. At 12:50 AM my mom, my boyfriend and myself were outside in her front yard looking through our telescope at planets. He was bent down adjusting the lens and my mom and I were looking at the skies. All of a sudden - out of nowhere - something fell from the skies just a couple miles from us. We live in a nice neighborhood and didn't want to take off racing after it so we just stood there screaming out about how shocked we were at this sudden sighting. Normally, we would think it was a falling star except it was not white. It was on fire and it was smoking.
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Meteor

Meteor Seen Along New Zealand


The Marlborough Express
Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:00 UTC
A fiery meteor blazed a trail through the skies on Friday morning, with sightings reported from Christchurch to Rotorua.

Zoe Battersby, out for an early walk along Jimmy Amers beach in Kaikoura at around 6.10am, said she couldn't help but notice it.

"It was very bright the size of a streetlight. It looked like it fell into the sea," she said.

Alan Gilmore, resident superintendent of the Canterbury University Mt John Observatory, said meteors entered the atmosphere over New Zealand "several times a year", but he doubted that the rock made it to the ground or water level. "This meteor is very typical, and often they burn up at about 70 kilometres up," he said.

"They are coming into a thicker atmosphere, travelling at 30km a second.

"The friction is strong and they slow up and start to break up.

"It's like throwing a stone at a concrete path."
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Meteor

England: Meteor seen above Cheltenham


This is Gloucestershire
Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:45 UTC
A church worker believes he has photographed a meteor blazing a trail above Cheltenham.

Matthew Pinless, 31, from Fairview, spotted the fast-moving object in the sky while walking along Glenfall Street in Cheltenham at about 5pm on Tuesday.

He said: "I was walking along the road with my young son and I spotted this object moving through the sky.

"At first I thought it was a plane, but then I could see it was moving too quickly for that.
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Meteor

'Fiery' meteor sighted in New Zealand

Shahra Walsh
The Press
Fri, 28 Aug 2009 23:18 UTC
A fiery meteor blazed a trail through the skies this morning, with sightings reported from Christchurch to Rotorua

Zoe Battersby was out for an early walk along Jimmy Amers beach in Kaikoura at around 6.10am when she noticed a "very large meteor".

"It was very bright - the size of a streetlight. It looked like it fell into the sea," she said.

Alan Gilmore, resident superintendent of the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory said meteors enter the atmosphere over New Zealand "several times a year" but he doubted that the rock made it to the ground or water level.

"This meteor is very typical, and often they burn up at about 70kms up. It's very rare for them to actually land. They are coming into a thicker atmosphere, traveling at 30km a second. The friction is strong and they slow up and start to break up. It's like throwing a stone at a concrete path," he said.
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Meteor

August 24th Fireball over Canada - Possible Meteorite?


Argusrocks.com
Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:21 UTC
Occasionally, I like to search Twitter for meteorite or meteorites. Last night, a bunch of people in Canada suddenly started talking about meteorites. A large meteor was seen - also known as a fireball or bolide.

Those of us in the meteorite hobby know that when someone says they saw a meteorite fall "nearby", it could mean almost anything - there is a common confusion between distance and angular distance. Still, with this many witnesses, it's certainly possible that something reached the ground last night.

Below, I've compiled some of the highlights from Twitter. I've used ellipsis to indicate multiple tweets from the same user.
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Meteor

England: Scunthorpe - 'Fireball' spotted with parts falling off and all 'flowing' in the same direction


UK UFO Sightings
Sun, 02 Aug 2009 19:34 UTC
Posted: August 2, 2009

Date of Sighting: August 1st 2009
Time: 10pm

Witness Statement: I was stood in my garden having a fag and iI saw like a fire ball in the sky. I thought it was a plane on fire because it looked like parts of it had fallen off still on fire but they did not fall to the ground, they all flowed the same westerly direction. I believe it was any explanation.
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