Posted: December 2, 2009
Date of Sighting: November 29, 2009
Time of Sighting: 12:05 to 12:10 AM PST
Location of Sighting: Longview, Washington (Southwestern Washington)
Description: I saw an electric blue streak in the eastern sky. The object was about 1 & 1/2 times the size of the moon at that time. The object was about an inch to the left of the moon, which was visually about a foot above the horizon. I noticed the object when it was at about the height the moon was at this point. It descended towards the horizon in a straight line lasting 1 to 2 seconds although the tail did not really appear to be tapering. I immediately thought meteorite & half expected to hear it impact somewhere east of Longview, Washington. My impression was of a round electric blue, large object moving toward the eastern sky in very rapid stages. Was this a meteorite? I have never seen this color nor an object other than the moon of this size in the sky.
Fire in the Sky
Salt Lake City -- Space buffs have some astounding new calculations about the gigantic fireball that lit up our part of the west two weeks ago. They now estimate the meteor lit up 500,000 square miles bright as day, and they've learned a lot more by studying some spectacular images.
A lot of what people thought is turning out to be wrong. The Nov. 18 fireball was apparently much higher and farther away than it appeared, never closer than 120 miles to Salt Lake City, which makes its brightness all the more amazing.
Dash-cam video from a police car in Grand Junction, Colo, provided vital clues to meteor trackers. Almost 300 miles away, it shows the fireball lighting up the sky, all the way on the opposite side of Utah.
Seth Jarvis of Clark Planetarium calls it God's flash bulb, briefly illuminating a half million square miles.
"From our area here, it was as bright as the sun," he said.
In surveillance video from the Salt Lake valley, the Wasatch Mountains turn from midnight to noon, as if a zillion-watt light bulb switched on.
A lot of what people thought is turning out to be wrong. The Nov. 18 fireball was apparently much higher and farther away than it appeared, never closer than 120 miles to Salt Lake City, which makes its brightness all the more amazing.
Dash-cam video from a police car in Grand Junction, Colo, provided vital clues to meteor trackers. Almost 300 miles away, it shows the fireball lighting up the sky, all the way on the opposite side of Utah.
Seth Jarvis of Clark Planetarium calls it God's flash bulb, briefly illuminating a half million square miles.
"From our area here, it was as bright as the sun," he said.
In surveillance video from the Salt Lake valley, the Wasatch Mountains turn from midnight to noon, as if a zillion-watt light bulb switched on.
A Williamtown RAAF base spokesman has suggested that "supersonic activity" by aircraft taking part in a major defense exercise off the coast was responsible for the shaking felt by Hunter residents last night.
The spokesman said there were aircraft taking part in the East Coast Air Defence Exercise about 10.30 last night when the shaking was felt.
He said that while the aircraft may have been operating some 50 kilometres off the coast, conducive atmospheric conditions may have caused the supersonic soundwave to travel further than would normally be expected.
The spokesman said the aircraft were operating within flight rules and restrictions.
The spokesman said there were aircraft taking part in the East Coast Air Defence Exercise about 10.30 last night when the shaking was felt.
He said that while the aircraft may have been operating some 50 kilometres off the coast, conducive atmospheric conditions may have caused the supersonic soundwave to travel further than would normally be expected.
The spokesman said the aircraft were operating within flight rules and restrictions.
Ah to be an early riser: first to the paper, first to the coffee, and, of course, first to the occasional fireball scorching through the sky.
Twice in as many mornings this week early birds have reported fiery objects in the atmosphere above Edmonton.
On Thursday at about 7:15 a.m., a fireball was spotted travelling low along the horizon from the northeast to the east, according to the Telus World of Science. The next day, on Friday, a second was eyed in the west at about 5:50 a.m.
Twice in as many mornings this week early birds have reported fiery objects in the atmosphere above Edmonton.
On Thursday at about 7:15 a.m., a fireball was spotted travelling low along the horizon from the northeast to the east, according to the Telus World of Science. The next day, on Friday, a second was eyed in the west at about 5:50 a.m.
As Ernest Merrill was driving down Route 113 in West Newbury on Saturday night, he glimpsed what many astronomers refer to as a once-in-a-lifetime sighting - a fireball falling from the sky.
Merrill's friends think he's crazy, but scientists say it's entirely possible. Referred to by astronomers as a "fireball," it is caused by a larger-than-average particle, perhaps from a Leonid meteor shower, shooting through the earth's atmosphere and blazing a fiery trail to the treeline.
The object was like nothing 67-year-old from Salisbury and his wife, Laura, had ever seen before.
"We were riding along, and it was dark," Merrill said. "We were talking about the moon, and all of a sudden this thing came into the Earth's atmosphere and was shooting across the sky with a tail, like fire coming off and going all the way toward Haverhill. We watched it going down, and it finally disappeared by the trees. It came into the Earth's atmosphere and it was burning up as it was coming down."
Merrill's friends think he's crazy, but scientists say it's entirely possible. Referred to by astronomers as a "fireball," it is caused by a larger-than-average particle, perhaps from a Leonid meteor shower, shooting through the earth's atmosphere and blazing a fiery trail to the treeline.
The object was like nothing 67-year-old from Salisbury and his wife, Laura, had ever seen before.
"We were riding along, and it was dark," Merrill said. "We were talking about the moon, and all of a sudden this thing came into the Earth's atmosphere and was shooting across the sky with a tail, like fire coming off and going all the way toward Haverhill. We watched it going down, and it finally disappeared by the trees. It came into the Earth's atmosphere and it was burning up as it was coming down."
© Lunar and Planetary Institute, Universities Space Research Association
Satellite image of the Vredefort Dome meteor impact crater: South Africa is home to the world's largest and oldest (known) meteor impact crater
Satellite image of the Vredefort Dome meteor impact crater: South Africa is home to the world's largest and oldest (known) meteor impact crater
People saw a bright "greenish, bluish" light heading towards Pretoria at about 11pm on Saturday night.
"It moved over the Gauteng Province towards Limpopo... it travels very fast and was about 90 kilometres up," said Flanagan.
The meteor was a hot topic of discussion in the forum on mybroadband.co.za.
"I saw a light flash the sky at about 8pm, at first I thought I was imagining it, but my friend also saw it," wrote someone who saw the meteor.
"... Maybe it's people getting abducted by aliens...I walked in the house looked out [and] the sky was lit. It looked how it normally [does] at 5am."
Comment: Update: This is allegedly a video of "the meteor that passed through South Africa and landed in Botswana on Saturday":
Update 2: A new video has surfaced showing this event in all its spectacular glory!
There's new evidence that Wednesday morning's spectacular fireball meteor may have landed in Utah.
Experts say a fire ball that streaked across the sky above south-east Queensland last night was a "chip off the old block of some asteroid".
The meteor was spotted by people from the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and across Brisbane around 9.45pm.
Witnesses said the meteor was a green glow travelling from south-east to north-west, leaving a visible trail for 10 to 15 minutes.
Speaking on ABC radio this morning, Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium curator Mark Rigby ruled out space junk as an explanation.
The meteor was spotted by people from the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and across Brisbane around 9.45pm.
Witnesses said the meteor was a green glow travelling from south-east to north-west, leaving a visible trail for 10 to 15 minutes.
Speaking on ABC radio this morning, Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium curator Mark Rigby ruled out space junk as an explanation.
Keesler confirms jet training
Pascagoula - The boom that rattled windows in Pascagoula and Moss Point, swamped police phone lines and brought entire neighborhoods of people out of their homes to see what was happening was almost as much a mystery Wednesday as it was Tuesday night when it happened.
Keesler Air Force base told city police around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday the boom was caused by military jets on a training exercise in the Gulf, but that the jets were not from Keesler.
On Wednesday security at the base reconfirmed the jets had contacted the tower Tuesday night and were told there was a training exercise.
But what jets, and whose jets were flying at supersonic speeds over the Gulf at night?
Pascagoula - The boom that rattled windows in Pascagoula and Moss Point, swamped police phone lines and brought entire neighborhoods of people out of their homes to see what was happening was almost as much a mystery Wednesday as it was Tuesday night when it happened.
Keesler Air Force base told city police around 8:45 p.m. Tuesday the boom was caused by military jets on a training exercise in the Gulf, but that the jets were not from Keesler.
On Wednesday security at the base reconfirmed the jets had contacted the tower Tuesday night and were told there was a training exercise.
But what jets, and whose jets were flying at supersonic speeds over the Gulf at night?
The 2-inch-diameter gun-metal black rock that 10-year-old Chandler Harp found Saturday in his Liberal backyard traveled a long way to get there.
"There's no question in my mind whatsoever that what they have is a meteorite," said Don Stimpson of Haviland, a biophysicist who owns the Kansas Meteorite Museum and Nature Center on U.S. 54/400 near Greensburg.
© The Hutchinson News/(Courtesy photo)
The triangle-shaped fresh iron meteorite discovered in Liberal fell to Earth from as far away as 100 million miles.
The triangle-shaped fresh iron meteorite discovered in Liberal fell to Earth from as far away as 100 million miles.
Comment: As regular Sott readers know, fireball sightings are not all that rare now. All one needs to do is put the word fireball, or meteor in our search engine and you will see lots of reports of these "rare" sightings.