Fire in the SkyS


Question

Meteorite shower sparks sea alarm in UK


BBC News
Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:13 UTC
A meteorite shower is suspected to have caused a spate of emergency calls off the coast of north-east England.

Coastguards were alerted to what appeared to be red flares being fired into the sky off Saltscar Buoy, near Redcar, Teesside, on Wednesday night.

A lifeboat was launched but the search was called off after a large number of similar calls came in along the coast, spanning from Tyneside to Humberside.

©MCA
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Meteor

US: Fiery Ball Reported Exploding Off New Jersey

Philip Messing and Hasani Gittens
New York Post
Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:57 UTC
Head for the hills! A mysterious giant "fireball" was spotted exploding over the ocean off the Jersey Shore last night, but officials had no idea last night what it was.

The unidentified falling object was first seen at about 8:40 p.m. by people on Normandy Beach in Ocean County, and was also spotted as far away as Fire Island and South Carolina, officials said.

"It was dispatched as a fireball, out over the ocean, going into the ocean," Deputy Chief Tim Cook of the Toms River, N.J., Fire Department told The Post.

At least 15 witnesses on the beach all described the same thing, he said.
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Question

Mystery Surrounds Ear-Splitting Booms in Washington DC


WJLA-TV
Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:08 UTC
A series of explosions in Northeast have some residents looking for answers, and some law enforcement sources have an idea of what could be to blame.

Debris from used fireworks litters the neighborhood's streets, but residents do not think that is the source of the ear-splitting noise on Friday and Saturday nights along Isherwood street.

"Boom! It was loud; it just sound like something was coming down," said Northeast resident Brittany Slaughter.

Residents say it sounded like a plane crash or an earthquake.
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Attention

Boom over Ireland! RAF rejects sonic jet claims

Philip Bradfield
Belfast Today
Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:14 UTC
The mystery of what caused a sonic boom-like noise over Co Down has deepened after the RAF denied reports a supersonic fighter jet was in Ulster skies at the time.

Residents in north Down were alarmed when they heard what they thought was an earthquake on Tuesday afternoon.
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Star

Flashback Super Bolide: "A major daylight fireball tore across the skies of Slovenia, Croatia and Italy"


SpaceWeather.com
Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:16 UTC
On Wednesday, July 25th at approximately 10:00 UT, "a major daylight fireball tore across the skies of Slovenia, Croatia and Italy," reports veteran meteor observer Jure Atanackov of Maribor, Slovenia. "It produced two bright flashes that reached an estimated magnitude of -20 and also loud sonic booms."
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Telescope

Meteor Flash Lights Up Sky - California


KLTV7
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:32 UTC
"It was big... It was huge in the sky, " Cynthia Costello says.

Cynthia Costello is no stranger to meteor showers in shingle springs this time of year... But nothing prepared her for what she saw overnight.

©KLTV7

Comment: To see the news report that shows the video of the meteorite from the picture above watch Mysterious Object Seen In Sky

Also, this meteorite may be related to this story "Loud Boom" Believed To Be The Result Of Meteor Shower - California

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Telescope

Risky Business - Colombia meteorite

Kelly Beatty
SkyandTelescope.com
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:16 UTC
Here at Sky & Telescope we get wind of all kinds of reports of meteorite falls. Few are legitimate. But on July 6th the sky really was falling over South America, when an incoming object broke apart in the lower atmosphere with a trio of ferocious explosions that shattered windows and shook the ground violently. Moments later, stones rained from the sky and pelted homes in the poor barrios surrounding the notorious city of Cali, Colombia.

©Michael Farmer

Comment: For more information that was collected on this meteorite event go to this link

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Telescope

"Loud Boom" Believed To Be The Result Of Meteor Shower - California

BJ Hansen
MyMotherLode.com
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:51 UTC
Sonora - Representatives with the Sonora Police Department and both the Tuolumne and Calaveras County Sheriff's Departments say they fielded numerous calls early this morning in regards to a "loud boom," and "structures shaking."

According to a Sonora Police Department report, there were several calls from residents who reported seeing "a blue light," just before the "loud boom." The incident reportedly occurred at 12:09am. The Police Department notes that it also received a call from a resident in Tuolumne, in which a female reported seeing what she thought was fireworks, and then something spiraling over her house.

Comment: "somehow the result of a meteor shower" - this isn't a meteor shower:
A "meteor shower," also known as a "meteor storm," is a celestial event where a large number of meteors are seen within a very short period of time. These meteors are small fragments of cosmic debris entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speed, leaving a streak of light that very quickly disappears. Most of the small fragments of cosmic debris are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all fragments are burnt up and never hit the earth's surface. Fragments which do contact earth's surface are called meteorites
The description from the article is of a possible bolide entering and then exploding either in the atmosphere or on the surface of the earth, which causes structures to shake.

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Attention

Meteor crash rocks southwestern Hungary


All Hungary News
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:07 UTC
The southern Transdanubia area of Hungary at the border of Tolna County was shaken by the sound of an explosion Sunday afternoon when a melon-sized meteor apparently hit the ground in Bonyhád. Astronomers are analyzing the impact crater, which is two meters deep and seven meters in diameter, reports fn.hu.

Comment: A couple of points about this incident:

1. If you are a regular reader of these pages, you know that a meteor striking the Earth is not as uncommon as it once was...

2. No one saw it because it came from the west during the setting of the sun. Think about that one for a minute....

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Telescope

Meteorite falls from sky, startles Arizona residents

Beth Duckett
The Arizona Repulic
Thu, 09 Aug 2007 22:33 UTC
SCOTTSDALE - Stanley Fosha is looking for what woke him early Wednesday morning with a giant flash of white light and a thunderous boom.

The sky erupted around 2:15 a.m. near his home at 56th Street and Pinnacle Vista Road in Scottsdale, he said.

"I seriously thought someone was in my back yard taking a picture," Fosha said. "It sounded like someone taking a sledgehammer and banging a big metal drum."
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