Strange Skies
S


Fireball

Earth-shattering boom, flash of light in Berkshire, UK sparks online debate

John Garvey
Newbury Today
Mon, 17 Oct 2016 07:26 UTC
Telescope
© newburytoday.co.uk
Loud bang 'was not thunder' - was it a meteor?

A huge bang which startled people in Thatcham last night (Sunday) could have been caused by a meteor, some have speculated.

Last night's boom sent several people out into the street expecting to see a plume of smoke from an explosion.

The earth-shattering noise was accompanied by a flash which lit up living rooms, prompting many to assume it was a single, extraordinarily loud, clap of thunder.

But one poster on social media wrote: "So now the met office don't know what the loud noise was."

Others speculated it might have been a meteor like the one which caused a blinding flash and loud boom in Arizona, USA, in June.

What's your theory? Let us know via the comments section below.
Read More...
Question

Mysterious flaring objects could be an entirely new phenomenon say astronomers

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Thu, 20 Oct 2016 03:22 UTC
Mystery Phenomenon
© NASA/CXC/UA/J.Irwin et al.
Scientists have detected two mysterious objects in space that dramatically flare into a burst of bright X-rays, and they're like nothing we've ever seen before.

These mysterious X-ray sources - which have been observed erupting in two different galaxies - qualify at their peak as what astronomers call ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), but their unusual flaring behaviour doesn't match up with any known cosmic phenomena.

"We've never seen anything like this," says astronomer Jimmy Irwin from the University of Alabama. "Astronomers have seen many different objects that flare up, but these may be examples of an entirely new phenomenon."

Irwin began looking for evidence of unusual X-ray activity after scientists detected extremely bright flaring near a galaxy called NGC 4697. Only two very brief bursts were observed at the time - one in 2003 and one in 2007 - and nobody knew what caused them.

To see if they could find evidence of similar flares, Irwin and his team sifted through archival data covering 70 galaxies collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

After examining several thousand X-ray sources in Chandra's records, the team identified two mysterious flaring objects that might be the same thing as what was detected near NGC 4697.

The first they found, located near the galaxy NGC 4636 - some 47 million light-years away from us - was captured during an outburst in February 2003.

The other object - near the galaxy NGC 5128 at a distance of some 14 million light-years from Earth - was seen to flare five times between 2007 and 2014.

While that makes it sound like these flares happen only rarely, that's not necessarily the case.
Read More...
Info

Distant world spotted far beyond Pluto

Alexandra Witze
Nature
Tue, 18 Oct 2016 05:20 UTC
Solar System
© NASA/ESA/ G. BaconAn artist's conception of the view from the outer Solar System.
Astronomers have spotted a distant world that orbits far beyond Pluto, in the extreme reaches of the Solar System.

The object, known informally as L91, may be in the process of gradually shifting its way inward from the Oort cloud — a reservoir of comets and other icy bodies — into the equally icy Kuiper belt. No object has ever been seen doing this.

The discovery of L91 reveals more about the extreme worlds whose orbits lie beyond the gravitational influence of Neptune, the most distant giant planet in the Solar System. Researchers have yet to fully explain how these bodies end up in their current orbits."Every time we find another one of these objects it adds another piece to the puzzle," says Meg Schwamb, a planetary scientist at Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii.

Astronomers with the Outer Solar System Origins Survey discovered L91 in September 2013 using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. The group has been conducting a detailed survey of a small portion of the sky, aiming to catalog and describe the Kuiper belt objects within.
Read More...
Rainbow

New Zealand skydivers soar above magnificent 360-degree double rainbow

Rumble Viral
YouTube
Mon, 10 Oct 2016 16:16 UTC
360-degree double rainbow
© Via YouTube/Rumble Viral
While skydiving at 16,000 feet in New Zealand's Bay of Islands, these lucky adventurers witness a stunning double rainbow in the form of a 360 degree circle. What are the odds of encountering that?

Read More...
Cloud Lightning

Rare red sprites captured on video over northern Italy


Observatoire géophysique, Val Terbi
Fri, 14 Oct 2016 20:13 UTC
Rare red sprites caputred on film over northern Italy from Switzerland
© OGVT - Observatoire géophysique, Val TerbiRed Sprites captured on film by Swiss observers over northern Italy

Comment: Website Space Weather noted a geomagnetic storm on Friday 14th October 2016 (though it began early on Thursday 13th):

'GEOMAGNETIC STORM UNDERWAY: Auroras are dancing around the Arctic Circle on Oct. 14th as Earth slowly exits the magnetized wake of a CME that struck two days ago. Currently, geomagnetic storms are flickering between categories G1 and G2.

WHAT'S NEXT? On Oct. 15th, another disturbance is expected to hit Earth's magnetic field. This time it's coming from a coronal hole -- a gap in the sun's atmosphere from which solar wind flows:

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture on Oct. 13th. It shows the dark coronal hole pointing almost directly at Earth
© NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this picture on Oct. 13th. It shows the dark coronal hole pointing almost directly at Earth. At the leading edge of the emerging solar wind stream is a co-rotating interaction region (CIR)--that is, a transition zone between slow- and fast-moving solar wind. Shock waves and density gradients in CIRs often do a good job sparking auroras, so when it arrives on Oct. 15th polar auroras are likely'

More documentation of this increasing phenomenon: For a deeper understanding of the changes occurring on the planet read Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Read More...
Arrow Up

Charity calls on DiCaprio to step down from UN climate change role

Alex Ritman
The Hollywood Reporter
Fri, 14 Oct 2016 17:26 UTC
DiCaprio
© Olivier Marteau on Twitter
A rainforest charity calls on the star to either denounce his connection to individuals involved in a Malaysian corruption scandal and return laundered money he allegedly received or give up his role.

In perhaps the biggest attack on Leonardo DiCaprio's environmental credibility, a rainforest charity on Friday called on the actor to give up his title as UN Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change.

At a press conference in London, the Bruno Manser Funds offered DiCaprio an ultimatum: either he renounce his connections to the "politically exposed persons" at the center of the multi-billion dollar 1MDB Malaysian corruption scandal now being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and return corrupt money he allegedly received or resign from the position he was given by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in 2014.

"If DiCaprio is unwilling to come clean, we ask him to step down as UN Messenger for Peace for climate change, because he simply lacks the credibility for such an important role," said Lukas Straumann, director of the Switzerland-based charity, which has a particular focus on deforestation in Malaysia.

DiCaprio is alleged to have received millions of dollars diverted from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund for his role as star and producer of The Wolf of Wall Street, alleged by the DOJ to have been funded by stolen Malaysian money and produced by Red Granite, co-founded by Riza Aziz, the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister and a major figure in a DOJ filing. He is also alleged to have received laundered 1MDB money for his charity, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, from his former close associate Jho Low, the controversial Malaysian businessman at the heart of the scandal.
Read More...
Camera

More mysterious light flashes recorded over Pacific ocean (Update - Lens flare)


Sott.net
Wed, 12 Oct 2016 06:00 UTC
flashing lights over Pacific
© YouTube/LadyInKY (screen capture)
On Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th October mysterious flashing lights illuminated the skies over the Pacific ocean, captured by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is located atop the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

The Cloud Camera is an experimental high sensitivity camera mounted to the catwalk of CFHT. The purpose of the camera is to take pictures of clouds and other weather at night, even on moonless nights. It only operates from sunset to sunrise.

The camera takes a picture every 30 seconds and compiles time-lapse movies from those pictures. As such airplanes appear as streaks and ships appear to move quite quickly.

The following YouTube video from LadyInKY shows the strange phenomena with slow motion included.


The original video can be viewed here courtesy of the CFHT.

Comment: Some other possible plasma type discharge events in recent times include: Update: 4 November 2016

We came across other videos of timelapse from this same camera on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and they contain the exact same light anomalies. This suggests that the flashes are artifacts of the technology, not something that is actually happening out over the Pacific Ocean.

Read More...
Cloud Grey

Rare fallstreak or hole punch clouds appear over Somerset, UK

Shivali Best
Daily Mail (UK)
Mon, 10 Oct 2016 17:55 UTC
hole-punch cloud over UK
© Jason Bryant/ApexThe rare atmospheric phenomenon is a strange cloud formation, known as fallstreak, or hole-punch clouds

Residents in Somerset were in for a surprise this morning, when they spotted what could easily be mistaken for a UFO in the sky.

The rare atmospheric phenomenon is a strange cloud formation, known as fallstreak, or hole-punch clouds.

Experts say the stunning clouds that look like a brushstrokes are caused by a rare - but rather ordinary - atmospheric occurrence.

The bizarre clouds were snapped over Shepton Mallet, in Somerset.

These unfamiliar clouds form when temperatures are below freezing, but water droplets in the clouds have yet to freeze due to a lack of ice particles.

When ice particles form quickly, it causes a domino effect as the water droplets connect with the crystals, which get heavier and then start to fall all of a sudden - leaving a large hole in the cloud.


Comment: Earlier in the year this rare cloud phenomena appeared over Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Other strange cloud anomalies seem to be appearing globally with higher frequency and intensity. Factors which may contribute to these 'strange skies' are atmospheric dust loading from increased comet and volcanic activity and changes in the layers of the atmosphere.

An indicator of this dust loading is the intensification of noctilucent clouds we are observing. As explained in Pierre Lescaudron's book, Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection:
The increase in noctilucent clouds is one of the effects - among others - of increased dust concentration in the atmosphere in general, and in the upper atmosphere in particular. We suspect that most of this atmospheric dust is of cometary origin, while some of it may be due to the recent increase in volcanic activity.
See also: Chemtrails? Contrails? Strange skies

Read More...
Question

Strange, elongated 'slit' of light appears in sky over Bridge City, Texas

Secure Team 10
You Tube
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:20 UTC
Orange glowing slit
© Via YouTube/secureteam10
New footage was received from a viewer in Bridge City, Texas that shows a mysterious streak of light that appeared over the city around 11pm on October 1, 2016. The bizarre event lasted about ten minutes where the light remained stationary. At one point it gets brighter, gains some color and we see this very bright orange phantom streak of light brighten up the sky.


About 15 minutes away, in Port Arthur we have some more high strangeness going on with people swerving off the road, their electronics going out, a strange high-pitched noise going through the radio. A woman named Rhonda reported on Facebook that she was headed back home from the mall when she encountered something very strange:
Did anyone else passed by the Groves loop just now and experience a weird wave-like thing that shutdown things in the car? A weird high-pitched noise came from the radio, lights dimmed, the radio stopped, everyone around was breaking or pulling over. Cars swerved not knowing what was going on. Anyone know what this was?
Now that seems to me like an EMP wave or something like that something that is knocking out power systems along this area. Really bizarre.

Comment: Not the first such appearance: this happened in Sabah, Malaysia two years ago:
What Are These Weird Lights Hovering Around In Sabah?

On 2 September 2014, many Sabahans have been reporting sightings of strange lights in the sky on social media

sabah strange light
A pillar-shaped light was seen moving across the sky around 9.30pm and was hovering over for a few minutes, leaving locals baffled

sabah strange light
Meteorologists, policemen and firemen were unable to explain the pillar-shaped lights that moved across the sky in the Putatan area, around 9.30pm, for several minutes.


Read More...
Telescope

Amazing 'Proton Arc' aurora photographed over Scotland


Scotland Now
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 20:58 UTC
Proton Arc
© Stewart Watt
Keen photographer Stewart Watt was thrilled when he managed to capture these strange Northern Lights on camera.

Amateur astronomer and photographer Stewart Watt was spellbound by the strange streak of light he spotted in the night sky, which he thought was a Proton Arc.

An unusual form of aurora, a Proton Arc is an streak of colour separate from the usual dancing lights of the aurora borealis, which can be spotted regularly in the Scottish Highands at this time of year.

Stewart, from Thurso, contacted physicist Dr Melanie Windridge to see if she could shed some light on the subject.

He says: "She is currently looking into it for us but she did get information from Leicester university which suggested it is actually a Stable Auroral Red arc or SAR arc.
Read More...