Fireballs

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Meteor fireball streaks across San Antonio, Texas sky

KENS5
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 15:07 UTC

Eyewitness video captured a meteor streaking across the San Antonio sky over the weekend.

The American Meteor Society confirmed the meteor sighting, which took place Saturday around 10 p.m.

The meteor was seen here in Texas as well as several other states, including New Mexico and Louisiana.

The majority of sightings were reported from the Central Texas area, according to AMS.

Meteors like the one spotted Saturday are often referred to as fireballs, AMS said. They are common events but can often be hard to see in city lights.

The video, shown below, was captured by K. Palivec Saturday night.

Another possible interstellar comet headed our way in July 2020

Bob King
Sky & Telescope
Wed, 11 Sep 2019 18:08 UTC

Astronomers have discovered a potentially interstellar comet — the second after 'Oumuamua — and it's approaching the Sun, with a perihelion in mid-2020.

First there was 'Oumuamua. Now we might be in store for another interstellar flyby, this time by the recently discovered comet A/2019 Q1. Gennady Borisov captured the object on August 30, 2019, at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory when it was about 5.5 astronomical units (a.u.) from the Sun. Unlike 'Oumuamua, which was discovered well after perihelion, the new comet is approaching the plane of the solar system and will reach perihelion on July 24, 2020 at a distance of 4.96 a.u., about the distance between Jupiter and the Sun.

But it's still early. Don't be surprised if these dates change as more observations come in.

What sets A/2019 Q1 apart from nearly every other comet is the eccentricity of its orbit. Eccentricity measures how much an orbit deviates from a perfect circle, which has an eccentricity of 0. Elliptical orbits, typical of planets, asteroids and comets, have eccentricities between 0 and 1. Parabolas are equal to 1, and an eccentricity greater than 1 indicates a hyperbolic orbit.

© Stamcose / CC BY-SA 4.0 with additions by the author
How flat an object's orbit is called its eccentricity. An object on a hyperbolic orbit is likely from beyond the solar system.

Meteor fireball lights up sky over Rīga, Latvia

Toms Bricis
LSM.lv
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 13:26 UTC

On the evening of September 9, a fireball was seen in the sky over Rīga. The object was identified as a bolide - an extremely bright meteor - by the StarSpace observatorija astronomy page.

It was caught on one of the LTV webcams in the Latvian Television building.

StarSpace observatorija noticed a fireball burning in the Rīga sky, seen for about 5 to 6 seconds and burning out mutely with a blue-green flame and a long tail.

Mysterious sonic boom-like noise baffles residents in Glasgow, Scotland

Anna Savva
Daily Star, UK
Sun, 08 Sep 2019 18:18 UTC

A mysterious "sonic boom" has been baffling people after it was heard over Glasgow this afternoon.

The loud boom was captured on video my a concerned resident around 3:17pm, but the source remains unexplained.

Rob McDowall, a resident in Maxwell Park, in the Southside of the city tweeted around 4pm asking: "did anyone else hear a massive boom in Glasgow? Sounded like a sonic boom."

He went on to share CCTV footage of the mystery bang, prompting one woman to say she thought it was a gas explosion in nearby Rutherglen.

'It got bigger and bigger and bigger and popped': Meteor fireball sighted off Kāpiti Coast, New Zealand

stuff.co.nz
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 18:00 UTC

At first Gary Wheaton thought he was looking at a flare, until he saw a plane flying beneath it.

Now the Paekakariki man believes what he saw off the Kāpiti Coast about 1.20pm on Monday was likely a meteor that was also spotted over Nelson.

"It was like a streak of light screaming across the sky," Wheaton said. "It got bigger and bigger and bigger and popped."

Wheaton called his daughter out who got there to see the "huge smoke trail" it left across the sky.

"It just happened so quick," he said.

He initially thought it was a flare from a boat but realised - due to seeing a plane in the sky beneath it - it was far too high.

Bright slow-moving meteor fireball recorded over the English Channel

Sott.net
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 06:44 UTC

A bright, slow-moving meteor fireball was recorded over the English Channel on September 8, 2019. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 179 reports from people living across England and northern France.

Mystery boom resounds throughout northern New York; shakes buildings

Peter Crowley
Adirondack Daily Enterprise
Fri, 06 Sep 2019 14:39 UTC

Some people heard it as a boom, some as a bang, some as a series of explosions. Imagine the noise of a dump truck being dropped from 100 feet in the air onto pavement. It shook buildings.

Many people said it sounded like it was coming from inside their building on on their block. But it wasn't just local; people heard it around the same time across a huge swath of northern New York. In response to an Enterprise Facebook post, people wrote that they had heard it as far west as Cranberry Lake, as far north as Malone, as far east as AuSable Forks and as far south as Eagle Bay, plus throughout the Tri-Lakes villages.

That boom was heard in Saranac Lake 10:13 a.m. Some people also reported hearing a later one, perhaps around 1 p.m.

The cause of the noise remained a mystery as of Friday afternoon.

There was no record of any earthquake within 2,000 miles of the Adirondacks, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's online global tracker.

Comment: See also:

Bright flash of light, loud boom filmed in Acworth, Georgia

Sott.net
Thu, 29 Aug 2019 22:51 UTC

On August 30, 2019, a bright flash of light and loud boom from an exploding meteor was recorded on a home surveillance camera in Acworth, Georgia. The footage was uploaded to the American Meteor Society by M. Nixon.

Meteor fireball caught on home surveillance camera over Nutley, New Jersey

Sott.net
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 01:30 UTC

On September 3, 2019, S. Petronio uploaded footage to the American Meteor Society's website of a fireball as it flew over Nutley, New Jersey:

Comment: A loud boom attributed to an exploding meteor was heard just the day before in the New York area.

American Meteor Society: Loud boom heard in central New York caused by meteor

American Meteor Society: Loud boom heard in central New York caused by meteor

WSYR
Mon, 02 Sep 2019 23:06 UTC

People living in Oswego, Madison and Onondaga counties reported hearing a loud 'boom' just after 5 p.m. on Monday that, in some cases, shook their homes.

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society says a fireball, which was larger and brighter than typical meteors, entered the Earth's atmosphere over Lake Ontario. It also caused a loud sound.

"Fireballs that are larger than normal and manage to penetrate down to the lower atmosphere will produce a sonic boom. The folks that did report some sound, they happen to be pretty close to the track of this object," Lunsford said.