Fireballs

Meteor fireball lights up night sky over Greece

Tasos Kokkinidis
Greek Reporter
Wed, 19 Aug 2020 00:52 UTC

A meteor burned up on the night skies over Greece on Tuesday evening, creating a spectacular fireball clearly visible in many parts of the country.

The scene was captured on video by a camera belonging to kopaida.gr in Livadia, central Greece. Many social media users hurried to report that they also got a glimpse of the impressive phenomenon.

Meteors are from small space debris, frequently only millimeters in size. Most meteoroids that enter the Earth's atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and never reach the planet's surface. When they burn up during their descent, they create a beautiful trail of light known as a meteor, sometimes called a shooting star.

Amateur skywatcher spots 'huge green' meteor fireball over Union, Oregon

Dick Mason
La Grand Observer
Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:19 UTC

Stock image

Crystal McClurg, an amateur astronomer since she was a child, knows what to expect when she looks up at the night sky.

At 12:50 a.m. Sunday, however, she saw the unexpected.

McClurg, looking west from her home in Union, observed an object racing across the night sky. It then appeared to crash into a mountain west of La Grande.

"It was a huge green fireball," McClurg said. "Then it turned yellow and broke apart into four or five pieces."

The Union resident, who was alone, then let her emotions get the best of her.

Loud home-rattling boom heard across west Cornwall, UK

Charlotte Becquart
Cornwall Live
Thu, 20 Aug 2020 00:06 UTC

A loud explosion has been reported by hundreds of people across Cornwall today.

The bang, which "sounded like a bomb", according to locals, was heard at about 9.30am in west Cornwall between the Camborne and Helston areas.

Residents said they felt vibrations that "rattled through" their homes.

Dozens of people suggested it could have been a sonic boom by a Hawk jet from RNAS Culdrose.

Meteor fireball over the south of Spain on August 22

Meteoroides.net
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 14:06 UTC

This stunning and slow meteor overflew the south of Spain on 2020 August 22 at about 4:02 local time (equivalent to 2:02 universal time). It was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from an asteroid that hit the atmosphere at around 62,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 95 km over the Mediterranean Sea, and ended at a height of around 27 km over the province of

The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, IAA-CSIC), which is being conducted by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN). The event was spotted from the meteor-observing stations located at Sevilla, Sierra Nevada and Calar Alto.

Like a full moon: 2nd meteor fireball since July 2 dazzles Japan's skies

Masaobu Higashiyama
The Asahi Shimbun
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 13:44 UTC

© Atom teck. Inc.
A spectacular fireball over the Kanto region is captured by a camera set up in Yokohama by Atom teck. Inc. on the evening of Aug. 21.

A spectacular fireball lit up the sky over the Kanto region around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 21.

Experts speculated that the meteor came in over the Pacific in Kanagawa Prefecture and fell on the southern part of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture next to Tokyo.

A camera set up in Yokohama by Atom tech. Inc., a company that develops network camera apparatus, captured the dazzling fireball in all its glory.

Daichi Fujii, a curator at the Hiratsuka City Museum, said it was as bright as a full moon.

Flashing meteor seen over western Croatia during Perseids

Xinhua
Sat, 22 Aug 2020 02:21 UTC

This long-time exposure photo taken on Aug. 12, 2020 shows a flashing meteor during the Perseid Meteor Shower in the starry sky above Istria County of western Croatia.

Kilkenny, Ireland residents baffled by mystery 'loud bang' heard around city

Cormac O'Shea
Irish Mirror
Wed, 12 Aug 2020 19:13 UTC

Gardai in Kilkenny received multiple calls on Tuesday night after reports of a loud bang in the city.

Dozens of residents in the south-east county said they heard a strange loud bang around 10pm.

The noise was believed to have come from near a cathedral in the City although no damage was reported at the church - KCLR96fm reports.

Many people took to Twitter to question what the noise was while some were so concerned that they phoned the Gardai.

One person said: "I felt it too, jumped off the sofa and outside to see what happened."

Space rock turning into a comet observed for the first time

Lisa Goodman
Science News
Wed, 19 Aug 2020 18:25 UTC

© HEATHER ROPER/UNIV. OF ARIZONA
Space rocks called centaurs could someday become brilliant comets, like the one shown in this artist’s illustration. Astronomers have spotted a centaur that is expected to become a comet in about four decades.

Like the mythical half-human, half-horse creatures, centaurs in the solar system are hybrids between asteroids and comets. Now, astronomers have caught one morphing from one type of space rock to the other, potentially giving scientists an unprecedented chance to watch a comet form in real time in the decades to come.

"We have an opportunity here to see the birth of a comet as it starts to become active," says planetary scientist Kat Volk of the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Very bright meteor fireball illuminates night sky over Shandong, China

Sott.net
Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:25 UTC

The Chinese Meteor Monitoring Organization (CMMO) runs an automated camera in Shandong Province, monitoring meteor activity above the coast of the Yellow Sea. According to Spaceweather.com on Aug. 16th, it caught the brightest fireball in years. A space rock exploded in the atmosphere over the city of Linyi, turning the midnight sky blue.

"The meteor illuminated the whole earth and shook the landscape with a loud sound," reports CMMO staff member Zhou Kun. "The flash of light, which peaked at 22:59 pm local time, was widely observed across the Shandong and Jiangsu provinces of China."

A video of the event was shared on YouTube:

Meteor fireball recorded over Toledo, Spain

Meteors
Fri, 14 Aug 2020 21:47 UTC

This bright meteor overflew Spain on 2020 August 14 at about 3:10 local time (equivalent to 1:10 universal time). It was generated by a rock from a comet that hit the atmosphere at around 86,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 107 km over the province of Toledo, and ended at a height of around 57 km. The total length travelled by the meteoroid in the atmosphere was of about 63 km.

The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, which is being conducted by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN). The event was spotted from the meteor-observing stations located at La Hita (Toledo), Sierra Nevada (Granada), and Seville.