Fireballs
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Fireball 5

Bright bolide recorded over Espirito Santo, Brazil

Bolide over Brazil
© YouTube/Exoss Citizen Science (screen capture)
Bolide recorded in southern Espirito Santo. The Exoss Citizen Science recorded a bolide early on 05/16/2016 at 4:22 am on the cities of the southern state of Espirito Santo . The event was filmed by three monitoring stations : Colatina -ES , San Jose de Uba -RJ and Campos dos Goytacazes -RJ. More details in press.exoss.org

[Translated from Portuguese by Google]


Info

Evidence of ancient giant asteroid impact event discovered in Australia

Marble Bar sediments
© A. GliksonMarble Bar sediments, a microcrystalline silicone-rich chert.
Scientists have found evidence of a huge asteroid that struck the Earth early in its life with an impact larger than anything humans have experienced.


Tiny glass beads called spherules, found in north-western Australia were formed from vaporised material from the asteroid impact, said Dr Andrew Glikson from The Australian National University (ANU).

"The impact would have triggered earthquakes orders of magnitude greater than terrestrial earthquakes, it would have caused huge tsunamis and would have made cliffs crumble," said Dr Glikson, from the ANU Planetary Institute.

"Material from the impact would have spread worldwide. These spherules were found in sea floor sediments that date from 3.46 billion years ago."

The asteroid is the second oldest known to have hit the Earth and one of the largest.

Dr Glikson said the asteroid would have been 20 to 30 kilometres across and would have created a crater hundreds of kilometres wide.

About 3.8 to 3.9 billion years ago the moon was struck by numerous asteroids, which formed the craters, called mare, that are still visible from Earth

"Exactly where this asteroid struck the earth remains a mystery," Dr Glikson said.

"Any craters from this time on Earth's surface have been obliterated by volcanic activity and tectonic movements."

Comment: Our world has fallen victim to comets, fireballs, asteroids and meteorites on a continual basis for all of its existence.

For an in-depth look at how these extraterrestrial insults have affected our civilisations - ancient and not so ancient - head to our Comets and Catastrophes section for a number of articles on the topic. You can also visit our Red Pill Press store to pick up a copy of Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book, Comets and the Horns of Moses to get an understanding of how the evidence of these events gave birth to mythology and how certain schools of philosophical thought were either suppressed or promoted in order to cover up the truth of a human cosmic connection in order for the psychopaths who rule our world to continue to do so without blowback from the masses.


Fireball 2

Giant meteor fireball '10 times brighter than the full moon' explodes with loud boom over southern Finland

Meteor fireball over Finland
© Aki Taavitsainen / Ursa MikkeliBright meteor over Finland
A fireball 10 times brighter than the full moon exploded in the sky of Finland on May 12, 2016. The disintegrating blue-green ball of fire emitted a powerful and loud boom reported all across southern Finland.

The meteor flew from north to south and was 10 times brighter than the full moon, according to first calculations.

The 'shockingly gorgeous' falling space rock was reported more than 100 times all over southern Finland.

The blue-green meteor flew up to 8 seconds before exploding in a loud sonic boom.

This unusually bright object traveled through the Earth's atmosphere at 16 kilometers per second and disintegrated at about 89 kilometers altitude.

Fireball

Amino acids detected inside meteorite in Turkey

Meteorite on display at Istanbul
© Anadolu Agency PhotoA part of the meteorite on display at Istanbul University's Geology Museum.
A research team from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Istanbul University detected amino acids — important organic compounds that form the human body — in a meteorite that hit the western Turkey 52 years ago.

The meteorite weighing four kilograms landed in western Çanakkale province's Bayramiç district in 1964. Following initial research on its mineral structure, the meteorite was sent to NASA in 2012 for further examination. Following a four-year research, scientists found that the meteorite contained 19 different types of amino acids, including glycine, alanine, valine, serine, glutamic acid and aspartic acid.

Such a finding is considered important as it is the first time that amino acids have ever been detected in a meteorite that fell in Turkey.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), Yavuz Örnek, an associate professor at Istanbul University's Institute of Marine Sciences and Management, reportedly said that approximately 500 meteorites land on earth each year, but only around 10 percent of these could be retrieved while the rest fall in lakes, oceans, deserts and polar regions.

Fireball 5

Meteor fireball blazes over US state of Georgia

Fireball Over Georgia
© YouTube Screen Capture
Did you see it? Driver Jeremy Wall captured dashcam video of this fireball streaking across on Harrington Road in the Lawrenceville area on May 3.

The meteor was likely part of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, the first of two celestial light shows that occur every year in early May as a result of Earth passing through dust released by Halley's Comet. The shower peaks May 5 and 6 with about 10 to 20 meteors streaking across the sky per hour. The best time to catch the show is just before dawn.


Fireball 3

Bright orange meteor fireball seen over Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland fireball
© Times/Claire McGillivray
Intrigue is mounting following the sighting on Saturday of a mysterious bright light in the north west sky.

Times staff member Clare McGillivray snapped this photo from her Beachlands home on Saturday night. At first she thought it was just the setting sun reflecting off a wispy cloud but wondered if it was a meteorite as it appeared to leave a large trail as it dropped through the sky.

"It took about 10 minutes from first sighting to disappear behind the clouds. During this time it grew from a squiggly line to a straight streak. It appeared to be falling out of the sky or maybe streaking across the atmosphere. Pretty amazing to see," she said.

And she wasn't the only one to have spotted the orange streak.

There were numerous comments from apparent witnesses on the WeatherWatch.co.nz site.

One wrote on the site on Saturday: "Strange light over West Auckland. So about 5.45-6.00pm this evening (30/04/16). I was working at Auckland hospital and happened to look out one of the windows facing towards west Auckland.

Comet 2

Comets & Asteroids - Summary for April 2016

During the month of April 2016, 2 new comets were discovered and cometary activity was detected for 1 previously discovered object (earlier designated as an asteroid). NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted a small, dark moon orbiting Makemake, the second brightest icy dwarf planet — after Pluto — in the Kuiper Belt. Pioneer comet observer Elizabeth (Pat) Roemer died on April 09.

Moreover the discovery of the binary nature of asteroid (5674) Wolff and the images of a new satellite of asteroid (130) Elektra have been reported (see below for more about these news).

"Current comet magnitudes" & "Daily updated asteroid flybys" pages are available at the top of this blog (or just click on the underline text here).

The dates below refer to the date of issuance of CBET (Central Bureau Electronic Telegram) which reported the official news & designations.

Comet Discoveries

Apr 05 Discovery of P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS)
Apr 08 Discovery of P/2015 HG_16 (PANSTARRS)*

*G. V. Williams, Minor Planet Center, noted that the 2016 April 3 observations of this comet appeared to belong to a supposedly asteroidal object found a year ago by Pan-STARRS1 on 2015 Apr. 20, 21, and 24 (and then given the minor-planet designation 2015 HG_16 on MPS 603395 and 603396)
Comet P/2016 G1 PanSTARRS
© JPL NASA
Cometary activity detected

Apr 24 Cometary activity detected in 2015 WZ = C/2015 WZ (PANSTARRS)

Comet 2

Rocky comet from Oort Cloud may provide clues about origin our Solar System

C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS)
© ESO/M. Kornmesser Artist's impression of the unique object C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS). Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope, and the Canada France Hawai`i Telescope, show that this is the first object to be discovered that is on a long-period cometary orbit, but that has the characteristics of a pristine inner Solar System asteroid. It may provide important clues about how the Solar System formed.Because the object has spent most of its life away from the inner Solar System it suffered very few collisions, and its surface displays few or no craters. As it formed in the same region as the Earth did, it is mostly rocky, and therefore has only very limited cometary activity.
In a paper to be published today in the journal Science Advances, lead author Karen Meech of the University of Hawai'i's Institute for Astronomy and her colleagues conclude that C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) formed in the inner Solar System at the same time as the Earth itself, but was ejected at a very early stage.

Their observations indicate that it is an ancient rocky body, rather than a contemporary asteroid that strayed out. As such, it is one of the potential building blocks of the rocky planets, such as the Earth, that was expelled from the inner Solar System and preserved in the deep freeze of the Oort Cloud for billions of years.

Karen Meech explains the unexpected observation: "We already knew of many asteroids, but they have all been baked by billions of years near the Sun. This one is the first uncooked asteroid we could observe: it has been preserved in the best freezer there is."

C/2014 S3 (PANSTARRS) was originally identified by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope as a weakly active comet a little over twice as far from the Sun as the Earth. Its current long orbital period (around 860 years) suggests that its source is in the Oort Cloud, and it was nudged comparatively recently into an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun.

Fireball 4

Green meteor fireball streaks over Southern California skies

SOCAL Fireball
© YouTube Screen Capture
Southern California residents took to social media after a streak of green light was seen falling from the sky Tuesday night. A news photographer's dashcam captured the streak as it fell over the downtown Los Angeles area around 10 p.m.

Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer and director of Griffith Observatory, said it was not clear what the streak was exactly. Krupp said based on the description, the phenomenon is a fairly common occurrence where material from outer space heats up, like a meteor.

He said it also could be debris from a previous launch.

NBC4 viewers called into the station from San Bernardino County and beyond to report seeing the curious ball of light.


Fireball 2

Fireball seen over Birmingham, UK as Lyrids meteor shower arrives

Meteor shower
© AP Photo/Amel Emric

Bright streaks of light in the skies over Birmingham - will you be watching?


People in Birmingham are being treated to another dramatic display of shooting stars this week.

A meteor shower known as the Lyrids has arrived in the skies and will reach maximum intensity on the night of April 22/23.

Some shooting stars are expected to be visible each night from April 19 to 25.

There has already been one report of a 'fireball' over Birmingham. So will you be watching?