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Two large meteor fireballs blaze over southern England, dozens of people report hearing a deafening boom (UPDATE)

Bolide over Wilcot, UK
© UK Meteor Observation NetworkThe fireball filmed in Wilcot, Wiltshire was classified as a bolide which is the term used when a meteor causes a flash as bright as the moon.

Two huge fireballs were widely seen across the country as they blazed across the skies this weekend.

Dozens of skywatchers reported spotting the first meteor which flew over England, Wales and northern France shortly after midnight on Saturday.

Several even said they heard rumbling and 'multiple booms lasting 2-3 seconds' as the object passed overhead although others said it was silent.

Experts classified it as a bolide, which is the term used when a meteor causes a flash as bright as the moon.

Footage of the fireball, filmed in Wilcot, Wiltshire, shows a bright dot rapidly getting bigger as it travels across the sky.

It culminates in a huge flash of light before quickly reducing in size until it disappears.

Another meteor was seen flying across the same region six hours later with some witnesses reporting that it appeared to break up in the sky.

UK Meteor Observation Network member Richard Fleet said the first fireball was the second brightest the country had seen in three years.


Comment: The American Meteor Society have received over 90 and 160 reports of the two events (4590-2017 and 4588-2017). More 'mysterious booms' are being reported worldwide, see also:

BOOM! Mysterious blasts rattling the skies are on the increase around the world - UPDATE at least 64 documented events (VIDEO)

Updated on 28th November: Video footage has now emerged of the second fireball seen across the southern UK on the 25th of November at 07:13 GMT:


The following is from South Wales:


Another video, this time taken in Birmingham:




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Glowing celestial object lands near Yekaterinburg in Siberia, Russia

fireball Russia
© CCO
Residents of the city of Yekaterinburg in Russia's Ural mountains continue their guesswork on what some have described as a fallen meteorite.

Some Yekaterinburg citizens have tweeted that in the early hours of Monday, an unidentified glowing object fell near the southern outskirts of the city near the local EXPO exhibition center and Koltsovo airport.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry's branch in the country's Sverdlovsk region told RIA Novosti that there had been no reports of any such incidents in Yekaterinburg.

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A large fluorescent green trail above France

meteorite, fireball
© Jon Burnett
Question asked on 26-11-2017 by FONTENEAU Bernard, from 85500 les HERBIERS and answered by Thibaut Alexandre

- Yesterday morning at the Herbiers in the Vendée, at around 8:45 a. m., I saw a great green fluorescent train located North-West, going from the North and going down to the West, it only lasted a fraction of a second... It looked like a fireworks trail, but very high in the sky and almost parallel to the horizon line...

- Hello Bernard, and thank you very much for your testimony. According to the description, you had the chance to observe a daytime fireball. It so happens that there was one of them observed in the North-West of France this Saturday morning, around 8:15 am. I think it's about this one.

Translation : Sott

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Mysterious fireball shedding burning sparks filmed blazing across sky in Saskatchewan, Canada

Dallas Bitternose filmed the bright light
Dallas Bitternose filmed the bright light
A mysterious fireball spotted blazing across the night sky with burning sparks falling off it has left locals baffled.

Incredible footage of the bright light was captured after it was seen across several locations in Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada last night.

Videos shared on social media shows the unidentified object glowing against the pitch black sky.

Dallas Bitternose was outside his house in Saskatchewan when he noticed the mystery blaze coming from the west before midnight.

He initially thought it could be a satellite or a plane coming down, sparking as it dropped.


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Seasons Greetings: Three-mile-wide Asteroid 3200 Phaethon to skim Earth just before Christmas (VIDEO)

An artist’s impression of a massive space rock zooming near Earth (Picture: Science Photo Library/Getty)
© Science Photo Library/GettyAn artist’s impression of a massive space rock zooming near Earth
Planet Earth will have a terrifyingly close encounter with a three-mile-wide asteroid just over a week before Christmas.

A gigantic space rock called 3200 Phaethon is due to brush 'quite close' to our planet on December 17, Russian astronomers have revealed.

This huge asteroid is thought to cause the beautiful Geminids meteor shower which will take place between December 13 and 14, causing hundreds of bright meteors to illuminate the night sky as they burn up in Earth's atmosphere.


But NASA has also described it as a 'potentially hazardous asteroid whose path misses Earth's orbit by only 2 million miles' - which is tiny in galactic terms.


Comment: In light of recent news this is concerning, and due to the cyclical nature of these events, if not now then in the coming years: BOOM! Mysterious blasts rattling the skies are on the increase around the world - UPDATE at least 64 documented events (VIDEO)


It's about half the size of Chicxulub, the rock which wiped out the dinosaurs, and has a very unusual orbit which causes it to pass closer to the sun than any other named asteroid.


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Meteor fireball spotted over the Jersey Shore and nearby states

fireball
© NASA stock image
If you saw a vivid object race across the Jersey Shore sky early Friday evening, you're not alone.

More than 20 spotters reported seeing a fireball across portions of the Mid-Atlantic, according to a reporting log on the American Meteor Society website.

"Please tell me someone else saw the huge fireball streaking east to west across the sky south of Toms River a few minutes ago," Nick Cittadino posted on Jersey Shore Hurricane News at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

It was also spotted in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.


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Green meteor fireball seen over New South Wales, Australia

Fireball over NSW
© Lawana Hillhouse
Speculation ran rife online after Inverell Times reader Lawana Hillhouse reported seeing a strange light moving over the town on Thursday night, November 23, at approximately 9.45pm.

"It was sort of round and real red," Lawana said. She watched the object, which she initially believed was a fireball, move at a medium pace towards Moree.

"I thought it was some sort of weird weather event," she said.

Meteors, ball lightning, burning space junk and even aliens were among the many possible explanations given, as the Higgins Storm Chasing website reported similar sightings across NSW between 9.30-11pm.

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Blue-green meteor shoots across East Iceland skies

Village of Breiðdalsvík
© Steinunn ÁsmundsdóttirThe tiny village of Breiðdalsvík in the East Fjords. The lights were seen just above the rocks at the back of the photograph.
Locals of Breiðdalsvík in East Iceland wondered if the aliens were actually coming on Tuesday when they were surprised by strange lights shooting across the sky.

According to local paper Austurfrétt the blue-green light shot across the sky at an incredible speed. One of the witnesses was Hrafnkell Hannesson who says he was at the supermarket when the lights appeared.

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Geminid meteor shower: how to watch as Phaethon asteroid debris lights up Earth's skies

A view of the Geminid meteor shower Asim Patel/Wikimedia
© Asim Patel/WikimediaA view of the Geminid meteor shower
Photographers and sky-watchers will be treated to an awe-inspiring celestial display in December as the Geminid meteor shower lights up Earth's atmosphere.

As our planet moves through the debris field left by the Phaethon asteroid next month, flashes and trails of light will be visible overhead - as long as the weather is clear.


Phaethon, named for the son of Greek god Helios, is a rocky asteroid that orbits the Sun unusually closely.

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Flashing meteor fireball streaks through Japan's night sky (VIDEOS)

fireball
A blazing object believed to be a large meteor whizzed through the night sky over Japan on Nov. 21.

It was visible for a few seconds around 9:30 p.m. and flashed with intense light a few times before vanishing, witnesses said.

The stunning display sparked an explosion of activity on social media.

"It's a fireball ... a big meteor," said Chisato Yamauchi, 43, a researcher at Misato astronomical observatory in Wakayama Prefecture, who watched video footage of the event online.

"Fragments of sand and stone moving through space lit up due to friction upon entering Earth's atmosphere," he explained.