Fireballs
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Fireball

Three meteor fireballs reported over Cheltenham, UK in two days

Brockworth fireball
© Via Facebook/Stef Kotwica
Did you see two fireballs in the sky above Cheltenham on Sunday evening?

We have been contacted by someone who said they saw the phenomenon as they drove along Princess Elizabeth Way.

He asked us via twitter: "Seen two fireballs in the sky when heading down Princess Elizabeth Way. Heard anything?" He added that he was driving with his son and noticed two bright lights which dimmed and left smoke trails. I really can't believe me and my son would have been the only ones to see them, they were bright enough," he said.


Stop

East London gallery under fire for hosting 'neo-Nazi' art & 'Islamophobic' speakers

racist protesters
© Kacper Pempel / Reuters
A London art gallery has been criticized for exhibiting neo-Nazi artwork, hosting openly Islamophobic speakers and "promoting fascism."

LD50, in Dalston, east London, is facing calls to shut down over an exhibition and a series of talks hosted by the far right or so-called 'alt-right' movement, which is known for its vehement anti-liberal stance, often favoring white supremacist views.

Last summer, the gallery, run by Lucia Diego, held a 'neoreaction conference' featuring speakers including Peter Brimelow, Brett Stevens and Iben Thranholm. 'Neoreaction' is a 'philosophy' which rejects democracy, is anti-egalitarian and embraces autocratic rule.

Fireball 3

Bright meteor fireball seen over northern U.S and Canada

Fireball over Pennsylvania
A very bright fireball was seen in the northern US and Canada around 04:53 UTC on February 18, 2017. The event was captured in 3 NASA all-sky cameras and cameras belonging to the Southern Ontario Meteor Network.

Analysis of the video data shows that the meteor was first detectable at an altitude of 83 km (52 miles) above US Highway 219, southeast of the Pennsylvania town of DuBois. It then moved northeast some 42 km (26 miles) through the atmosphere at almost exactly 64 400 km/h (40 000 mph), ablating 42 km above the countryside just north of Winslow Hill, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) said.

The camera data shows very little deceleration of the meteor, which gives it a poor chance of producing meteorites, MEO said and added that more analysis is required to rule this out. "The object had the brightness of a quarter Moon, which means we are dealing with an asteroid fragment weighing about 9 kg (20 pounds), with a diameter of roughly 18 cm (7 inches)."


Fireball 2

Bright meteor fireball lights up sky in Southern Alabama

Alabama Fireball
© NASAThe reports of sound indicate that it penetrated fairly low into the atmosphere before fragmenting, perhaps as low as 14 miles in altitude.
Local 15 has confirmed with NASA that a bright meteor was seen just after 9 p.m. Saturday.

Saturday night reports began circulating on social media about a large fireball in the sky and a loud boom. Residents in Southern Alabama reported that they heard a loud boom that shook their homes. NASA says that the fireball first appeared to the Northeast of Mobile and moved west at about 56,000 miles per hour.

The average brightness is that of the Full Moon, leading experts to believe that it was probably about a foot or two in diameter. Using eyewitness reports and a software tool to derive a ground track NASA was able to conclude that the best reports indicate the meteor broke apart above U.S. 43, just North of Mobile.

The reports of sound indicate that it penetrated fairly low into the atmosphere before fragmenting, perhaps as low as 14 miles in altitude.

Comment: This meteor was also reported in western Florida.


Fireball

Rare asteroid discovered along the orbit of Uranus

Asteroid orbiting Uranus
© NASA/Erich Karkoschka (Univ. Arizona)Now with added Trojans.
A rare Trojan asteroid of Uranus has been found, following the same orbit as the planet. Its existence implies there could be many more of these companion asteroids, and that they are more common than we thought.

A Trojan asteroid orbits the sun 60 degrees ahead of or behind a planet. Jupiter and Neptune have numerous Trojans, many of which have been in place for billions of years. These primordial rocks hold information about the solar system's birth, and NASA has just announced plans to visit several of them in the 2020s and 2030s.

But Saturn and Uranus live in a rougher neighbourhood: the giant planets on either side of them yank Trojans away through their gravitational pull. So Saturn has no known Trojan, and Uranus had only one.

In July, though, astronomers reported a new asteroid, named 2014 YX49, that shares Uranus's orbital period of 84 years. Now computer simulations of the solar system by brothers Carlos and Raul de la Fuente Marcos at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, indicate the asteroid is a Uranus Trojan. The simulations show that the asteroid has maintained its position ahead of Uranus for thousands of years.

"It is bigger, probably twice as big as the first one," says Carlos. The new asteroid is brighter than the first, but its exact size depends on how much light its surface reflects. If it reflects half the sunlight striking it, it's 40 kilometres across; if it reflects 5 per cent, its diameter is 120 kilometres.

Fireball

Valentine's Day meteor fireball spotted over Eastern US

Meteor Over Eastern US
© Chris Wolf/AMSAMS Event#614-2017 – screeenshot of a video shared by Chris Wolf on the AMS Website.
53 reports from Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Maryland

The AMS has received 63 reports so far about of a fireball event over seen over Pennsylvania on Tuesday, February 14th 2017 around 08:32pm EST (Feb 15th - 01:39 UT.). The fireball was seen primarily from Pennsylvania but witnesses from Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland also reported the event. Some witnesses described the meteor as orange, yellow and white. After a fairly extensive investigation, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't Cupidon but a bright meteor.

First Estimated Trajectory

The map below shows the witnesses location with the first estimated trajectory. The preliminary estimated trajectory plotted from the witness reports shows the meteor was traveling from the West to the East and ended its flight somewhere over Scranton, PA.

Meteor

Mystery object (possibly a meteorite) lands in UK garden after loud thump in middle of night

meteorite falls england
© Bury Times
This mysterious rock like object is causing quite a stir in Lowercroft.

Now the couple in whose garden it was found are hoping someone may be able to shed some light on what it is — and where it came from.

Pauline and Norman Pollard were baffled to discover the striking black and yellow material in their garden, just days after hearing a loud noise.

Initially the couple thought it may be a meteorite - and don't know whether the noise is related to the find.

Mr Pollard, who lives in Lowercroft Road, aged 74, said: "We found it in the garden after we had heard a loud bang or thump in the middle of the night, it was like a car door banging."

Info

Cause of noises made by meteors found

Fireball Sound
© Spalding et. al./Scientific Reports
Bright, flaring meteors are sometimes accompanied by faint noises. What's strange about these popping, sizzling, rustling, and hissing sounds are that they reportedly occur almost instantly to earthly onlookers. This makes little sense, as meteors are as far as sixty miles away from viewers on the ground, so any sound they make should take several minutes be heard. What's going on? Do meteors somehow defy the laws of physics?

Researcher Richard Spalding and several of his colleagues at Sandia National Laboratories recently set out to study this strange phenomenon, and in a study just published to the journal Scientific Reports, they announce that the sounds are likely created through light.

Meteor fireballs sometimes pulse with light many times brighter than the full Moon, and these blasts can briefly heat the surfaces of objects many miles away. Such sudden temperature changes can actually create sound.

"We suggest that each pulse of light can heat the surfaces of natural dielectric transducers," Spalding and his colleagues write. "The surfaces rapidly warm and conduct heat into the nearby air, generating pressure waves. A succession of light-pulse-produced pressure waves can then manifest as sound to a nearby observer."

Fireball 4

Bright green meteor fireball illuminates skies over Wisconsin and Illinois

meteor fireball over Lisle
© American Meteor SocietyAMS Event#454-2017 – Caught on a Police Dashcam (Lisle, IL PD)
Over 170 reports from IL, WI, MI, IN, OH, IA, NY, Ontario, KY and MN

The AMS has received over 170 reports so far (and counting...) about of a fireball event over seen over Wisconsin on Wednesday, February 6th 2017 around 01:27CST (07:31 UT.). The green fireball was seen primarily from Illinois and Wisconsin but witnesses from Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, New York, Kentucky, Minessota and Ontario (Canada) also reported the event.


Comet 2

Comet 45P approaches Earth - Closest approach on Feb. 11th

45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova
© Michael Jäger
A small comet named "45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova" (45P for short) is approaching Earth. At closest approach on Feb. 11th, the comet will be 7.4 million miles from our planet, visible in binoculars and small telescopes. This is what it looks like (image on the left).

Michael Jäger of Stixendorf, Austria, took the picture on Dec. 31, 2016, just as the comet was swinging around the sun en route to Earth. Since then 45P's icy nucleus has been heated by solar radiation, causing it to spew brightening jets of gas into the comet's green atmosphere. Why green? Because the comet's vaporizing nucleus emits diatomic carbon, C2, a gas which glows green in the near-vacuum of space.

According to the Minor Planet Center, this is the 8th closest pass of any comet in the modern era (since ~1950, when modern technology started being used to study comets). It will only be 31 times farther from Earth than the Moon.

Interestingly, 45P made an even closer approach on its previous orbit (23 lunar distances), so it is also on the list as the 5th closest.

Proximity makes the comet bright despite its small size. Forecasters say 45P could be on the verge of naked eye visibility (6th magnitude) when it emerges into the pre-dawn sky later this week. The best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise between Feb 9th and 12th. The comet will be racing through the constellation Hercules high in the eastern sky. Sky maps: Feb. 9, 10, 11, 12.

Got a great picture? First, submit it to Spaceweather.com. Next, send it to the Planetary Science Institute, which is collecting amateur images to help professional researchers study Comet 45P. More resources: 3D Orbit, Ephemeris.