© Kuva Ursa / Mikko Suominen / Celestia
Estimated trajectory of today's overhead explosion in Finland

Translated by SOTT.net reader Seppo Ilmarinen

The flight route of the bright fireball that flew over Southern Finland on Wednesday 8th of May has been modelled. Esko Lyytinen, mathematician of URSA astronomical association and member of URSA Finnish Fireball Working Group, estimated that about 5kg of the fireball ended up on the earth's surface, in the southern part of Huittinen. There were over 300 sightings of the fireball reported in the URSA database.

The exact flight route estimation was based on the meteor camera pictures of URSA Finnish Fireball Working Group. Photographers of the fireball route were Johan Linden in Turku and Aki Taavitsainen in Mikkeli.

The cause of the fireball light phenomena was a meteoroid that passed through the atmosphere. Based on the simulation, the mass of the meteoroid was about 50 kilograms, and it's diameter was about 30 centimeters. It arrived in the atmosphere at a 43 degree angle.

The speed of the object was about 23 kilometers per second when it arrived the atmosphere. It ignited into a glowing fireball near Mynämäki at the height of 60 kilometers, from where it travelled into north-east. After crossing Lake Pyhäjärvi, the fireball flamed out northeast of Säkylä, at an altitude of about 23 kilometers.

Some sky watchers out to view the grouping of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter got an extra treat on Sunday night as a particularly bright meteor - called a bolide - zipped through the skies a little after 9 p.m. local time.

Glimpses of the bolide were reported from Maryland in the U.S., to Ajax, Ontario as it burned up in the atmosphere. People reporting the event on American Meteor Society website called it one of the "brightest fireballs [they'd] ever seen" with a wide, bright flame trail.

'Fireball' is the name given to a meteor that appears to be brighter than Venus - one of the brightest planets in our sky, and a 'bolide' is a fireball that burns so bright that it can outshine the full moon. While spotting a fireball is rare, the meteors that cause them aren't; according to the AMS, several thousand occur in Earth's atmosphere each day.

In the following excerpt from radio-canada.ca TV news, a man describes his car windshield being smacked by a small dark meteorite on May 21, 2013.


Source [From 10'30"]

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

18 May 2013 - Tristen Dixon Vilonia, AR 22:45:00

5 seconds duration. I faced east, it went from south to north. Green/white color and very bright.

18 May 2013 - J.B., Augusta, Arkansas, USA 22:40:00

Approx 4 seconds duration. S-N direction. Bright blue and green with white flashes. Bright as the moon, flashes as bright as the sun, like lightning. Small pieces like sparks. Could swear I heard a distant jet-like noise which may have been an actual jet but it did directly coincide with the meteor, so... ????

18 May 2013 - Michael Schoelzel, Mascoutah, IL, 22:40 cst

I saw the last 2 seconds. It started east and traveled west. I was looking south. Super brilliant white & green. Super bright! Fragmentation, looked like it disintegrated with green fragments as it was breaking apart. Probably second most amazing thing I've seen, right after last week's observation, interestingly in the same area of the sky from my point of view. Simply breathtaking! Something is really not right here, I've been fascinated with the sky all my life, but only in recent years, or better yet months, have I ever witnessed such wild activity, thank you for the interest, I feel better now having reported it!

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

23 May 2013 - Andrew, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, 19:35 AUST EST

2 to 3 seconds duration. I was facing NW, it came from SE and was heading NW. It appeared at 1 o'clock in the sky and everything disappeared at about 10 o'clock in the sky. Multicoloured! First greens and blues, then orange and a faint but noticeable boom about a minute later. It was very bright, although the moon was nearly full in the eastern sky. There was fragmentation into about 4 or 5 smaller chunks as well as what looked like the usual 'sparks' but only in the last 1 second. This is the first time I've heard a boom accompany a fireball. This one was very large and I have witnessed many large ones - a couple during daytime - but this one is definitely the best and biggest so far!

23 May 2013 - Luke K Moggil, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, approximately 19:30hrs

3 seconds duration. E-W, right to left, I was facing north. Blue trails followed scattering chucks, then an orange flame explosion. As bright as Venus. Multiple fragments trailed behind main body. It looked pretty amazing, with a very short-lived but colourful explosion.

23 May 2013 - Corbet Tamborine, QLD, Australia, 27.9°S, 153.1°E 19:35 GMT+10 (AUST EST)

2 - 3 seconds duration. Starting about 45 degrees above northern horizon, travelling to the north. White color, very bright, but not as bright as the nearly full moon. It was a single fireball with a tail.

23 May 2013 - Diane Rourke, Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada 11:53 pm central

15 seconds duration. From west to northeast. Fireball with yellowish white color. Very bright and lasted a long time, amazing!

23 May 2013 - Charity Woods, Grandview, Manitoba, 23:50

At least 20 seconds duration. I lost sight of it becuse of trees in the way. It appeared to be going from west to east. I was facing west. White color. No sound. It looked like a huge ball of fire. I thought a plane was going down. It was brighter than the moon, and it's a full moon tonight! It looked huge and amazing!

23 May 2013 - C.K., Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada 22:50

30 seconds duration in clear sky. WOW! SW to NE travel. Orange with long tail. Bright and large, best meteor we've ever seen! Very bright orange fireball with sparks coming from the tail. Best ever stellar event!

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

27 May 2013 - Christos Koutentis, Manhattan, NY 00:07, Eastern Standard Time

3 seconds duration. Travelling West. Blue / turquoise color. Brighter than Venus. No fragmentation. South of Manhattan. Apartment window facing south-west.

27 May 2013 - Mike Kelly, Bordentown, NJ, 00:10 EST

5 seconds duration. East to west direction?? Blue and white color. Very bright streak. Awesome, fast and beautiful.

Initial Meteor Reports

26 May 2013 - Jane Meyerhofer, Leesburg, VA. 21:00

5 seconds duration. East to west direction. Green/white color. Brighter than Venus. Broke into several pieces. Smaller than the moon but way bigger than a planet.

26 May 2013 - Alexander Eichenlaub, Bellefonte, PA 21:03

3 seconds duration. SE-NW direction. Pink/purple color along with a 'pop' sound. Same brightness as Venus. Fragmented into three pieces at the end of its trail. There were four witnesses. Not sure if the popping sound is related.

Up to a dozen people have reported seeing a strange light in the sky over Toogoom on Monday evening.

Toogoom resident Maggie MacLeod sparked the influx of reports yesterday when she posted about the "bright, comet-like" UFO on the Fraser Coast Chronicle Facebook page.

"It was going down, then sideways and then the tail disappeared," she said.

"I went up to a group of people on the beach and pointed it out to them ... by this time it was a big red ball in the sky near where the sun had set.

A massive fireball was spotted blazing across the Irish sky on Wednesday night by thousands of people across the country. We have received reports from people from all over Ireland who saw the spectacle on Wednesday, at approximately 10:45pm.
This exceptionally big and bright meteor is known as a fireball, and can in some cases contain as much energy as an atomic bomb. Fireballs are often big enough to survive the fall through Earth's atmosphere, and can sometimes drop fragments of space rock down to Earth's surface.

The fireball is likely to be a piece of a comet or asteroid that passed near Earth's orbit sometime in the past, or the result of debris floating in space left over from when the Solar System and the planets formed billions of years ago.

If you saw the meteor, please send in your report HERE. We will gather reports and perform an analysis over the coming week. With enough results, it will be possible to determine where any meteorites may have landed!