Fireballs
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Fireball

First meeting of international group tasked with reacting to asteroids

Eric Mack
CNet
Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:39 UTC
Image
© ESAA new international group meets for the first time in February to coordinate efforts to predict and prevent major asteroid impacts.
Next week in Germany, representatives of all mankind's space-faring nations will get together in a room to begin coordinating efforts to prevent the end of the world...or at least to figure out how to identify and prevent really big space rocks from smacking us around like that meteor that hit Russia last year.

We've all watched those scenes in science fiction movies where the leaders of the planet (or planets) all sit around a large table and come to a consensus about the best way to confront the latest existential threat. I'm always left wondering where the heck they get such a huge table, and how they managed to come up with a unanimous plan of action in less than 5 minutes. It's a little different from the endless gabfest of political posturing translating to minimal real-world action that is a meeting of today's United Nations.

Or is it? The first ever meeting of the Space Mission Planning and Advisory Group (SMPAG, pronounced "same page" -- see what they did there?) set to be hosted by the European Space Agency on February 6 and 7 sounds a little more like the Hollywood version of consensus-making, just with less melodrama and fewer ridiculously beautiful people everywhere.
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Camera

Daytime meteor fireball photographed in sky above Mounts Bay, Cornwall, England

WB Graeme
This is Cornwall
Sat, 01 Feb 2014 11:50 UTC
Image
© Michael Potter
On the left side of this picture, highlighted by the dark cloud but with its detail obscured, is a bright triangular shape streaking across the sky.

Could it be visitor from space or perhaps an experimental delta-wing aircraft from Culdrose or beyond?

It was snapped by accident and only discovered when Michael Potter reviewed his photographs of Mounts Bay on his computer.

He said: "I uploaded it to my laptop and decided to delete it because of the apparent sunspot over part of the image.
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Meteor

'Sonic booms', 'frost-quakes', and now another lame explanation for overhead explosions: Loud booms in Chesterfield, Virginia blamed on exploding tannerite

Kelly Avellino
NBC News
Tue, 28 Jan 2014 09:25 UTC
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File photo of a meteor fireball
Several mysterious booms heard in Chesterfield and the Tri-Cities were likely caused by exploding targets made with tannerite.

Tannerite targets can be bought over-the-counter at sporting goods stores, usually in half-pound or pound jars. However, bulk exploding tannerite targets are available online.

Justin Watkins, 28, fired off 20 pounds of tannerite Saturday afternoon. Watkins says he and many neighbors in the area shoot off the loud, exploding targets in the woods. Tannerite targets are perfectly legal, if used properly.

"We spent close to $100 on just 20 pounds of (tannerite)," said Watkins.

Neighbors were certainly shocked by Saturday's blast and the series of explosions heard intermittently over the last few weeks.

"It was like an explosion and it startled us. It shook the house, and we weren't sure what it was," said Beth Wilson, who was rattled after the big boom on Saturday.


Comment: All the 'booms' cannot be attributed to exploding tannerite because they don't fit the description of loud booms that "shake houses" and are heard "around the county and beyond". Here are two videos of 20 pounds of tannerite exploding:



It's quite loud, and indeed it could shake a nearby house, but it's not going to be heard for miles around and it's not going to startle people if they're used to tannerite going off.

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Fireball 4

'Huge' meteor fireball seen across eight Mexican states

Zachary Stieber
Epoch Times
Thu, 30 Jan 2014 21:22 UTC
Meteor
© Twitter/Steffany_rm
Lots of people in Mexico reported seeing a meteor (meteoro) or meteorite (meteorito) on Thursday evening. The meteor or comet was spotted around 7:03 p.m. local time by a web camera in Mexico City and also reported by a range of people from other locations.

One Twitter user said they saw it from the hills of Angeloplis "perfectly."

Another said they saw it in Puebla.

"It crossed the entire sky from south to west," said another user.

Sightings were also reported in Morella. Sky Alert said that sightings have been reported in eight states and the federal district."It was a streak of light moving at high speed," said Andres Olmos in Morella. "It was huge!"
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Fireball 2

AMS receives hundreds of reports of 4 separate meteor fireballs seen over U.S., 28 January 2014


American Meteor Society
Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:22 UTC
The American Meteor Society has received over 100 reports of a bright fireball seen from mid western states at approximately 8:30 PM local eastern time. Witnesses from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan and Pennsylvania reported an extremely large and bright bluish green ball of light followed by a bright white tail. Sighting reports clustered the start and end point of the meteor near the Ohio and Kentucky border, heading from the east almost due west.

From Bill Cooke (Meteoroid Environments Office, NASA)
Time of this fireball was January 29 at 01:17:39 UTC (Jan 28 - 8:17pm EST.)
Best trajectory estimation:
Start location: 83.397 W, 37.809 N at 93 km altitude
End location: 84.278 W, 37.162 N at 70 km altitude
Speed: 36 km/s +/- 7 km/s
Radiant: RA 172.1 +/- 2 deg, Dec +40.8 +/- 0.4 deg
Image
© AMSAMS Event #312-2014 – "Mid West Fireball" – January 28th, 2014 – 2D Trajectory
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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball lights up night sky in Kentucky, 28 January 2014

Rachel Lake
wsbt.com
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 04:35 UTC
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Screencapture of a meteor fireball over Kentucky, 28 Jan. 2014, from a security camera.
It's something that has puzzled people across Michiana... what lit up the sky Tuesday night?

While outside with his dog last night, something in the night sky caught Jason Goss' eye.

"I just saw this great big ball of fire basically coming from the north heading to the south and it disappeared behind the building," Goss said.

That ball of fire was big, big enough to be seen as far away as southeastern Kentucky where a security camera caught it lighting up the sky before fading away.

"It happened so quick I didn't know what to think," Goss said.

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Meteor

Meteor fireballs, 'loud booms' and 'strange sky sounds' reported over Oklahoma

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Tue, 28 Jan 2014 04:47 UTC
Image
© SOTT.net
On January 24th, 2014, a meteor fireball was seen by many above Oklahoma and Texas, with reports also coming in from Arkansas.


The following day, on January 25th, in Tulsa, Oklahoma thousands reported feeling and hearing a very loud boom. It was loud enough to be heard indoors and it shook windows and rattled doors.

Comment: See also: Fire in the Sky - SOTT Summary 2013

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Meteor

Massive overhead boom in Northeast Oklahoma shakes doors and rattles windows - sonic boom from military fighter jet ruled out

Richard Clark
news9.com
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 03:35 UTC
Image
The Doppler radar image of ‘unknown turbulence’ over Beebe, Arkansas, on January 1st 2011
Thousands of people across northeastern Oklahoma are asking the same question today: So what WAS it?

The "it" in this case was a very loud boom that was heard and felt at about 8 p.m. Saturday, January 25, 2014. Moments after it happened, the News On 6 social media accounts were jammed with people wanting to know if anyone else had heard and felt it.

The police and fire department scanners in the newsroom crackled to life with dispatchers telling crews in the field about all the calls to 911 about it.

People across the News On 6 viewing area reported a very similar experience: a boom loud enough to be heard indoors that shook windows and even rattled doors. It's understandable why they would want to know what caused it. That goes double for those of us here at News On 6.

Comment: So that rules military jets out then for all these overhead booms currently being reported in every state daily...

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Fireball 5

Asteroid shaves Earth, more on the way

Duncan Alfreds
News24.com
Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:40 UTC
Vesta
© Nasa/APAsteroid Vesta resembles a planet, data from Nasa has showed.
Cape Town - An asteroid dashed close by the Earth on Sunday, but experts were watching it to ensure that it stayed on the predicted course.

On Sunday, the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory watched as an asteroid, dubbed 2014 BP8, whizzed by the planet at 9.3km/s (kilometres per second).

The asteroid is between 11m and 24m in diameter and passed 1.4 million kilometres, or just under four lunar distances from the Earth.

According to the JPL, Tuesday will bring the closest approach of 2014 BM25 which is travelling at 6.8km/s and between 6m and 14m in diameter.

It will pass even closer than 2014 BP8, at 2.7 lunar distances, and followed by the bigger 19m 2014 BK25, at 11.9km/s on the same day.
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Fireball 2

Roanoke, Texas couple find meteorites from Friday's meteor fireball

Marie Saavedra
wfaa.com
Sun, 26 Jan 2014 09:59 UTC
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© WFAAWayne and Darla Janca of Roanoke believe they discovered fragments of a meteor that fell to earth near their home on January 24, 2014


It started as the search for a needle in an interplanetary haystack.

Could Wayne and Darla Janca of Roanoke find what came flying through the sky on Friday night?

They and untold others saw the meteor on their drive home from dinner in Southlake. Some even captured the glowing meteor on video as it shot through the atmosphere.

"We both looked at each other and said, 'That looks like it hit pretty close to home," said Darla Janca.

After a good night's sleep, Wayne and his wife followed their hunch.

"The next day we went out and were looking in the dirt, seeing if we can find anything," Wayne said. "Right before we gave up, I looked down at my foot and there it was! It looked like liquid metal melted into the ground."

The discovery was made in Roanoke, not far from the Jancas' home. But what they dug up may have traveled millions of miles to get here.

Comment: See also: Meteor fireball seen by many above Oklahoma and Texas, 24 January 2014 (VIDEO)

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