Fireballs
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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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Fireball 2

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


KFOR-TV
Fri, 24 Jan 2014 05:10 UTC
Image
Did you see a flash across the Friday night sky? NewsChannel 4 had reports of a meteor being seen from people in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Many folks are talking about seeing it in Texas and Arkansas.

Let us know if you saw anything and share you pictures or video.

Check out this video posted earlier this evening claiming to be of it:


Comment: See also:

30 Dec 2013: Mysterious loud boom rattles, rolls most of Texas City

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Fireball

A sound of cosmic thunder: Earth-Impacting asteroid heard by nuke detectors

Phil Plait
Slate.com
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 07:45 UTC
Asteroid burning atmosphere
© Dieter Spannknebel/Getty images/NASAArtist impression of an asteroid burning up in Earth's atmosphere
On the second day of 2014, a small asteroid blew up high in Earth's atmosphere. It was relatively harmless - the rock was only a couple of meters across, far too small to hit the ground or do any real damage - and it disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean anyway.

What's cool is that now we know for sure this is the case: Infrasound detectors designed to listen for nuclear bomb detonations actually heard the explosion from the impact and were able to pinpoint the location of the event to a few hundred kilometers east off the coast of Venezuela.

NASA put together a nice informative video explaining it.
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Comet

Mainstream science slowly catching on: a comet may have caused the winter of 536 to last for 10 years

Carolyn Cox
GeekoSystem
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 14:01 UTC
Game of thrones
Winter is coming....
Oh, that's why it's called the Dark Ages

General consensus is that the Dark Ages were the worst of all the ages. Unicorns went extinct, you were either a witch or had the plague, and oh yeah, winter lasted for ten years once.

A recent article in New Scientist is giving some scientific validity to the big chill recounted in ancient medieval texts such as this one:
"And it came about during this year that a most dread portent took place. For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse, for the beams it shed were not clear nor such as it is accustomed to shed" - Procopius (Wars, 4.14.5)

Comment: Back in 2004 another team of scientists came to this conclusion and gave even more information:
The surprising result of the new work is just how small a comet is needed to cause such dramatic effects. The scientists calculate that a comet not much more than half a kilometre across could cause a global nuclear winter effect. This is significantly smaller than was previously thought.

Dr. Ward-Thompson said: "One of the exciting aspects of this work is that we have re-classified the size of comet that represents a global threat. This work shows that even a comet of only half a kilometre in size could have global consequences. Previously nothing less than a kilometre across was counted as a global threat. If such an event happened again today, then once again a large fraction of the earth's population could face starvation."

The comet impact caused crop failures and wide-spread starvation among the sixth century population. The timing coincides with the Justinian Plague, widely believed to be the first appearance of the Black Death in Europe. It is possible that the plague was so rampant and took hold so quickly because the population was already weakened by starvation.


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Fireball 3

Fiery object spotted in sky over Dillon, Montana

Jordan Moore
KTVM
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:05 UTC

A Dillon resident snapped a photo of a fireball in the sky just before 8:00 a.m Tuesday morning. Ruth Jackson of Dillon spoke to NBC Montana over the phone and says she had no idea what she was looking at, so she pulled over to take a photo.

"We were driving east on Helena St. in Dillon and the sun hadn't come up yet but there was this bright thing in the sky and I said to my husband, "What is that?" said Jackson.

She was a passenger in the car along with her husband and two granddaughters. They were on their way to drop the girls off at school when they stopped to take the picture.

"I am always looking for something to take a picture of, but this was just awesome," said Jackson.

We showed the photos to the MSU Space Grant Consortium and met with Director Angela Des Jardins. She weighed in and tells us what they appear to be at first glance.
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