Fireballs
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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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Fireball 5

Huge meteor lights up night sky in Ukraine, 21 November 2013 (VIDEO)

Mount Castel
YouTube
Thu, 21 Nov 2013 01:10 UTC
Image
At 3:50am, a meteor is seen streaking across the night sky. The meteor broke up in the atmosphere.

A meteorite lights up the sky near Mount Castel, as bright as day, if only for a second.

A second piece of footage has surfaced, albeit with a wrong date, captured at Simferopol, Ukraine.

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Fireball 5

Bright fireball captured on video as it lights up night sky over Puerto Rico, 18 January 2014


lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Mon, 20 Jan 2014 05:53 UTC
Image
A brilliant fireball was seen yesterday from Puerto Rico and was observed from all around the Caribbean Island. "It was so bright that the intense light saturated our sky cameras", reports Eddie Irizarry from Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe. Irizarry says the huge meteor can be seen illuminating his backyard and personal observatory at the end of a video. Images also show a smoke trail left behind by the small space rock, which took several seconds to dissipate.

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Fireball 5

Another mysterious boom heard Sunday over parts of Central Virginia

Nick Dutton
WTVR
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 21:13 UTC
Loud Boom
© WTVR
Colonial Heights - CBS 6 News received a number of reports Sunday afternoon about another loud boom heard in parts of Central Virginia.

Ky's mum posted on the CBS 6 Facebook page that she heard the blast just after 4 p.m. at her home near the Colonial Heights-Chester line.

"This time it shook the house!" she wrote.

Ruth J Perry also posted on the CBS 6 Facebook page that she heard a "loud, explosion-type sound" on Chesterfield County's southside.

Diana Penn, who said this is the third boom she has heard this month, said the latest one at 4:10 p.m. was the closest one she has felt.

In fact, Penn said the first two blasts were from the southwest. She said Sunday's boom sounded closer - as if it was from the southeast and did not have the telltale rumble sound afterward,.
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Fireball 4

Bright green fireball caught on video from UK and Holland, 18 January 2014


lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 09:36 UTC
Image
© LunarMeteoriteHunter / Google EarthUK / Holland / Belgium Fireball Meteor/s, approx. 20:20 GMT, 18 January 2014
Initial Meteor Sighting Reports

18 January 2014 - Jim, Almere, The Netherlands 21:32 GMT
1, 2 seconds top to bottom. Quick drop, rainbow trail, bright flash. Exceptionally bright black trail in the sky after 3 minutes. White colour, impressive.
18 January 2014 - Tim North, Shields, UK 20:18 approx
2 seconds duration. Facing east, track Northwest to Southeast over sea, to right of Moon. Barium green, small amount white. Slightly brighter than the moon. No fragmentation, just one discontinuity. Have CCTV video available.
18 January 2014 - James Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, UK 20:00 UTC approx
2 seconds duration. Seen to the east of my location, falling to Earth in southerly direction. Green trail, twice as bright as Sirius.

All 43 meteor sighting reports can be seen here.
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Galaxy

Heaven and Earth: Unusual natural events and strange phenomena from around the world in December 2013 and January 2014

Last Messages
YouTube
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 10:42 UTC
Image
Chicago from the air: frozen in January 2014
Heaven and Earth / A collection of amateur and media video reports from December 5, 2013 to January 15, 2014

Fireballs, strange lights in the sky, massive sinkholes, new islands, erupting volcanoes, powerful tidal surges and storms, the jet stream going haywire, mass animal deaths... in terms of Earth Changes and other strange phenomena, it looks like 2014 is picking up where 2013 left off!


This new series replaces "20** IS STRANGE". It's pretty much the same thing - cataloguing unusual natural events and other strange phenomena. The biggest change is the title ;)

This is an educational/teaching and research purposes only video. This application is not commercial and is free to use.
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Telescope

Two more newly discovered asteroids to pass Earth on Tuesday

Pauline Beart
The French Tribune
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 08:28 UTC
Image
© French Tribune
According to a new report, a small asteroid entered earth's atmosphere and busted over the mid-Atlantic ocean on the Eve of New Year. It has been reported that the asteroid, 2014 AA, was discovered by NASA scientists just 21 hours before it entered the Earth's atmosphere. This has raised a question on NASA's search and discovery of Near Earth Objects (NEOs). NASA is capable of noticing asteroids approaching the Earth, well in advance.

No destruction was caused by the asteroid as it was very small in size. This incident has occurred only for the second time in world history. Researchers cited a similar incident that took place in 2008, in which NASA officials reported about a NEO provisionally titled, 2008 TC3, just 19 hours before it made an entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
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Meteor

There is an undeniable and dramatic increase in meteor fireballs, but we're still being lied to: ISS delays planned orbit raise due to "space junk threat"


Russia Today
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:01 UTC
Image
© Reuters / NASA / Handout via ReutersInternational Space Station
The International Space Station's manoeuvre to raise orbit has been delayed by two days over the threat of collision with space junk that could severely damage the station.

The ISS orbit was scheduled to be raised by nearly two kilometers to ensure safe docking of the Russian Progress M-22M resupply spacecraft on February 6. The manoeuvre was to be carried out to compensate for Earth's gravity. The delay was the initiative of the United States.

The new date and time of the manoeuvre will be announced on Friday, while the preliminary date has been set for January 18, according to Moscow mission control center.

More than 800 pieces of space debris are situated on the same orbit with the ISS and are a potential threat to the station, according to NASA's data from October.

When the ISS faces the threat of a collision with a piece of space junk, the US, Russia and their partners usually order a debris avoidance manoeuvre. This occurs about once a year on average, according to NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office.

Comment: It would be really great, if NASA would stop insulting our intelligence by repeating the same ridiculous lies. The fact is, that
2013 saw a dramatic increase in meteor fireballs. More so, recently, USA and Canada experienced several meteor outbursts and fireballs raining down on their heads, with some of the falls probably resulting in wildfires. But NASA asks you to move along and not to pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

SOTT.net sez 'BS alert!'


Breaking: Meteor outburst over 6 Northeastern U.S. states - Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine (so far...)
'Fireball' seen streaking across sky over Northampton; reports from all over Northeastern U.S.
Take cover! Meteor fireballs rain down across U.S. - Outbreaks of wildfires reported



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Fireball 5

What was that loud boom that shook homes in Rock Island, Illinois?

Jeff Whitten
KWQC
Tue, 14 Jan 2014 14:36 UTC
Rock Island
© Wikimedia Commons
What was that boom? That's what many people in Rock Island were saying Tuesday morning, January 14, 2014.

People from all over Rock Island, as well as Milan and Moline, say they heard it around 6:50 a.m.

Questions came in from Twitter, Facebook as well as phone calls.

Did you hear that? They said they heard a loud boom sound that shook their house and rattled things hanging on the walls.

What made the sound?

We made a lot of calls to try to track down its origin.

We called the Rock Island Arsenal, fire departments, quarries and anyone we could think of who may have the answer.

Comment: Nope, it was probably yet another overhead meteor explosion.

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