Fireballs
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Fireball 2

American Meteor Society receives 145 reports of meteor fireball over US Midwest and Canada

meteor fireball over US Midwest
© Google maps/AMS (screen capture)The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 145 reports about a fireball seen over OH, IL, WI, MI, IN, IA, PA and Ontario on Sunday, January 8th 2017 around 11:15 UT.
Dave Behnke wasn't prepared for what he saw in the sky before dawn on Sunday.

Neither was his dog, Harvey, who had insisted they go outside at such an early hour to begin with.

"He started barking, looking up and going crazy," said Behnke, who lives in Lansing Township. "I said, 'what the hell?' And then he started cowering. I looked up, and I was thinking, 'did I just see something or not?'"

The object was "about the size of a VW wagon," Behnke said. It was changing colors and moving from north to south. He thought it was only about 100 feet above the trees.

What they saw was a bright meteor known as a fireball. And lots of other people saw it, too.

The American Meteor Society received 145 reports of a fireball seen over seven states and Ontario, Canada around 6:15 a.m. Sunday. Observers from all over southern Michigan, including East Lansing, Laingsburg, Charlotte and Webberville, logged sightings on the AMS website.

"I was on my way to work when I saw what I initially thought was a low flying plane behind a tree," an East Lansing resident wrote. "However, when I moved past the tree I saw the object. It was very bright and seemed to be very close."

Comment: Of the 145 reports received by the American Meteorological Society of a fireball over OH, IL, WI, MI, IN, IA, PA and Ontario on Sunday, January 8th 2017 around 11:15 UT, dozens of reports were from Ohio, where unexplained explosions and fire damage affected several homes.


Comet 2

New Comet: C/2017 A3 (Elenin)

MPEC nr. 2017-A75, issued on 2017, January 11, announces the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~18.2) by L. Elenin on CCD images obtained with 0.4-m f/2.4 reflector + CCD at the ISON-SSO Observatory, Siding Spring on Jan. 5.4 UT. The new comet has been designated C/2017 A3 (Elenin).

I performed follow-up measurements of this object, while it was still on the neocp. Stacking of 20 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2017, Jan 06.5 from Q62 (iTelescope network) through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + f/4.5 focal reducer, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma nearly 10 arcsec in diameter elongated toward PA 40.

My confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version)
Comet C/2017 Elenin
© Remanzacco Blogspot
M.P.E.C. 2017-A75 assigns the following preliminary parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2017 A3: T 2017 Jan. 20.6; e= 1.0; Peri. = 301.87; q = 3.91; Incl.= 99.12

Fireball 2

Meteor fireball streaks over Brazilian skies

Brazil meteor fireball 2017
© YouTube/Exoss Citizen Science (screen capture)
A bright meteor fireball was registered north of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 7, 2017 by the Exoss network monitoring cameras in the cities of Sรฃo Jose de Ubรก and Campos dos Goytacazes.


Fireball 5

Two large meteor fireballs caught on camera in northwestern Russia

Quadrantids meteor in Russia
© flashnord / YouTube
Two massive meteors falling in the first major meteor shower of 2017 - the Quadrantids - have been caught on camera by lucky car drivers in northwestern Russia.

The two luminous space rocks were filmed by dashboard cameras on January 3 and 4th in Arkhangelsk region, some 1,200 kilometers north of Moscow, according to local media.

The two objects in the videos appear to be the larger representatives of the Quadrantids, the annual meteor shower traditionally observed in the Northern Hemisphere between December 28 and January 7 when the Earth passes an asteroid belt, according to the Pulkovo Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Fireball

Fireball? Nighttime booms, house shaking, red flash in Louisana skies

Bridge in New Orleans
© travelsouthusa.com
In early December, weeks before New Year's fireworks could be considered a culprit, a pair of massive nighttime explosion sounds rattled homes and startled residents across the Carrollton area. The noise was loud enough that it sent New Orleans police officers searching for gunshot victims, but they turned up nothing โ€” and a survey of other public agencies since then likewise leaves the source of the sounds a mystery.

The first of the loud sounds to draw widespread attention on social media was a Thursday night, Dec. 1, around 11:45 p.m. Residents heard it across the entire Carrollton area from St. Charles Avenue to South Claiborne, between Joliet and Pine, and many said it sounded like it came from the river, with sirens following.

"It was louder than I'm used to hearing a transformer sound and it seemed to reverberate for a bit," a woman who lives near Cohn and Dante posted on the Nextdoor social media network. "Really strange.It was extremely loud! And deeper sounding than the gunshots I'm (sadly) used to hearing," a resident at Panola and Cambronne replied.

The sound repeated itself again the night of Tuesday, Dec. 6, around 7 p.m. โ€” early enough that it attracted even wider attention. In that second case, a number of residents reported that their homes shook, and some even said they thought they saw a corresponding red flash in the sky.

Fireball

Anomalous: Three Quadrantid meteor fireballs in southern skies?

Rare Quadrantid Meteors In The Southern Skies
© Frankie Lucena Reference photo clearly showing the Southern Cross and Alpha Centauri.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is 2017's first major meteor shower and it peaks tonight. The display is virtually non-existent for observers in the Southern Hemisphere.

But Franky Lucena shot three rare Quadrantid meteors. He writes:

Comment: Also see:


Fireball 3

Meteor fireball or falling plane? Social media in Japan puzzled by mysterious fireball in the sky

mysterious fireball in Japan sky
© alexandrite1953 / Instagram
People on Japanese social media have been left puzzled by a mysterious fireball in the sky. Some think it was a meteorite or a comet, while others suggest it could have been a falling plane.

The object was reportedly seen near the city of Hakodate on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, at 4:30pm local time (07:30 GMT), people on Twitter wrote.

Fireball 2

Meteor? Residents in Northern Alberta, Canada report 'strange noise', 'large blue flash' and 'explosion' in night sky

meteor fireball exploding over Alberta
© facebook/Travis Griffin (screen capture)

Did a meteor come crashing through the earth's atmosphere over northern Alberta overnight?

Peace River residents took to social media Friday to report what they had seen in the night sky shortly after midnight.

Erika Florence posted on Facebook that she was on her way home from Grande Prairie when she saw what looked like a shooting star.

"But then it got bigger and it exploded mid air and lit up the sky," she wrote.

"It was something I've never seen before."

Jackie Lee, who started the post on Peace River's General Forum page, told Postmedia that she was outside in her backyard in Peace River with her dog when she heard a "noise like I have never heard before in the air."

"It sounded close by, like maybe somewhere else in town," she wrote in a message.


Fireball 2

Meteor fireball streaks across Turrialba volcanic eruption in Costa Rica

Mteor over Turrialba Volcano
© Costa Rica Hoy / YouTube
Witnessing a volcanic eruption is a spectacular sight on its own, but one such event in Costa Rica was made even more stunning earlier this week. A meteor danced across the night sky at precisely the same time.

The shooting star traveled across the top of the Turrialba Volcano at 10:22pm local time on Tuesday night, just as the volcano was erupting, according to the Costa Rica Star.

The fireball made its appearance while gliding across the sky at an estimated height of 5,000km (3,106 miles), according to Repretel TV station.


Map

Planetary 'climate change'? Satellite detects major gravitational anomaly under Antarctica

The huge and mysterious "anomaly" is thought to be lurking beneath the frozen wastes of an area called Wilkes Land. It stretches for a distance of 151 miles across and has a maximum depth of about 848 metres. Some researchers believe it is the remains of a truly massive asteroid which was more than twice the size of the Chicxulub space rock which wiped out the dinosaurs.

If this explanation is true, it could mean this killer asteroid caused the Permian - Triassic extinction event which killed 96 percent of Earth's sea creatures and up to 70 percent of the vertebrate organisms living on land.
Wilkes Land
A view of Antarctica, the frozen landmass at the south pole of our planet
However, the wilder minds of the internet have come up with their own theories, with some conspiracy theorists claiming it could be a massive UFO base or a portal to a mysterious underworld called the Hollow Earth.

This "Wilkes Land gravity anomaly" was first uncovered in 2006, when NASA satellites spotted gravitational changes which indicated the presence of a huge object sitting in the middle of a 300 mile wide impact crater.

Wilkes Land Impact Crater Site
The area known as Wilkes Land is circled in red

Comment: They're assuming that it's an ancient crater, but given that the anomaly was only recently discovered, isn't it more likely to be something new?

Some major changes appear to be going on inside the planet...

See also: 70-Mile-Long Crack Opens Up in Antarctica