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Fireballs

Fireball 5

Surprising recent discoveries of three large Near-Earth Objects

Don Yeomans and Paul Chodas
SpaceDaily.com
Thu, 07 Nov 2013 12:10 UTC
Two surprisingly large Near-Earth Asteroids have been discovered in just the last week or so, as well as a third moderately large asteroid which surprisingly has also gone undetected until now, even though it can pass close enough to the Earth to be classified as "potentially hazardous".

Not since 1983 has any near-Earth asteroid been found as large as the approximately 20-kilometer (12-mile) size of the two new large ones. In fact, there are only three other known near-Earth asteroids that are of comparable size or larger than the two new large ones.
Image
© NASA/JPL-Caltech
The orbits of 2013 UQ4, 2013 US10 and 2013 UP8 are shown in a view looking down on the plane of the solar system. While 2013 US10 and 2013 UP8 orbit the sun in a counter clockwise direction (so called "direct" orbits like all the planets and most asteroids), 2013 UQ4 orbits in a clockwise (retrograde) direction.
It is important to note that none of these three new large near-Earth asteroids can come close enough to the Earth to represent a near-term threat to our planet.

The first of the new large near-Earth asteroid discoveries is named 2013 UQ4, and it is perhaps the most unusual. This approximately 19-kilometer (12-mile) wide object was spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 23 when the asteroid was 435 million kilometers (270 million miles) away from Earth. Not only is this object unusually large, it follows a very unusual highly inclined, retrograde orbit about the Sun, which means it travels around the Sun in the opposite direction of all the planets and the vast majority of asteroids.
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Fireball

There was a crazy-looking fireball over Los Angeles


LAist.com
Wed, 06 Nov 2013 08:17 UTC
Californians from Fresno to San Diego reported seeing a crazy-looking fireball streak across the sky this evening around 8 p.m. There were a lot of fake photos being passed around, but CBS Los Angeles found some security footage that captured the fireball:


So what's going on here? It's likely a part of a meteor shower going on that has a reputation for putting on quite a show around Halloween every year. Every year in late October and early November, the earth passes through the dust of a comet named Comet Encke. One astronomy website described the shower this way: "Although a modest shower, the Taurids can surprise you with a flamboyant fireball or two!" A meteorologist with the National Weather Service told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that's likely what us Southern Californians saw tonight.


Comment: Regardless of whether it was a stray meteor from the Taurids meteor shower or not, something is afoot out there. Fireball sightings are becoming the norm instead of the odd occurrence all around the BBM. Comets and The Horns of Moses

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Fireball 3

Chelyabinsk meteor explosion was so bright, radiation burned people's eyes and skin

Ian Sample
The Guardian
Thu, 07 Nov 2013 06:18 UTC
At its most intense, meteor fireball glowed 30 times brighter than the sun causing skin and retinal burns, say researchers
Image
© Marat Ahmetvaleev
Scientists have published the most complete picture yet of the devastation caused by the meteor that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia this year.

The 20-metre-wide space rock hurtled into the skies over the city in February and began to tear apart at an altitude of 28 miles. Travelling at a speed of 12 miles per second, the rock exploded with the energy of around 500 kilotonnes of TNT, researchers found.

Directly beneath the meteor's path, the shockwave was powerful enough to knock people off their feet. Windows were shattered in more than 3,600 apartment blocks, and a factory roof collapsed.

In the local library in Yemanzhelinsk, 30 miles away, a statue of Pushkin cracked when it was struck by a blown-out window frame. At least 1,210 people were treated for injuries, most from falling building debris and flying glass.

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Fireball 5

Massive 'blast' felt in Chicago was not from earthquake or quarry blast - Another overhead meteor explosion?

Annemarie Mannion
Chicago Tribune
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:27 UTC
Image
People in the western suburbs who felt the earth move Monday weren't imagining it. But the cause remains a mystery.

The U.S. Geological Survey assigned the tremor that occurred about 12:35 p.m. near Countryside a preliminary magnitude of 3.7. Soon after, they downgraded the tremor to 3.2 and said it wasn't an earthquake, but likely was caused by work at a nearby quarry.

"Based on what they've looked at, we're pretty sure it's from a blast," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the Survey. "It is not an earthquake."

The website Did You Feel It?, which is operated by the agency, reported that by midafternoon more than 700 people had contacted the site to say they had, indeed, felt it. Police departments in Hinsdale, Elmhurst and elsewhere said residents called to report the tremor.
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Fireball 2

Amazing fireball caught in the sky of Japan - October 30, 2013


strangesounds.org
Fri, 01 Nov 2013 06:23 UTC
This car driver was lucky to have is camera on... He indeed recorded a long fireball traveling across the sky over Japan.


This great meteor record was caught on Oct. 30, 2013 near Yokohama, in Japan. The following picture was shot from Asahi Village in the Nagano Prefecture.

Image
© http://sonotaco.jp/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3116&sid=82158aeeb5e267abbce200972516d5fc
Fireball seen across Japan – October 30 2013
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Fireball

Fireball explodes over Sarajevo at 30km above the ground


klix.ba
Sat, 02 Nov 2013 13:40 UTC
Image
© AD Orion
Bolide entering the atmosphere photographed from Sarajevo
Multiple explosions were registered last night at 00:36:59 as bolide penetrated the atmosphere. Its fragments could have hit the ground.

The cameras of Bosnia and Hercegovina Meteorite Network run by Orion Astronomic Society and Hydrometeorological Institute in Sarajevo, located in Sarajevo, Gradačac and Pelješac, registered bolide incursion with above -9 magnitude equal to the Moon glow in the first quarter.

This is the brightest meteorite event every since the Meteorite Network commenced with its experimental activities in tracking the sky activity.

The fireball plummeted at 20 km/s speed and exploded/extinguished at about 30 km from the ground.
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Fireball 5

Russian fireball explosion shows meteor risk greater than thought

Leonard David
SPACE.com
Fri, 01 Nov 2013 06:02 UTC
Supercomputer simulation
© Randy Montoya/Sandia
Supercomputer simulation shows details of a fireball that might be expected from an asteroid exploding in Earth's atmosphere. A team led by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Mark Boslough devised the simulation.
Denver - As researchers recover more leftover pieces from the space rock that detonated earlier this year near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, the event is helping to flag a worrisome finding: Scientists have misjudged the frequency of large airbursts.

Computer simulations also imply that such airbursts cause more damage than nuclear explosions of the same yield, which are typically used as an analogue to ballpark impact risk.

The meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk gives the bottom-line message that the risk from airbursts is greater than previously thought.
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Fireball 4

Fireball in Pacific Northwest sky likely landed in Pacific Ocean


Source
Thu, 31 Oct 2013 09:50 UTC
Image
© American Meteor Society
Preliminary trajectory
A fireball in the sky above the Pacific Northwest led dozens of people to report sightings to the American Meteor Society on Wednesday. The FOX 12 newsroom started receiving reports of a bright light flashing across the sky around 6 a.m. Wednesday.

AMS experts said it appears the decent-sized meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere in Washington state, traveled in an east-to-west direction and landed in the Pacific Ocean. "It went from one horizon to the other, never fading," said one witness. A report out of Tigard said it "traveled east to west across the entire visible sky - very long."

Another witness, out of Gladstone, described it as "the longest lasting shooting star I've ever seen."

There were also reported sightings in British Columbia, Alberta, Montana and Washington. Because of cloud cover in the Seattle area, there were very few reported sightings there. Experts at OMSI say a fireball is another term for a very bright meteor, generally brighter than magnitude -4, which is about the same magnitude of the planet Venus in the morning or evening sky.
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Comet 2

Paying lip service to the cosmic threat: UN votes to 'fight' asteroids by creating 'global warning network'... maybe

Deborah Netburn
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 28 Oct 2013 15:25 UTC
Image
© Oleg Kargopolov / AFP/Getty Images
A meteorite trail seen above a residential apartment block in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Even the United Nations is taking the threat of asteroids hitting our planet seriously. Last week, the U.N. General Assembly approved measures to coordinate detection and response to asteroid strikes that could level cities and possibly destroy our civilization.

Specifically, the agency voted to create an International Asteroid Warning Network made up of scientists, observatories and space agencies around the planet to share information about newly discovered asteroids and how likely they are to impact Earth. The group will also work with disaster relief organizations to help them determine the best response to an asteroid impact like the one that rattled the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February. The U.N. will also set up a space mission planning advisory group to look into how humans might deflect an asteroid heading our way -- the best options, the costs and the technologies needed. The results of that study will be shared with space agencies throughout the world.

The General Assembly also agreed that the existing U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space would monitor threats from asteroids and help plan and authorize a deflection campaign if necessary.

Comment: Given the current state of the world, humans voting on pooling resources to deflect asteroids is like ants voting to prevent the boulders rolling down the hill from hitting their colony. And these UN diplomats might even realise this on some level. They can say all the things they want, vote endlessly on measures everyone should take, but at this point it's far too late. Practical, physical technologies should have already been developed, tested and worked out.

But no! Instead they had wars to fight and money to make... to hell with protecting and advancing the welfare of mankind.

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Fireball 3

Fireball seen over Portland, Oregon, 30 October 2013

Nina Mehlhaf and Jeff Thompson
KGW.com
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 10:45 UTC
Fireball
© George Varros and Dr. Peter Jenniskens/NASA/Getty Images
In Space - November 19: This image taken with a meteorite tracking device developed by George Varros, shows a meteorite as it enters Earth's atmosphere during the Leonid meteor shower November 19, 2002. The device, which is deployed on board a NASA DC-8, tracks and photographs meteorites.
Several people in the Portland Metro area reported seeing a fireball in the sky Wednesday morning, moving east to west.

Three different viewers contacted KGW to say they had seen it just before 6 a.m.

"I was out walking my dog this morning around 5:55 a.m. and saw what looked like someone lit a tennis ball on fire and threw it," viewer John Kisling said. "It took a couple seconds to traverse the sky."

An expert told KGW it was a piece of an asteroid burning up when it hit the atmosphere.

"Fireballs are not uncommon," said Dick Pugh of the Portland State University Meteorite Labratory. "The question is: Did it make it all the way down?"


Comment: No, the question is: why are they now common?

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