Fireballs
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Telescope

Scientists in Russia testing lasers to blow up deadly asteroids

Asteroids
© Pixabay
Remember last week, when we learned that NASA has official plans to blow up deadly asteroids with nuclear bombs? Well, we've got more good news: Russian scientists from ROSATOM (aka, the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation) and MIPT (the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) have been building tiny, scale-model asteroids and blowing them up with lasers in order to figure out how to destroy real-life asteroids. They've even figured out how much energy we'd need to demolish a 200-meter wide, non-metallic asteroid: the equivalent of about 3 megatons of TNT.

The experiments are based on miniature asteroids about 8 to 10 millimeters wide that have been carefully manufactured to reflect the density, rigidity and shape of real asteroids-even the chemical compositions and porosity are realistic. To reflect the diversity of asteroid shapes, spherical, ellipsoidal, and cubical models were created, too. From there, the scientists shot them with a laser and measured the effects, including how much energy per gram of mass was needed to destroy the model. One of the more interesting discoveries they made was that asteroids have weak points-targeting a cavity on a model asteroid required less energy for the whole thing to blow up, meaning that if we ever want to blow an asteroid out of the sky, we'd probably target the cavities.

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Fragmenting meteor fireball observed over Tucumán, Argentina (VIDEOS)

Argentina meteor fireball
© YouTube/Noticias Formosa (screen capture)
On 9th March 2018 at 02.30 thousands of people in Tucumán, a small province in northwest Argentina, witnessed a fragmenting meteor fireball overhead according to La Gaceta Tucumán.

The phenomenon was captured on video.


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Meteor fireball reported in the sky over Western Washington - UPDATE

fireball
File photo
Numerous people along the Washington coast and as far inland as Montesano on Wednesday night reported a loud boom and a flash in the sky, Grays Harbor Emergency Management said.

"Some report their home shaking," the agency said.

"Grays Harbor Emergency Management has contacted the National Weather Service in Seattle about our incident and was told we were not having a severe weather event at the time of the reported ground shaking, loud boom and flash of light in the sky," the agency said.

"The WA State Duty Officer contacted the FAA and the Western Air Defense Sector and was told they had no problems. There was NO earthquake. There are no reports of explosions or crashes on the ground. We will continue our investigation of the incident and will forward any information we receive."

Comment: Dr. Marc Fries with the NASA Johnson Space Center reports this particular bolide was the size of a minivan and one of the largest in 20 years.
This was one of the largest bolides produced in the past 20 years, Fries said. It came into the atmosphere as one rock, roughly the size of a minivan. Made up of rock and ice, it quickly broke down into smaller pieces, with the largest pieces - about the size of a brick - hitting the ocean.
Update - 15 March, 2018:

KGW8 reports:
The meteor explosion off Washington's coast shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7 is considered the biggest over the continental U.S. in nearly two decades, according to the American Meteor Society.

A Doppler radar image from Marc Fries with NASA and NOAA, shows the giant dust cloud as the bolide meteor exploded 20 miles off the coast.

Each level is another radar sweep, and Mike Hankey with the American Meteor Society said via email it likely dropped hundreds, if not thousands, of meteorites.

While meteor and space fans have expressed disappointment that there are no meteors to find on the ground. The last explosion in this size range was on March 26, 2003, when a bolide meteor exploded over a southern Chicago suburb of Park Forest, Illinois, damaging homes and cars. There were no reported injuries or fatalities.

WA bolide doppler image
© Marc Fries NASA/NOAAA doppler radar image shows the giant dust cloud as the bolide meteor exploded 20 miles off the coast.



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Bolide? Mysterious loud boom shakes Oklahoma, locals report green and orange flashes

A meteor shower
© Navesh Chitrakar / ReutersFILE PHOTO: A meteor shower
Residents across Oklahoma and Texas were jostled from their daily routines after hearing a loud boom Tuesday afternoon. Many were left scratching their heads and watching the skies for the source of the explosive phenomenon.

While the US Geological Survey has not reported any earthquakes in the region, the National Weather Services in Norman, Oklahoma has said it is possible that the deafening boom was the result of "a 'bolide' or the breaking up of a meteor."

A flurry of baffled residents shared their comments online, trying to make sense of the afternoon shocker. One nearby resident offered his account of the mysterious heavenly "green light" he spotted that afternoon.

"Meteor flew over Oklahoma City today at about 16:20, with a sonic boom and some shaking in nearby Norman! Was beautiful green and orange streak in the daylight," he tweeted.

Comment: See also: BOOM! Mysterious blasts rattling the skies are on the increase around the world - UPDATE at least 64 documented events (VIDEO) and Michigan Meteor Event: Fireball Numbers Increased Again in 2017


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Spectacular meteor fireball spotted over New Zealand

Meteor
© iStockDairy farmer Brent White says the meteor he saw on early Saturday morning was "spectacular".
A Manawatu farmer has discovered the importance of carrying a cellphone after he saw a spectacular fiery meteor display but couldn't get a photo.

Dairy farmer Brent White saw the "spectacular" meteorite fly right in front of him at around 4:30am on Saturday when he was bringing cows into the dairy shed.

"I'm hoping someone else saw it... I didn't have my phone on me unfortunately."

Mr White says he ran back to the shed to see if the milk tankers at the shed had seen the meteor, but they were busy working and missed it.

"It was spectacular. It was surreal. It was such a clear morning... and all of a sudden at about 4:35, out of my left eye I saw a bright light.

"It was definitely a meteor; it was a ball-like formation with a vortex."

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Dazzling meteor fireball turns night into day over Russian Urals (VIDEOS)

Meteor fireball over Russian Urals
© Ivan Abilev / YouTube
Residents of the Russian Urals have reported a colorful fireball lighting up the night sky before hearing loud booms. The meteor is said to have emitted red, yellow and orange light as it was falling.

The glowing object was clearly visible from the city of Ekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk region, as well as near-by towns and communities on Tuesday night, local media reported.

Several videos now being shared online show a bright flash, followed by a brief moment of daylight. "I thought it was a star, but it wasn't! As it fell it glowed red and yellow, and behind it there was a small trail that glittered from lilac to red, yellow and orange," eyewitness Aleksandr Bortstev said in describing the dazzling phenomenon to local news website E1. He said the flash lasted for about 6 or 7 seconds. Some witnesses claimed that they heard what sounded like explosions.


Comment: The other meteor fireball within the past week over the Russian Urals is reported here: Fast moving meteor fireball captured on dashcam over Russian city A few weeks ago another meteor fireball was filmed over Ekaterinburg, Russia.

It was recently the fifth anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor which NASA Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson referred to as "a cosmic wake-up call." See: Five Years after the Chelyabinsk Meteor: NASA's efforts in planetary defense.

Recently NASA created a 'Planetary Defense Coordination Office' with a view to track meteors headed toward Earth, and "redirect" potentially dangerous asteroids as part of a long-term planetary defense goal.

However, asteroid 'redirection' or 'deflection' remains just theoretical. A more accurate way of looking at it is that NASA is funding deflection and redirection of the topic of space threats by 'getting the message out' that 'everything is just fine'.

As Fireball Numbers Increased Again in 2017 it is well worth remembering what can come out of the sky, without any warning at all:




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Meteor fireball flashes across the sky of Newcastle, Australia (VIDEO)

Meteor fireball above Newcastle
Meteor fireball above Newcastle
This is a rare type of meteor flashing across the sky above Newcastle.

Graeme Challen's dashcam captured the moment, as he was driving east along the New England Highway towards Hexham Bridge.

"It had this incredible electric blue-green colour," he said, adding that the colours were lost in the picture because of the headlights and streetlights.


Meteor video: The date is incorrect because it hadn't been set.

Comment: Below is a chart of the number of meteor fireballs reported on Sott from 2010 to the present time - notice the initial low numbers for the first few years then the sudden huge increase that started in 2013:


For a far more deeper historical review concerning space rocks read: Meteorites, Asteroids, and Comets: Damages, Disasters, Injuries, Deaths, and Very Close Calls


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Fast moving meteor fireball captured on dashcam over Russian city

Meteor
© Sputnik News
A driver in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains has managed to capture the fall of what researchers claimed was an extremely fast meteor, according to local media reports.

Vladilen Sanakoyev of the Ural Federal University's educational observatory in Yekaterinburg has given his thoughts on the video with what looked like a massive falling ball of fire, local media outlets have reported.

According to him, a blue flash in the footage indicates that the celestial body was flying at a high speed when a car's dashboard camera captured the moment of the alleged meteor falling from the skies in the Russian Urals city.


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Meteor fireball reported over Wisconsin, US

Location map of meteor fireball over Wisconsin
© American Meteor Society (screen capture)Location map of meteor fireball over Wisconsin (AMS event 797-2018)
Citizens all across southeast Wisconsin reported seeing a meteor streak across the sky Wednesday night. Viewers reported seeing a green streak across the sky moving from northeast to southwest.

There were 67 reports of the fireball according to the American Meteor Society reports page from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Most of the reports were centered in southeast Wisconsin. Most of the reports were centered between 8:45 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Trevor Wright caught the meteor over Greenfield on his dash cam.


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Bus-sized asteroid to pass Earth on 2nd March

Asteroid
© NASA/JPL-Caltech
This coming Friday, March 2, an near-Earth asteroid will be sweeping within 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) of our planet's surface.

While there's no danger of any collision, asteroid 2018 DV1 will be coming closer to Earth than the Moon, which is nearly always enough to grab the attention of asteroid-hunters. And on top of that, 2018 DV1 is about 23 feet (7 meters) wide, which NASA's official Asteroid Watch declared was about the size of a bus.

And it should make for an impressive sight if you have the necessary tools to see it. Assuming that you don't have access to powerful telescopes, you can watch a live stream of the asteroid passing through the night sky from the Virtual Telescope Project and Tenegra Observatories in Arizona, who will be showing the video on their website.