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Meteor reported over Hunter Valley, New South Wales


The Maitland Mercury
Tue, 27 Jun 2017 08:00 UTC
meteor
There were reports overnight of a meteor spotted in the skies over the Hunter Valley about 9pm. Geoscience Australia also received reports of tremors at the time the meteor was spotted.

Residents recounted hearing something like a firecracker going off, or constant thunder. Similar descriptions were given by people from Cessnock all the way to Swansea.


Comment: The previous day in Perth, Western Australia, stargazers were left baffled after a 'red fireball' was spotted.

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The five biggest meteor crashes of all time


The Economic Times
Sun, 25 Jun 2017 00:00 UTC
As Meteor Watch Day falls on June 30, take a look at some of the biggest meteor crashes of all time:

Ensisheim

The oldest recorded meteorite, the Ensisheim struck earth on November 7, 1492, in Ensisheim, France. A 330-pound stone dropped from the sky into a wheat field, witnessed only by a young boy. German King Maximilian even stopped by Ensisheim to see the stone on his way to battle the French army. Maximilian decided it was a gift from heaven and considered it a sign that he would emerge victorious in his upcoming battle, which he did. Today, the largest portion stands on display in Ensisheim's Regency Palace.

Ensisheim space rock
© Ensisheim Regency Palace
Murchison

On September 28, 1969, a meteor exploded over the town of Murchison in Australia. The explosion left smoke rings in the air and left 700 kg of meteorite debris scattered across 33-sq-km area. Remarkably, the cosmic rocks contained molecules such as amino acids, which are essential to life. This was the first time organic chemicals had been found in a meteorite.

Comment: See also: Chelyabinsk meteor: A wake-up call for humanity

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Meteor streaks over Columbia County, Georgia

David Hough
YouTube
Tue, 27 Jun 2017 06:12 UTC
Georgia meteor
© YouTube/David Hough (screen capture)
Meteor streaks over Columbia County, Georgia on 26 June 2017.

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'Spectacular' fireball spotted in Whanganui, New Zealand

Laurel Stowell
Whanganui Chronicle
Tue, 27 Jun 2017 18:04 UTC
This fireball was photographed over the sky of Portland, in the United States, in May 2016.
This fireball was photographed over the sky of Portland, in the United States, in May 2016.
Watchers of the Whanganui sky saw a "quite spectacular" fireball split into pieces overhead on Sunday night.

One who saw it was Mark Lee, the secretary of the Wanganui Astronomical Society. He had stepped out to clear his letterbox just before 8pm when he saw the fireball, between clouds.

"It was quite spectacular," he said.

The object was heading across the sky in a north-south direction, so Mr Lee thinks it was probably a piece of space junk falling into the earth's atmosphere, rather than a meteorite.

Comment: Residents in Hunter Valley, New South Wales, Australia also reported seeing this event.



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Meteor fireball caught on CCTV over Singapore

Amin Aziz
You Tube
Tue, 27 Jun 2017 17:50 UTC
screen
Antihelion fireball meteor capture with cctv over southern hemisphere night sky date:27.06.2017 at 02.24 am local time Singapore..approx peak date Jun 2 2017 ending Sep 10 2017.

Average velocity 30km/s

Approx magnitude 3.0.Zenith hourly rate 4/hr.

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Fireball

Meteor fireball seen across Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana skies


wlwt.com
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 17:37 UTC
fireball
© Flickr Creative Commons
If you saw a bright flash of light moving through the Monday morning sky, you're not alone!

On Monday morning, the American Meteor Society received dozens of reports of a fireball meteor sighted across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana skies.

View the map of sightings here.

The reports come from a variety of locations across the three states - including Harrison and Middletown Ohio.

What is a fireball meteor? According to the American Meteor Society, a fireball is defined as 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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Scientists identify rock that crashed through shed roof in a Dutch village as meteorite


Dutch News
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 22:20 UTC
meteorite
© Naturalis
A rock that crashed through the roof of a shed has been confirmed as only the sixth meteorite to be recovered in the Netherlands.

The 4.5 billion-year-old lump of stone, which weighs around 500g, landed in the village of Broek in Waterland, Noord-Holland province, in January.

The owners discovered it the next morning and contacted Naturalis museum in Leiden after looking up meteorites on the internet. Two experts confirmed that it was a L6 chrondite type, which dates from the birth of the solar system.
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Meteorite 'size of a small car' hits Sudan, fragments found


Al-Arabiya
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 08:08 UTC
Sudan meteorite
© AlrakobaFragments of a meteorite, which had struck earth on Wednesday in the southern White Nile state.
The Sudanese Ministry of Minerals announced on Sunday that they found fragments of a meteorite, which had struck earth on Wednesday in the southern White Nile state.

Head of the geological team Othman Abu Aqla said that the team received the fragments of the stone and tests found radioactive elements in the field in which the meteorite fragments fell.

He added that when they measured the radioactivity of the collected samples of the meteorites they turned out to be at normal levels.

Last Wednesday, the General Authority for Geological Research announced that "the unrecognized object fell in the White Nile and caused panic among the residents is most likely a meteorite."

Eyewitnesses told local media that an object the size of a small car fell from the sky on Wednesday morning.

The witnesses said that the fall of the meteorite was accompanied by a loud sound and a bright light in the skies of several regions in the state.
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Stargazers left baffled after 'red fireball' seen over Perth, Western Australia

June Ramli
Daily Mail
Sun, 25 Jun 2017 16:52 UTC
This is how the 'red fireball' looked like when it was sighted by several Perth residents
This is how the 'red fireball' looked like when it was sighted by several Perth residents
A 'red fireball' that lit up Australian skies has left locals baffled and debating the mystery object.

Several Perth residents reported the sighting on Saturday saying the fireball was seen streaking across the sky for five minutes.

One motorist driving on Karrinyup Road told 7 News Perth it was the craziest thing he had seen in a long time and believed the strange object was heading towards the ocean.

'Must have been a meteor... it went for approximately five minutes,' the unnamed witness said.

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Potential new meteor shower from Comet Borisov


SETI Institute
Tue, 20 Jun 2017 23:51 UTC
Meteor Shower
© Scott MacNeill
Peter Jenniskens and Esko Lyytinen report that the dust trail of 700-year comet Borisov, who just passed perihelion in 2014, will be in the Earth's path on 2017 July 29 at 00:22 UT. Earth will pass only 0.0006 AU inside the comet's orbit at a time when the comet has just passed perihelion, both favorable circumstances for detecting meteors. Observers in South Africa will have a chance to see a glimpse of this new 1-2 hour duration meteor shower.
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