Fireballs
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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball lights up the sky in Port Lincoln, South Australia; massive bangs heard

Elizabeth Henson
news.com.au
Fri, 27 Oct 2017 14:18 UTC
The fireball that travelled across the Eyre Peninsula on Thursday night.
© Desert Fireball Network, Curtin UniversityThe fireball that travelled across the Eyre Peninsula on Thursday night.
A meteor research centre has captured an image of a fireball that lit up the sky over the Eyre Peninsula and reportedly caused the ground and buildings to shake at Port Lincoln.

The bright blue meteor shot across the sky just after 11pm and was spotted by people as far away as Adelaide.

Port Lincoln resident Lila Watson was driving home when she saw what she initially thought was a shooting star.

"It just got bigger and bigger and it was just this big flash across the sky and there were sparks coming off it," she told The Advertiser.

"It just lit the sky up and I saw it go southeast.

"I pulled up home and I heard two massive bangs, maybe a second apart, and then the sky lit up again."

"It definitely shook the ground - I just felt the whole earth shake twice."
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Fireball 2

Meteorite slams into businessman's roof in Paarl, South Africa

Marvin Charles
IOL
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 09:26 UTC
There is apparently a one in four billion chance of a meteorite hitting a building, but it happened to business owner Fagrie Allie
© Henk KrugerThere is apparently a one in four billion chance of a meteorite hitting a building, but it happened to business owner Fagrie Allie
He heard a loud thump and thought it was an intruder trying to steal from his furniture shop. Never in his wildest dreams did he think the "intruder" was from a galaxy far away.

Fagrie Allie, who owns a furniture store in Paarl, was closing his shop when "I heard a loud thump along with a shattering sound and at first I thought It was an intruder but I saw the store was empty and I thought maybe one of the pieces of furniture had fallen over but I saw nothing".

He then saw dust particles coming from the ceiling but didn't take note at first.

"It bothered me because it was a really loud bang. I got into the ceiling and when I looked up at the roof sheets I saw a hole in the roof sheet itself. I came back down and found small pieces of rock lying on the floor," Allie said.
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Comet 2

First-known interstellar comet spotted by astronomers

Kelly Beatty
Sky & Telescope
Wed, 25 Oct 2017 20:53 UTC
Telescopes only picked it up a week ago, but it's likely been traveling through interstellar space for millions of years.
Comet PanSTARRS (C/2017 U1)
© NASA/JPL/HorizonsComet PanSTARRS (C/2017 U1) raced within about 0.25 astronomical unit of the Sun in early September and is now relatively close to Earth. Based on its extreme orbit, astronomers believe it arrived here from interstellar space.
For centuries, skywatchers have chronicled the comings and goings of thousands of comets. Every one of them has come from someplace in our own solar system, either the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune or the much more distant Oort Cloud at the fringes of the Sun's realm.

But an object swept up just a week ago by observers using the PanSTARRS 1 telescope atop Haleakala on Maui has an extreme orbit - it's on a hyperbolic trajectory that doesn't appear to be bound to the Sun. Preliminary findings, published earlier today by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC), suggest that we are witnessing a comet that escaped from another star.

"If further observations confirm the unusual nature of this orbit," notes Gareth Williams, the MPC's associate director, "this object may be the first clear case of an interstellar comet."
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Fireball 4

Unidentified object, possibly a meteorite, crashes down near St. John's, Canada

Ryan Cooke
CBC News Canada
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 21:46 UTC
Meteorite
© CBC News CanadaA security camera on the waterfront in St. John's captured this shot of a light falling from the sky near the South Side Hills, across the harbour.
Andrew Wilkins was eating dinner at a downtown St. John's pub, looking out over the city's iconic harbour, when a flash of green light caught his attention.

"The whole sky just lit up," he said. "It was coming in on a 45 degree angle, coming down to the right."

Wilkins stopped eating and stared as the moving ball of light crashed down on the opposite side of the harbour, towards the largely uninhabited Southside Hills area.

He paused to determine if he could hear a crash, but the noisy chatter of the busy pub prevented him from hearing any sound the flash of light may have made.

"It was like a big green ball of fire, is what it looked like. At first I thought, 'Wow, geez, that's a really bright firework,' but fireworks don't shoot downwards."
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Fireball 4

Bright meteor fireball explodes over southeastern Poland


Sott.net
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 20:02 UTC
meteor fireball over Poland
A bright meteor fireball exploded over southeastern Poland on 16th October just before midnight. The phenomenon was captured by stations of the Polish Fireball Network (PFN) reported wmeritum.pl.

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Fireball

The mystery boom that shook northeast British Columbia was probably a fireball says astronomer


CBC News
Fri, 20 Oct 2017 07:00 UTC
Meteor from Perseid shower
© Ognen Teofilovski/ReutersA meteor streaks across the sky during the Perseid meteor shower at a windmill farm near Bogdanci, south of Skopje, in the early morning August 13, 2014. Astronomer Ken Tapping said it's rare to have advance warnings of meteors entering specific regions.
The source of a loud bang followed by shaking in northeast B.C., that caused confusion for residents, was likely a meteor shooting through the sky, says a B.C. astronomer.

"It's entirely consistent with it being a large fireball," said Ken Tapping, a National Research Council of Canada astronomer.

Residents who experienced the event said it sounded like the object was just outside their homes.

"It was like when a shotgun goes off and you're right beside it," said Donna Taylor of Charlie Lake, a small community northwest of Fort St. John, who was in her home when she heard the noise around 11 pm Wednesday night.

"I thought somebody threw something against my place or ran into it, because all the windows shook."

Jessica Krupp was in bed when the noise woke her up. "It sounded like a fuse blew or something electrical kind of snapped or crackled," she said. "Like an explosion almost.I thought a truck blew up or something."
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Fireball 2

Daytime meteor fireball seen over Connecticut and adjacent states

Jim Shay
Connecticut Post
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:32 UTC
sightings
© American Meteor Society Map
A bright daytime fireball was seen over the skies of Connecticut on Wednesday afternoon.

The American Meteor Society says the likely path of the meteor was southeast of Long Island over the Atlantic Ocean.

"The AMS has received over 130 reports so far about of a daytime fireball event seen above New York State on October 18, 2017 around 3 p.m.," it said.

"The fireball was seen primarily from New York and New Jersey, but was also seen from Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Hampshire."

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Fireball

Meteor explosion brightens southern Sri Lanka's skies

Chaturanga Pradeep
Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 05:14 UTC
Meteor
© Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka
Colombo University Physical Science Department Prof. Chandana Jayaratne confirmed that the bright light and sound which was heard from the Southern Province (SP) this evening was because of an explosion caused by a meteor.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror he said the explosion was known as a 'fireball explosion' and occurs after an asteroid enters the earth's atmosphere.

"The asteroid could be a size of 50 centimetres. Every asteroid enters the earth's photosphere at a speed of 65 kilometers per second. With that speed one side of the asteroid gets heated up due to friction and the other side does not, therefore causing an explosion," Prof Jayaratne said.
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Fireball 5

Man videos 'meteorite strike' in Cairns, Australia; loud explosion heard

Chris Calcino
The Cairns Post
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 12:14 UTC
Video taken by a local resident at the site shows a large area of burnt trees and a deep hole in the ground (pictured)
Video taken by a local resident at the site shows a large area of burnt trees and a deep hole in the ground (pictured)
The city's "big bang" mystery continues to deepen with residents split on whether it was caused by a meteorite, gas bottle explosion, electrical transformer failure or sonic boom.

Beginning with the latter theory, a single FA-18 Hornet was heard flying loudly over Cairns on Sunday night, with a Department of Defence spokesman confirming it landed at Cairns Airport while carrying out a training exercise from RAAF Base Townsville.

But no jets were operating late on Saturday night when a god-almighty "explosion" was heard across the city.

As for the gas bottle theory — the most popular on social media — emergency services had no report of any such activity despite speculation it was the product of juvenile delinquents running rampant at Jensen St in Manoora.

The Cairns Post was called by an anonymous man trying to sell CCTV footage he swore showed a jolt of light shooting up a power pole and causing the ensuing aftershock.

Ergon Energy had no record of any issues.

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Comet 2

Comet 01-ASAS-SN brightens unexpectedly

Signe Dean
Science Alert
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 17:10 UTC
C/2017 O1 ASAS-SN
© ASAS-SN/Twitter
There are countless chunks of icy debris swirling around the Oort cloud on the outskirts of the Solar System. But it's always exciting when one of those comes in our direction for a rare flyby.

In July, astronomers discovered a brand new comet zooming through the inner regions of our space bubble. Since that time it's been steadily getting brighter, and now is about the best time to finally catch a glimpse of it in the night sky.

The comet C/2017 O1 ASAS-SN was first detected on 19 July by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, the same system that brought us new discoveries about the mysterious Tabby's star, massive space explosions, and stars shredded by black holes.

Now, for the first time, the survey has discovered a comet which Northern Hemisphere stargazers can readily spot in the sky with the help of a backyard telescope or even just binoculars.

Comet O1 ASAS-SN is a long-period comet, and it probably takes at least several thousand years to cruise around the Sun and come back - so being able to spot it right now is a wonderful treat.
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