© Jan Curtis
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Taken by Jan Curtis on June 7, 2015 @ 11 miles S of Santa Fe, NM
Took while sleeping. Occurred at 1:23:36 AM MDT, looking east from just south of Santa Fe in the direction of the moon. Used Nikon d7000, iso 1000, 35mm Nikkor lens @ f/2.0 for 8sec. Note a few explosive bursts before terminating. Used PS 6.0 to increase contrast due to strong moonlight from RAW image. Estimate magnitude -5.
© Screen grab via YouTube
The cameras were situated in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo! Amazing!
The space rock was filmed by EXOSS cameras flying over three states at 05:20 am.
Such a triangulation is very rare and permitted to calculate precisely the route of the bright meteor:
The meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere at an angle of 25.5 degrees and at an altitude of 116.7 km. It disintegrated at an altitude of 79 km at a speed of 57 km/s after a flight of about 88 km in 1.5 seconds.
No reports of booms yet!
© endoftheamericandream.com
But of most immediate concern to lots of people out there are the various theories that are floating around about September. The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in a British news source just this week...
Internet bloggers and Armageddon conspiracists are predicting the "end of days" event to happen between September 22 to 28.These theories have become so popular that NASA decided to come out and publicly address them...
One blogger has worryingly suggested US residents retain their firearms after suggesting that the controversial military operation Jade Helm taking place between July and September in several southern states is in preparation for predicted anarchy that could ensue as the asteroid nears the planet.
Meanwhile, many fringe religious groups and Biblical theorists are claiming the predicted impact will herald the beginning of the Rapture - a seven-year tribulation period.
A NASA spokesman said: "NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with Earth, so the probability of a major collision is quite small.So NASA has spoken.
"In fact, as best as we can tell, no large object is likely to strike the Earth any time in the next several hundred years."
Residents near Launceston reported seeing a large, bright meteor travelling through the sky just before 5:00am. Lesley from Gravelly Beach told ABC Northern Tasmania she witnessed the bright display as she drove to Launceston's airport.
"It was so big and so close and I thought 'gee, this is going to land in someone's backyard'," she said.
"I've never seen anything as big as what this was before, and so bright - in the tail there were a couple of very bright spots."
Local astronomer Martin George said meteors occurred more often than people thought, but seeing a bright one was rare.
"The longer you spend looking at the night sky, the more likely you are to see meteors," he said.
"Typically you'll see about five or six every hour, but brighter meteors are few and far between."
He said with colder nights often leading to clearer skies, now was the best time to be on the lookout.
"We also have longer nights in the winter, which means there is plenty more opportunity to go out stargazing or meteor-gazing and, of course as always, you do see much more if you're away from those nasty city lights."
Fireball/Meteor lights up the skies above Almeria, Spain.
Breaking News - Almeria, Spain Fireball Meteor 2220 Local 01JUN2015 - Updates pending.
Breaking News - Almeria, Spain Fireball Meteor 2220 Local 01JUN2015 - Updates pending.
© Kevin Walsh/FlickrWollongong astronomer David Finlay says meteorites like this could have fallen in areas in north western Sydney following sightings of a fireball over the Illawarra and Sydney on Sunday evening.
If Sunday evening's striking pink sunset across the Illawarra wasn't enough, about an hour later there was another exciting event in the sky.
Wollongong astronomy enthusiast David Finlay says he's getting reports from people in Wollongong and Sydney who saw a bright meteor with a glowing orange head blazing through the sky, leaving a green tail behind.
"I've been told just before it got to the horizon, it exploded and fragmented," Mr Finlay says.
"That description of it exploding and breaking up is a key indicator that the object that created this meteor may have been big enough to leave meteorites on the ground.
"We can narrow down the search area and maybe notify people that live in the area there may be meteorites on the ground from this event."
David runs the Facebook page Australian Meteor Reports, where people can share their sightings.
Sunday evening's event prompted several people to jump on the page and report what they saw.
The MPEC 2015-K126 issued on May 28, 2015 announced the discovery of a new Amor-type asteroid officially designated 2015 KQ154. This asteroid (~ magnitude 16) was discovered by C. Jacques, E. Pimentel & J. Barros through a 0.28-m f/2.2 astrograph + CCD telescope of SONEAR Observatory (MPC code Y00), on images obtained on May 25.1, 2015.
According to the preliminay orbit, 2015 KQ154 is an Amor type asteroid. Amor asteroids are a group of Near-Earth objects with orbits similar to that of 1221 Amor (1.017 AU < q < 1.3 AU). They approach the orbit of Earth from beyond, but do not cross it. Most Amors do cross the orbit of Mars. Click on the image below to see the orbit types of the different groups of Near-Earth asteroids.
We performed some follow-up measurements of this object on 2015, May 28.4, remotely from the U69 MPC code (iTelescope network - Auberry California) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD. Here you can see an animation showing the fast movement of 2015 KQ154 on the the sky on May 28, 2015 (it was moving at 8.35 "/min). Each frame is a single 10-second exposure (East is up, North is to the right).
Congrats to SONEAR team for the discovery of 2015 KQ154, that is the thirteenth Near Earth Object discovered by their survey.
According to the preliminay orbit, 2015 KQ154 is an Amor type asteroid. Amor asteroids are a group of Near-Earth objects with orbits similar to that of 1221 Amor (1.017 AU < q < 1.3 AU). They approach the orbit of Earth from beyond, but do not cross it. Most Amors do cross the orbit of Mars. Click on the image below to see the orbit types of the different groups of Near-Earth asteroids.
© Remanzacco Observatory
Congrats to SONEAR team for the discovery of 2015 KQ154, that is the thirteenth Near Earth Object discovered by their survey.
© www.stuff.co.nzWhat was the unexplained bang heard in Auckland on Saturday night?
The banging was reportedly heard on Saturday around 11.30pm.
Police say they had no reports of anything that may have caused such an explosion, other than fireworks being let off.
The noise was heard in the Mt Albert, Mt Roskill and Three Kings area - as well as far away as Waterview to the west and Papakura to the south.
Resident Ash Ball said there was a massive explosion which woke up the neighbourhood. "It shook our house and woke us up with a hell of a fright."
But some residents are convinced something more untoward is going on.
One person tweeted that it sounded like a bomb exploding while another emailed to Stuff declaring it to have been a sonic boom.
In June last year, a series of mysterious "explosions" were reported across west and north Auckland leaving police mystified then as well.
Those explosions turned out to be Defence Force training exercises at the Kaipara Bomb Range.
Giant fireball disintegrates over Puerto Montt, Chile.
Most probably a giant fireball exploding and creating this amazing flash in the sky!
This explosion disintegration occurred during the night between monday and tuesday.
Pictures showing the sky suddenly being illuminated by a strange flash of light
"They hit, and then smaller ones hit in succession like, 'boom, boom, boom,'" Ryan said.
At first, Ryan thought maybe kids hiding in a treeline were pelting cars. But he noticed that the rocks appeared to have rained down from the clouds, as if they were meteors.
Laura Rinhart, a Loudoun County firefighter, said that the rocks likely were not from outer space and had instead come flying from a nearby rock quarry. Rinehart said that some rocks struck a home on Old Ox road and debris also hit the pavement near Oakgrove Rd.
A person who answered the phone at Loudoun Quarries on Thursday said he was not sure if the rocks came from their quarry, the only quarry in the area.
Some residents in the area heard a boom at around 10:30 a.m. that they thought sounded like thunder. Ryan said that stones then blasted car windows and damaged vehicles in a shopping center parking lot. He said he picked up some of the rocks and noticed that they had a burnt smell.
"One rock double the size of a softball was sitting on the sidewalk in front of a beauty salon," Ryan said. "If it had gone through there would have been lots of casualties."
Comment: In relation to the rock quarry, Old Ox Road is 3-5 miles West of the quarry, other locations reported are 2 miles or so East of the rock quarry. Why not rocks North, South, East and West? There isn't enough information to know for sure, but this seems fishy!
Comment: This story is a bit farfetched and reads like damage control. Here's another piece from USA Today with video of a rock coming from the sky. Would a controlled blast also create a burnt smell on the rocks?
The smell that is being given off by this meteorite is hard to describe. When I first smelt it, I tried to think of the proper words to describe the odor. I tried to think of things that had a similar smell:And...
"like hot metal, or like a cast-iron skillet that has over-heated, or like the metal filaments when you first turn on an electric heater.
Also, a lot like when you make sparks by striking two flint-rocks against each other.
Maybe a little like ozone, but with a more smoky, sulfurous aroma."
That's when the phrase "burnt gunpowder" came into my mind.
Source: Meteorite Times
Chelyabinsk. Meteor SmellsIt's more likely space rocks coming into our atmosphere and the government owned media does not want the people to know they are about to be bombarded back to the Stone Age. What slimeballs.
A group of four observers of the Leonid meteor shower of 1833 reported a peculiar odour, "like sulphur or onions."
It was thought that "This apparent transmission of smells at the speed of light could be explained if they were due to nitrous oxide or ozone produced by an electric discharge." (Ozone [O3] a gas. From the Greek, ozein, for smell). Observers of the Texas fireball of 1 October 1917 also reported the odour of sulphur and burning powder as it passed.
A possible explanation is suggested by the following Chelyabinsk observer reports.
Field survey reports of smells were concentrated in the area surrounding the fireball trajectory. After an initial strong burst, the smells continued for a few hours. The eastern edge of this area coincides with the eastern edge of the glass damaged area. Arkhangel'skoe is the most western village where smells were reported. It is situated near the western edge of the glass damaged area. Fourteen villages reported similar smells, with nearly all described as a sulphur smell, a burning smell, or a smell similar to that of gunpowder.
These smells may have originated from the decomposition of Troilite (FeS), an iron sulphide mineral named after Domenico Troili, who first noted it in a meteorite that fell at Albareto, Modena, Italy in 1766. Troilite is one of the main components of the Chelyabinsk meteorite. Some burning smells may also have been caused locally when the shockwave dispersed soot from flues and stoves.
Respondents in Emanzhelinka, immediately under the fireball trajectory, also reported an ozone smell, similar to the smell after a thunderstorm. Ozone, with nitrogen oxides as by products, may have been produced in the immediate surroundings of the fireball by Ultra-Violet (UV-B λ= 290-320 nm wavelength) radiation from the meteor. This reinforces reports about sunburn caused by UV radiation from the fireball.
Source: Engineering and Technology Wiki
Read Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction! and read our Comets and Catastrophe Series for more details.
Comment: From January 5th of this year:
SOTT Exclusive: Huge asteroid filmed breaking up into hundreds of meteor fireballs over Southern Brazil