Fireballs
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Fireball 4

Bright green fireball streaks over Colorado skies

Brian Ries
Mashable
Wed, 11 Mar 2015 15:59 UTC
So it's true: The early bird gets the fireballs.
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© Nate Hershey via YouTubeNate Hershey, a Colorado software engineer, shared a video of the Colorado Meteor that he caught on his dash cam on March 11, 2015.
Coloradans who were up before the sun on Wednesday morning saw a "bright green" fireball soar across the sky before it burned out over the mountains.

More than 60 eyewitnesses filed sightings on the American Meteor Society's website.

Greg Moore, an analyst and contributor at Weather5280, told Mashable he was driving over the top of Vail pass, west of Denver, just before 6 a.m. local time when "a bright green fireball caught my eye."

The object had a "flaming tail with a long trail behind it," Moore said. "As it moved towards the far horizon it started to flame out, but even after the tail was gone a bright orange ball was still visible till it disappeared beyond the far mountain range."

"It was pretty incredible," he said.

Snapchat user Joel Jimenez sent Mashable video he caught from a Home Depot parking lot in Fort Collins.

Brian Paulson, a software engineer, caught the fireball on his car's dash cam while driving about 15 miles north of Pueblo, Colorado. A second man caught it on his dash cam from Denver.


Comment:

Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Meteor

Falling meteor may have sparked unexplained bush fires in New Zealand

Laurel Stowell
The New Zealand Herald
Tue, 10 Mar 2015 13:34 UTC
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© SuppliedThis bushfire at Tangahoe on the Whanganui River was reported on February 20
A falling meteor may have caused the spate of unexplained fires in Wanganui forest and bush.

Eight fires in sometimes very remote places have Department of Conservation staff investigating whether the meteor which flashed across the New Zealand sky on the evening of February 11 was to blame.

DoC Whanganui services manager George Taylor said in some cases trees were burned right down to stumps, which was unusual.

Fires at Parinui and Tangahoe were among those fought near the Whanganui River last month. The three latest fires, reported on March 3, were even more remote - one was 5km from the river and the other two were west at Matemateaonga.

Kelly O'Neill farms at Pipiriki and DoC have been using his property to land firefighting helicopters.

He talked to DoC staff there who were pretty convinced the falling meteor of February 11 caused at least some of the fires.

Mr O'Neill saw the meteor himself, around 10pm that night.

"It made a massive big flash in the sky - it was there for about a second, and headed over in that direction."

The meteor was a very bright type called a fireball, said David Britten, the astronomy educator at Auckland's Stardome.

It was probably the size of a football or two and travelling south to north across the country. It could have been debris from an asteroid, comet, moon or planet.

Comment:

Meteor: Shooting star plummets from New Zealand nightsky

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Fireball 3

'Intensely bright' daytime meteor fireball blazes over Perth, Australia - 9 March 2015


ABC, Australia
Mon, 09 Mar 2015 11:27 UTC
perth fireball
Raindrops keep falling on our heads, they keep falling...
Dozens of people in Perth and WA's South West have reported a bright light in the sky, believed to have been small meteor.

Callers flooded 720 ABC Perth's Morning program claiming to have seen the celestial event in locations ranging from Gidgegannup, on Perth's eastern outskirts, to Margaret River in the South West.

Talkback callers described seeing an intense white light flashing across the sky about 9:15am.

"I was just going over the Mount Henry Bridge [in Perth]... and there was this silver, sort of shooting thing that came down and just vaporised in a burst over the river," caller Gillian said.

Hilary was driving on the South West Highway near Binningup when she saw the object.

"A silver thing flashed at an angle - not like it was gravity, but going as though it was propelled into the ground," she said.

ABC gardening expert Sabrina Hahn said she thought someone had been letting off fireworks.

"It was a really, really intense bright light. It was incredible because it was such an intense light," she said.

Post by 9 News Perth.

Comment: The 'expert' doesn't know what he's talking about... this happened just two weeks ago:

Daytime meteor fireball blazes over Melbourne, Australia - 25 February 2015

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Fireball 5

'Fireball' in sky over Illinois creates buzz

Cory Davenport
The Telegraph, Illinois
Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:21 UTC
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Did little green men take a cruise in their spaceship over Alton? Probably not — but something strange in the sky caught the attention of several Telegraph readers Thursday evening.

According to Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society (AMS), reports of a fireball came from across the state Thursday evening.

"The sightings were clustered right around Chicago," Lunsford said. "We've only received a couple from the St. Louis area. We have 34 total sightings. St. Louis seems to be on the southwestern edge of our reports. It was apparently seen as far away as Ann Arbor, Michigan."

Lunsford added that similar sightings came from Texas and Louisiana around 2 a.m. Friday. He said the southern fireball had about half as many reports as the one over Illinois. Such bright fireballs are common in February, March and April, he added.

"This is the peak time for evening fireballs," he said. "I have no doubt that it was a meteor."

Lunsford said most of the reports claimed to have seen a large green fireball, but some were blue or yellow. According to Lunsford, the seemingly strange colors are actually quite common when a large chunk of space debris enters Earth's atmosphere.

"Entering the atmosphere excites the oxygen molecules and creates a sort of greenish glow," he said.

The AMS is still investigating the case, which includes looking for evidence that the meteor metamorphosed into a meteorite by hitting the surface of Earth.
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Comet 2

Space rock collision? USAF satellite explodes in Earth orbit

Jonathan O'Callaghan
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 02 Mar 2015 15:29 UTC
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A US Air Force satellite has exploded 500 miles above Earth's surface.
A 20-year-old US Air Force satellite has exploded in space, adding 43 pieces of space junk to Earth's orbit, reports have claimed.

The explosion happened on 3 February due to a sudden temperature spike, although the event has only just come to light.

However, talking to MailOnline, Nasa and Esa said the catastrophic event posed no significant risk to other satellites in Earth orbit.

Comment: Interestingly, on the same date a fireball was seen over the UK: Fireball meteor captured on camera over York, UK

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Fireball

Fireballs seen streaking over South Indian state of Kerala


On manorama
Sat, 28 Feb 2015 21:02 UTC
Image
The fireball that was spotted in Kerala skies
People all over the state were in the grip of panic as balls of fire streaked across the skies on Friday night. The fireballs were seen after 10 pm and in many places, mild tremors and thunder sounds accompanying the fire balls escalated apprehensions among the people.

While the phenomenon was first noticed in Ernakulam district, people from various parts of the state also reported seeing the phenomenon. Minister Adoor Prakash said that there was nothing to be concerned. Earthquake monitoring devices in six districts have not recorded anything unusual, said Ernakulam Collector M G Rajamanikyam. Other agencies such as ISRO and monitoring units of the Navy have also reported nothing unusual.


Most of the unofficial pictures that are doing the rounds are copies from websites and social media saw imaginations running riot with users even commenting that the sky was falling down in pieces. Many of these pictures were padded with background shots of Kochi to make them look authentic.

Comment: Fireball sightings along with asteroids are on rise. Mainstream narratives tend to normalize the phenomenon with explanations like space junk, ball lightening, seasonal meteor showers, 'one in a hundred years', etc. See SOTT world view for a list of fireballs documented by SOTT during the last year alone.



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Fireball 5

Mystery fireballs light up Kerala sky

Akhel Mathew
GulfNews.com
Fri, 27 Feb 2015 15:41 UTC
Fallen Fireball
© PTIForensic scientists collecting evidence from the spot after a fireball fell from sky at Karumaloor in Kochi on Saturday.
Thiruvananthapuram: Different parts of Kerala witnessed mysterious fireballs in the sky alongside sonic booms on Friday night, fuelling multiple theories about the reasons behind the phenomenon.

Early indications pointed to the likelihood it could even have been normal meteors brightening up the night sky. The phenomenon occurred on Friday around 10.30pm local time in the state. In some places in Ernakulam district, a few residents even alerted the police and fire and rescue personnel.

Social media, too, got into the act, with people posting their experiences of witnessing the aerial spectacle accompanied by a booming sound. Some of those who experienced it even mistook it for an earthquake. One person tweeted that a ball of fire had fallen over Kochi.

Some people in the state's commercial capital, Kochi said they felt mild tremors after witnessing a luminous object falling from the sky. Interestingly, the phenomenon seemed to be visible right to the southern end of the state. Sightings of the light in the sky were also reported from the northern districts of Malappuram, Palakkad and Kozhikode.

Some have speculated that the pieces that fell from the sky could be rocket debris that re-entered the earth's atmosphere. However, no special activity appears to have been spotted by the radars. Ernakulam district collector M.G. Rajamanickam said no clues had been received for any apparent earthquake.
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Fireball 5

Damage control? Fireballs seen over western U.S. were 'likely' Chinese rocket


abc7news.com
Wed, 25 Feb 2015 19:57 UTC
Image
Fireball
People from Arizona to Canada have reported seeing bright lights in the sky as a Chinese rocket burned up in the atmosphere.

Witnesses described the lights as a group of about three dozen fireballs moving slowly from south to north late Monday. Canadian photographer Neil Zeller says it looked like a cluster of fireballs followed by a long orange tail.

A NASA official told the Salt Lake Tribune the lights were a Chinese rocket booster that broke apart about 11 p.m. Mountain Time.

Calls to NASA from The Associated Press were directed to U.S. Strategic Command, who couldn't immediately confirm what it was.

Mike Hankey with the American Meteor Society says his organization got more than 150 reports of the event from nine Western states and Canada.

Source: AP
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Fireball 5

Daytime meteor fireball blazes over Melbourne, Australia - 25 February 2015

Tom Cowie
The Age
Wed, 25 Feb 2015 12:54 UTC

Lucky skywatchers who spotted a rare daylight meteor streaking across the Victorian sky might never see one again in their lifetime, said one astronomer.

Reports of the burst of flame across the blue sky started flooding through on social media at about 10.30am on Wednesday, with one describing it as a "fireball asteroid".

Astronomical Society of Victoria spokesman Perry Vlahos said he had heard reports of the sighting across the state, from Mildura to Wangaratta to Melbourne.

"It appears to have come in from the western sky burning with a bright orange colour and leaving a white trail behind it," he said.

Mr Vlahos said the soaring fireball was probably a space rock that has been pulled in by the Earth's gravity and burned up in the atmosphere.

The flaming rock did not hit the ground, he said, meaning it was a meteor as opposed to a meteorite.

Comment: "It is very rare that they saw it. I would say those that did wouldn't see another one in their lifetime." Really? These fireball / meteors are actually not so 'rare' these days! See here

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Fireball 3

Early morning fireball streaks across Pittsburgh, PA sky

Steve Novak
Lehighvalleylive.com
Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:01 UTC
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Anyone awake and looking skyward early Wednesday morning in the Pittsburgh area got a surprise.

A bright fireball was reported by more than 30 people and captured by NASA cameras, according to the American Meteor Society, which records such sightings.

The meteor was seen at 4:45 a.m. from parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York, according to a NASA blog.

The bright fireball was seen on NASA cameras and posted to YouTube by the meteor society. The video below comes from the Allegheny Observatory near Pittsburgh, the NASA blog says.

The Lehigh Valley area got a view of a bright meteor less than two months ago.

Anyone who sees a fireball can report it to the American Meteor Society on the nonprofit group's website.

Comment: Forget About Global Warming: We're One Step From Extinction!

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