Fireballs
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Fireball 4

Meteor turns night into day over New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania


Buffalo -- While most of us were sleeping Tuesday morning, something bright streaked across the skies.

Now, NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office confirms the fireball that many Western New Yorkers reported seeing around 4:50 a.m. Tuesday morning.

Bill Cooke, the lead person at the Meteoroid Environments Office, says the meteor was seen over Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania.

Currently, the American Meteor Society shows on its website dozens of self-reported logs from people who submitted reports that they saw the meteor. Those are currently considered "pending" logs and have yet to be reviewed. At least two of them are from WNY including reports from Lockport and Cheektowaga.

Fireball 2

Incoming: Sonic booms heard and bright light seen across northern New Zealand skies due to meteor

meteor
An artist's rendition of a meteor entering earth's atmosphere.
Bright flashes and sonic booms in the night sky above the North Island are most likely a chunk of asteroid or a meteoroid bursting through the Earth's atmosphere and burning up.

Bright lights and explosions in the sky have been reported from Auckland to Nelson, and the Coromandel to New Plymouth, and even people in Christchurch and on the West Coast.

The event happened about 10pm. People reported that their doors rattled with the impact.

Descriptions of the light ranged from white and orange to green and blue.

The official twitter page for Auckland Civil Defence & Emergency Management said it was "definitely not lightning, most likely a #meteor".

Fireball 4

Meteor caught on Devon beach camera, UK

Dawlish Fireball
© The Telegraph, UK
Footage shows a glowing object - described as a meteor - streaking through the night sky before appearing to burn up or land in the sea in Devon.

The video was shot from a fixed camera at Dawlish Beach, Devon, UK early on Wednesday morning. The operator of the fixed camera later wrote online: "What was caught on camera the other night? Was it a bird or a plane, maybe even superman".

The video was caught by a camera that overlooks the Dawlish railway line - which was destroyed by storms one year ago this week.

Fireball 4

Fireball meteor captured on camera over York, UK

Fireball
© The York Press, UKFireball meteor captured on camera over York.
York residents watched in amazement as they saw a fireball fall from the skies this morning.

Bishopthorpe mum Chantelle Byford captured this photograph of what is presumed to be a meteor, at 7.43am.

She posted it on Facebook, in the York Past and Present Group, prompting an excited response.

Ice Cube

5 rescued after huge ice jam causes floods near Louisville, Nebraska

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@OPDABLE1

Known victims have been rescued, @OPDABLE1 is heading back for fuel & returning to recon for more victims.

8:20 AM - 27 Jan 2015
A one-mile long ice jam is moving down the Platte River in Nebraska has caused flooding near Two Rivers State Park, about 30 miles west of Omaha.

Authorities have rescued five people and pets from the floods and ice. Three of the victims are thought to have been in their vehicle when it became trapped in flood waters. Around 20 residents have evacuated the area.

The National Weather Service in Omaha said:
Ice jam flooding along the Platte River in southwestern Douglas, western Sarpy county, and eastern Saunders counties. Warning in effect.
They predict that jam will move towards the South Bend area, just west of Louisville.

Question

Loud explosion heard in Rankin and Hinds counties, Mississippi

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© WLBTLowe Street in Richland, where one resident said the explosion type noise was heard.
Saturday night many residents in Rankin and Hinds counties heard what they're describing as "an explosion".

We contacted officials and were told by the Richland Police Department that they received a lot of calls Saturday night inquiring about the loud explosion type noise. We were told officers searched several areas of the city and did not find what caused the loud sound.

A resident on Lowe Circle in Richland said she heard the noise between 9-9:30 p.m. Saturday night. The resident said the noise sounded like thunder.

We received several Facebook messages asking if we knew what the 'explosion' was. Some viewers said it shook their homes and from comments the noise, whatever it was, was heard from Richland, Brandon, Pearl, Florence, Jackson, and Star.

A viewer, who called into our newsroom, said her sister heard the sound and she lives in the Crossgates area of Brandon. The caller said her sister told her the noise sounded as loud as five or six transformers blowing.

Our news crew searched several locations in the city of Richland, but was unable to locate evidence of an explosion.

Fireball

Slow fireball filmed over Argentina

argentina fireball
A bystander has caught video of a mysterious floating fireball that appears to hang over the sky in Argentina. With no explanation available many are claiming it to be a UFO.

The video was actually taken at the beginning of January but has only just been uploaded onto the internet. According to UFO Sightings Daily, local residents in Frías spotted the fireball and at first believed it was nothing more than a meteor.

Of course meteors move at very high speeds when entering the Earth's atmosphere and so tend to appear and disappear in seconds.


Comment: Not necessarily. Some fireballs move uncharacteristically slowly. Apparently thousands of people observed this fireball ('genuine' UFOs are rarely observed by so many people simultaneously). See also:


Question

Overhead meteor? Mysterious explosion in Wellington, New Zealand

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© ThinkstockWhat happened in the Wellington suburb of Strathmore is unclear, according to police.
Was it a meteor? A gas cylinder? Or perhaps a bomb?

Nobody seems to know. But the one thing that is certain about the loud bang that shook the Wellington suburb of Strathmore last night is that it was not Superman.

What is widely being treated as an explosion in the eastern suburb about 9.30pm, is being put down by police as an unexplained mystery.

Ahuriri St resident Kevin Cree said a lot of police cars cordoned off the end of his road last night.

Armed Offenders Squad members and police dogs were also called but, by this morning, there was no clue about what caused the blast.

Fireball

Asteroid flying past Earth today has mini-moon!

2004 BL86
© NASA/JPL-CaltechThis animation, created from 20 individual radar images, clearly show the rough outline of 2004 BL86 and its newly-discovered moon. Click for larger animation.
Wonderful news! Asteroid 2004 BL86, which passed closest to Earth today at a distance of 750,000 miles (1.2 million km), has a companion moon. Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, have released the first radar images of the asteroid which show the tiny object in orbit about the main body.

While these are the first images of it, the "signature" of the satellite was seen in light curve data reported earlier by Joseph Pollock (Appalachian State University, North Carolina) and Petr Prave (Ondrejov Observatory, Czech Republic) according to Lance Bennerwho works with the radar team at Goldstone.

2004 BL86 measures about 1,100 feet (325 meters) across while its moon is approximately 230 feet (70 meters) across. The asteroid made its closest approach today (Jan. 26th) at 10:19 a.m. (CST), however it will peak in brightness this evening around 10 p.m. (4:00 UT) at magnitude +9.0. Unlike some flybys, 2004 BL86 will remain within a few tenths of a magnitude of peak brightness from 6 p.m. tonight (CST) through early tomorrow morning, so don't miss the chance to see it in your telescope.

Fireball 3

'Expert' explains fireball spotted near Houston, Texas


Webster - A strange fireball spotted flying slowly over the Houston area raised a lot of questions after images and videos started popping up on social media. They were posted by a Webster man named Jordan Sterling. Sterling is used to the view from his balcony but he rarely see's anything but signs and wires. "I'm always looking in the sky to try to catch something out of the ordinary," Sterling explained. Early Sunday evening that changed. "I look up in the sky and just right there in the sky," Sterling says pointing to the horizon, "is a huge fireball with a giant fire tail on it just streaking across the sky!" He grabbed his camera then rolled for three minutes as the object crawled across the horizon. "At first I thought it was a meteor but it was moving way too slow. Meteors usually go a lot faster."

Comment: Apparently this "expert" is unaware of the dramatic increase in fireballs.

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