Fireballs
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Meteorites found from September British Columbia, Alberta fireball

Scott Sutherland
The Weather Network
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 13:39 UTC
Meteorites recovered from the Kootenay region, near Crawford Bay, B.C., from the bright fireball seen on September 4, 2017
© Colin Hall/CBCMeteorites recovered from the Kootenay region, near Crawford Bay, B.C., from the bright fireball seen on September 4, 2017
When cameras captured a bright meteor fireball streak across the sky over B.C. and Alberta back in September, it sparked a search for fragments of the space rock that caused it, and this search appears to have paid off!

As often as meteors streak across the night sky, and even how many times we see bright fireball meteors, it's a rare thing to actually find pieces of the meteoroid that produced the flash of light.

According to meteorite hunter Geoff Notkin, searching for meteorites after a fall was an exhausting task, involving travelling all over the area where the fireball was seen, interviewing witnesses, and compiling a trajectory for the meteoroid as it plowed through the atmosphere. Starting in 2009, this became much easier, as scientists began to explore the use of Doppler radar in picking up these objects, to determine where they fell.

Comment: See also: Large meteor fireball lights up night sky over British Columbia, Canada

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Meteor fireball observed over California, Arizona and Nevada


Sott.net
Fri, 10 Nov 2017 06:59 UTC
California meteor fireball map
© American Meteor Society (screen capture)
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received 17 reports (event 4157-2017) about a meteor fireball seen over California, Arizona and Nevada on Wednesday, November 8th 2017 around 09:22 UT.


Comment: Another bright meteor fireball lit up the skies over Utah earlier today. Wayne Frunein, who captured the celestial event on his home door camera said, "Suddenly got really bright and then we saw a streak across the sky. It was bright white at first and then it burst into many colors. It was really beautiful. It was spectacular."

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Bright meteor fireball explodes over northern Germany


Sott.net
Wed, 08 Nov 2017 16:49 UTC
Meteor fireball over Germany
© YouTube/AMS (screen capture)
The American Meteor Society (AMS) has received 23 reports of a bright meteor fireball exploding over northern Germany around 20:56 UT on November 6, 2017. The event (#4145-2017) was also observed from the neighbouring countries of Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and France.


Comment: Readers interested in the changing near-space environment might enjoy our research into increased asteroid and fireball activity - including its causes, effects, and role in human history - in Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection (you can also read a review of the book here).

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Fireball 2

Several reports of meteor fireball in sky over California, seen from Lake Tahoe


South Tahoe Now.com
Mon, 06 Nov 2017 17:50 UTC
meteor
File image
People from Fresno to Santa Rosa, California reported seeing a fireball across the sky Sunday evening around 5:24 p.m.

The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 19 reports from observers who said "the light got bigger before it burst, leaving a trail of smaller balls before disappearing," "it was a white streak followed by a few tiny fragments. Ended in the main fireball turning to a green color," and "it was flickering and sparkly, like a roman candle being shot across the sky."

South Shore resident Greg Felton said he was headed west on Highway 50 when he saw the bright ball across the sky towards Pyramid Peak.

South Tahoe Now contacted the University of California, Berkeley Astronomy Department, Beale AFB in Marysville and the National Weather Service in Reno before tracking down information on AMS.

Comment: View our dedicated topic pages concerning meteor fireball reports here.

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Fireball

Meteor fireball caught on CCTV footage over South African city

Nic Andersen
The South African
Mon, 06 Nov 2017 17:33 UTC
Meteor over SA
© YouTube/Roodepoort Record
A meteor in full flight is a spectacular sight that most of us don't get to see in person up close. Where real life fails, technology and social media have stepped in to make sure we don't miss a thing.

The Roodepoort Record reports that a local resident and his wife made an interesting discovery while reviewing their CCTV footage. The man wanted to assist his neighbour in Vuurlelie Street after their dog was poisoned, so he thought he would take a look at the footage.

While they might not have found information about the dog, they did discover a meteor shooting through the sky around 9PM on Sunday.

While it only lasted a few seconds, the sheer brightness and apparent proximity of the object should be enough to satisfy your curiosity.

You can see the video of the event below.
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Fireball

4 ways NASA plans to save us from Earth-bound asteroids


RT
Sat, 04 Nov 2017 18:44 UTC
Divert, intercept, destroy: 4 ways NASA plans to save us from Earth-bound asteroids
© NASAAn Earth-bound asteroid would need to be spotted decades in advance if scientists are to have a chance of stopping a disaster.
Hollywood movies have long dramatised the threat of Earth being wiped out in by an asteroid discovered at the 11th hour, only for disaster to be averted by all-American heroes such as Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck or a gristly Robert Duvall.

As NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office uses the asteroid "2012 TC4" to test its ability to respond to the existential threat posed by Near Earth Objects (NEOs), we look at four methods the international community hopes could one day help us avoid going the way of the dinosaurs.
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Meteor

Bright flash, mysterious boom caught on home surveillance camera in New Jersey

Alexis Tarrazi
Patch
Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:56 UTC
Flash, mystery boom in NJ
© YouTube/Alex Tarrazi
A home video captured a bright flash followed by a loud boom heard across the township Wednesday night. What do you think it was?

A Bridgewater resident's home video surveillance captured a bright flash followed by a loud boom heard across the township Wednesday night.

The video was taken from a home on Poplar Street in the Bradley Gardens section of the township by Philip Vicari.

"Take notice to the flash of light," Vicari told Patch. "That wasn't my camera and my flood light was off."


Comment: According to Meteorites Australia, sounds associated with meteorite falls (as reported by observers) can include crackling sounds like gunshots and cannon-like explosions.

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Comet 2

Newly discovered Comet Heinze (C/2017 T1) to zip past Earth in January

Bob King
Sky and Telescope
Wed, 01 Nov 2017 17:32 UTC
Just discovered, Comet Heinze (C/2017 T) will zoom by Earth in January and may just show up in your binoculars.

Comet Heinze (C/2017 T1)
© Mike OlasonComet Heinze (C/2017 T1) was only a tiny, 17th-magnitude patch of fuzz with a short, fan-shaped tail on October 22nd.
Ah, 2017. A year busy with binocular-bright comets has been on the quiet side lately. But the recent discovery of Comet Heinze (C/2017 T1) by the University of Hawaiʻi's Ari Heinze gives comet watchers hope for a bright and fuzzy start to the new year.

Heinze searches for near-Earth asteroids with the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) project, and came across the comet in images taken on October 2nd. The survey uses two telescopes, one at Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawaiʻi Island, and a second on the summit of Haleakala on Maui, about 100 miles to the northwest. Among other benefits, two widely-spaced "eyes" allow for distance determination using parallax, which also helps in calculating a new object's orbit.
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Fireball 5

Earth-grazing meteor fireball with radio reflections caught over New Mexico

Vincent Perlerin
American Meteor Society
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 16:17 UTC
Earth-grazing meteor over New Mexico
© AMSEarthgrazer Fireball with Radio Reflections – Oct 25 2017 – New Mexico Thomas Ashcraft (Radio – Channel A 76.309 MHz CW – Channel B 54.309 MHz CW).
On October 25th 3:42am MDT (09:42 UT), amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft caught an Earth-grazer Fireball over his personal observatory "Heliotown" in Lamy, New Mexico. Earth-grazing fireballs are bright meteors that enter Earth's atmosphere at a very shallow angle and skim along the top of the atmosphere. Some actually re-enter space.

Ashcraft combines all-sky video camera observations with a forward-scatter radar array that is tuned to the plasma and ionization produced by meteors (Channel A 76.309 MHz CW - Channel B 54.309 MHz CW).

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Camera

Two photographers,100 miles apart, capture same bright meteor fireball as it flies over Arizona

Deborah Byrd
EarthSky
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 17:56 UTC
Fireball over Gold Canyon, AZ
© Joanne WestTaurid fireball over Gold Canyon, AZ
As the Orionids were peaking this past weekend, at least two members of the EarthSky community caught bright meteors in the long-lasting Taurid shower. The two meteor photos on this page appear to show the same bright meteor, although these photographers were separated by about 100 miles. Joanne West, whose image is above, said she caught her fireball at 10:27 p.m. on October 21 and wrote:
Had camera aimed at eastern sky in dark desert area near Superstition Mountains in Gold Canyon. I had been making 20-second exposures continually for about 30 minutes. Grace was with me as my camera shutter happened to be open when this fireball came out of the sky from the Taurus constellation.

Nikon D750, 20mm Nikon lens. Processed the raw file to adjust the foreground brightness and darken the highlights of the meteor.
Thanks, Joanne! Meanwhile, some 100 miles (about 150 km) to the south, Eliot Herman in Tucson, Arizona also caught a bright Taurid fireball at 10:27 p.m. on the evening of October 21 ...
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