Fireballs
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Camera

Meteor fireball photographed breaking apart over Leicestershire, 11 December 2014

David W Owen
Leicester Mercury
Sat, 13 Dec 2014 21:20 UTC
Image
© Sam Green
Sky watcher Sam Green thought he'd struck gold when he captured this incredible image of what looks like meteors speeding towards Earth.

The 27-year-old builder, from Countesthorpe, was doing a job for his boss in Kibworth when he spotted mysterious goings on high in the clear, blue sky.

He said: "Where we were is on a flight path and you often get planes and helicopters flying over from Leicester Airport, which are interesting to look at and my camera is never far away from me.

"There was this brilliant, clear blue sky on Thursday and it was about 2pm when I happened to look up and noticed these two peculiar objects with vapour trails.

"They were close together and looked like they were falling straight down.

"When I looked away and looked back they were gone. I thought 'that's strange'.

"But about half an hour later, I looked again and saw four of them, so I thought 'right, I'm going to take a picture' and grabbed my camera."

Comment: The astronomer is clueless about meteors. It's pretty clear to us that a larger object broke up. What's doubly interesting is that meteor(s) passed that way "half an hour earlier". We have noticed something similar happening before, where one meteor appeared to follow pretty much the exact same path not long afterwards.

It's mind-bending when one considers that the planet has surely moved on (both in space and on its own axis) by that point. So how does the 'follow-up meteor' know to track the same course as its predecessor? There is clearly much more to discover about meteor science. In the meantime, we face the disquieting fact that there have been a LOT more of meteors appearing the world over - even during daytime - in recent years.

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Comet

Did a 1 ton meteorite hit on December 1st? Explorer says one-tonne meteorite is lying on bottom of lake in Russia's Karelia


TASS
Sat, 13 Dec 2014 11:39 UTC
lake vygozero
© wikipediaDid a one ton meteorite hit lake Vygozero on December 1st 2014?
A meteorite weighing about one tonne is lying buried deep in sand on the bottom of Lake Vygozero in Russia's northwestern republic of Karelia, Vadim Chernobrov, the leader of a team of researchers, said on Friday.
"A celestial body flew from the easterly direction, from a low population area at about 08:00 a.m. Moscow time on December 1. This meteorite was making practically no noise while falling and the most loud sound it produced was the sound of it hitting the ice," Chernobrov, who heads the Kosmopoisk (Space Research) association, told journalists, adding that this was the reason that so few people had witnessed its fall when it was still dark. "Divers managed to sense the object under sand on the lake's bottom."
Magnetic field distortion has been registered over the meteorite crater. Divers failed to lift the heavy object from the bottom because of thin ice. "All observable factors - the flight direction, whop, specific crater testifying to the velocity of the fall - all indicate that it was a meteorite," he said. "It is a unique case having no precedents in the history."

Comment: Don't expect this event to be reported in the mainstream media. The powers that be are not interested in people knowing about 1 ton rocks falling on planet earth, especially as people might want their rulers to do something about it instead of waging pointless wars of destruction. Remember the 'Mandate of Heaven'!

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Fireball 5

Bright, exploding fireball streaks across the sky over Northeast U.S.

Angela Fritz
The Washington Post
Thu, 04 Dec 2014 09:37 UTC
Fireball
© NASA/Bill Cooke via AMSAn image of the fireball from one of NASA’s fireball monitoring cameras. Mike Hankey from the American Meteor Society has annotated the image to point out the location of the fireball.
A bright fireball lit up the Northeast sky on Wednesday night as it streaked over southern Canada and upstate New York.

The fireball occurred at around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The American Meteor Society estimates that the fireball began over Ontario County in northwest New York and traveled west-northwest over Canada before terminating southwest of Toronto.

"Many witnesses described an increasing intensity before it terminated," writes Mike Hankey of the American Meteor Society, "a common trait of bolide meteors." A bolide is a particularly bright meteor that explodes in a flash near the end of it's path.

Comment:



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Fireball 4

Two Near Earth Asteroids to whiz pass Earth this week

David Dickinson
Universe Today
Mon, 01 Dec 2014 19:04 UTC
NEA's
© The Virtual Telescope ProjectThe live webcast starts tonite!
It's a dangerous universe out there, for a budding young space-faring species.

Killer comets, planet sterilizing gamma ray bursts, and death rocks from above are all potential hazards that an adolescent civilization has to watch out for.

This week offers two close shaves, as newly discovered Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) 2014 WC201 and 2014 WX202 pass by the Earth-Moon system.

The passage of 2014 WC201 is coming right up tonight, as the 27-metre space rock passes about 570,000 kilometres from the Earth. That's 1.4 times farther than the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
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Meteor

Mysterious explosions and loud bangs heard all over UK: Listen to the recording and learn to recognize an overhead explosion

Dan Bloom and Stephanie Linning
Daily Mail, UK
Sun, 30 Nov 2014 16:21 UTC
Image
Last night, Britons from Aberdeen to Devon were left baffled by a series of mysterious explosions which shook windows and disturbed sleeping children.

Hundreds of Twitter users reported the sounds between around 9pm and 11pm last night, with many describing the noise as sounding like 'distant fireworks'.

But despite suggestions of RAF jets, meteors and aliens flooding the social media site today, no one has been able to explain what was heard. Even the MoD has said it is stumped.

Now a recording of the 'loud bangs', taken by a woman as she sat at home in Croydon, south London, might shed light on what is really behind the unexplained noise.


Some suggested that unusual weather conditions might be the source, but the Met Office today dismissed the claims.

Others on Twitter suggested that it could be traced back to controlled explosions or military exercises. Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists took to social media to claim that aliens were to blame.

Claudia Angiletta said that she was watching TV at home when the unexplained sounds started.

She told MailOnline: 'I was just at home watching TV when I couldn't hear the program due to the loud noises. It was very distracting as it went on for ages.

Comment: It's true that there can be several possible explanation to the mysterious booms, but considering the evidence and constantly increasing number of meteorite sightings, we dare to speculate that this case has something to do with it as well.



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Meteor

Hundreds report mystery 'explosion' in Manchester


BBC News
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 20:37 UTC
Image
A mysterious explosion heard across parts of Manchester and Salford remains unexplained.

Hundreds of people took to social media to describe hearing a "loud bang" at about 22:30 GMT on Monday.

Firefighters were called after a report in the Weaste area of Salford but later admitted they could find no evidence of a fire, or any other disturbance.

Shinydan Howell posted on Twitter: "Everyone in Manchester ok? Loud bang in Salford could be anything."

Comment: Yet another overhead explosion to add to the list. People really should start paying attention and learn how to read the signs. Because the reality doesn't paint a pretty picture.



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Fireball 4

Hundreds in Ireland see fireball 'brighter than the full moon'

Daragh Brophy
thejournal.ie
Sat, 22 Nov 2014 11:15 UTC
Image
Astronomy Ireland says its received hundreds of sighting reports since Tuesday night - when what was described as a 'giant fireball' was seen blazing across Ireland's skies.

From Cork and Dublin to Belfast and Donegal - the heavenly object was spotted pretty much everywhere.

TheJournal.ie also had quite a few reports on the subject - as did BBC Northern Ireland and a raft of other media outlets.

"Clearly seen falling right to left over the sea towards Drogheda from Balbriggan at around 5.40pm, like a falling star for about 3-4 seconds before it burned out," was how Dubliner Jim Whelan described it.

"My son saw it this evening. He thought it might have been a giant shooting star, a UFO, or molten lava (he's 9 which I think explains the variety of possibilities ;-). He's hugely excited now to think it may have been part of an asteroid."

Comment: This is just one of several that have been spotted this week. Still unexplained, is the 'event' that turned night into day in Urals, Russia.

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Fireball 3

Meteor with flame-like tail spotted over Atlanta, GA

Michael King
WXIATV - Atlanta
Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:57 UTC
leonid meteor
© en.wikipedia.orgLeonid meteor
More than a dozen reports were received Thursday evening by 11Alive News and by the American Meteor Society of a fireball over parts of metro Atlanta.

The reports began coming at about 9:30 p.m., with reports from the city of Atlanta, Alpharetta, Dalton, Johns Creek, Austell, Senoia, Lagrange, Loganville, Powder Springs, Villa Rica, and as far away as Macon.

Most of the reports described a flame-like tail on the meteor. No sound was heard from those reporting what they saw.

Astronomically, the Leonid meteor shower generally occurs every year between the 5th and the 30th of November, with a peak of November 15 to November 20. Meteors associated with this shower are generally tied to the passage of Comet Temple-Tuttle.
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Fireball

A bird, a plane or a meteor? 'Unidentified flying object' spotted off Charlottetown

Stephen Roberts
TheAurora.ca
Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:39 UTC
Image
© Blanche WardOn November 17, Blanche Ward of Charlottetown sighted an unidentified object flying slowly across the sky. She initially spotted two trails of smoke before identifying a small red dot with her camera.
When Blanche Ward of Charlottetown stepped outside her door on Monday afternoon, she spotted something unusual: there were two small trails of smoke slowly flying high across the sky.

Ward immediately rushed back into her house and grabbed her camera. When she zoomed in and took her shot, she saw a small red dot with the two lines of smoke trailing behind.

She says the object remained in the sky for one or two minutes before dropping below the horizon and out of view.
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Fireball 3

Enormous overhead meteor explosion? Strange glow in the sky turns night into day in the Urals, Russia


The Siberian Times
Tue, 18 Nov 2014 22:23 UTC
Image
© Vyacheslav BulatovA local observatory indicated nothing fell from the sky on the day of the flash.

Emergency services refuse to comment cause of extraordinary blast in the dark sky.

A huge flash lit up the early evening darkness, as shown by images taken from a dashcam on a road close to Yekaterinburg. The sky suddenly turns orange-red at 17.39 local time (though the dashcam records it as 18.39). For the next 11 seconds an orange light with yellow and white in the middle engulfs the entire sky.

'For a few moments night turned into dazzling day, then everything went dark again,' said one witness.

The explosion came on 14 November but images only appeared of it today; strangely no sound was picked up.

Theories for the explosion included a missile or an object from space. Yet it did not have the same shape or pattern as the Chelyabinsk meteorite which exploded over the Urals in February 2013.


Comment: This was probably another massive meteor fireball event. We suspect that a distinct fragmentation trail cannot be seen because there was very dense cloud coverage close to the ground, while the incoming object would have been very high up. The intense glow could be due to the same effects we saw over Recife, Brazil last month.

These seem to be plasma effects as incoming bodies interact with different charge layers of the atmosphere. Here's what NASA reported about Comet Siding-Spring's close brush with Mars last month:
"Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument detected major changes as dust from the comet slammed into atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere, high-energy collisions that caused the thin air to glow."
With this, the Recife event, and the 'Pacific lights' event the month before that, it looks like our atmosphere has reached a certain threshold of comet dust saturation.

Perhaps ancients' reports of 'the sky being on fire' are more literal than previously assumed?

Let the fireworks commence!

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