Meteorite crashed in a small village in Brazil:

A suspected meteorite crashed in town Rubber, Vicenza district, North Forest in Pernambuco, and is worrying farmers in the region. The object had fallen from the sky on the evening of last Monday (23).Although seem unlikely, since Wednesday (25), and until the 25th of November, happens a meteor shower, known as Oriônidas in space. The phenomenon occurs when the Earth crosses the orbit of Halley's Comet, taken as the origin of rock fragment. Rain records a typical rate 20-25 meteors per hour - which can be seen on a dark night and clear skies. Inside, the resident who found the material not resist and kept the "burnt stone" of 1.2 pound home. The information was confirmed late on Thursday (26) by the Mayor of Vicenza, Paulo Tadeu. ...more
http://www.diariodepernambuco.com.br/app/noticia/vida-urbana/2013/09/26/interna_vidaurbana,464618/suposto-meteorito-cai-em-povoado-de-vicencia.shtml

Comet ISON is getting closer to making its close pass by the sun, but what would happen if it had a brush with our planet instead? New evidence shows it would be devastating.

International scientists have discovered the first ever evidence of a comet entering Earth's atmosphere and exploding. This celestial object rained down fire across the Earth, obliterating every life form in its path.

The team's discovery provides the first definitive proof of a comet striking Earth millions of years ago. It also helps to give scientists a peak into how comets help shape the solar system.

"Comets always visit our skies - they're these dirty snowballs of ice mixed with dust - but never before in history has material from a comet ever been found on Earth," Professor David Block, of Wits University, said in a statement.

More reports of meteor sightings on Friday night are coming in from Indiana. Nearly 700 people across six states already reported sightings of meteors Friday morning.

The American Meteor Society (AMS) said witnesses from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin reported a bright light moving across the morning sky.

An estimated trajectory computed from the witness reports shows the meteor was traveling from the west to east and ended somewhere over eastern Indiana.

For two days now, villagers and authorities in the west coast of Zamboanga remain baffled after a big ball of fire streaked from the southern skies at 5 a.m. on Wednesday, hitting the coastal water before exploding and illuminating nearby villages.

Senior Inspector Edilberto Alvarez, the police commander of Station 9, confirmed the mysterious phenomenon but could neither offer a clear explanation of the incident at Barangays La Paz and Talisayan.

Alvarez said a dull but loud explosion occurred later at the sea water fronting Barangay Talisayan.

"It was confusing because based on my own experience an improvised bomb if exploded would not create such bright and colorful light covering a massive area compared to that one... whatever it was," Alverez said.

The police official also dismissed the possibility that the ball of fire that exploded was man-made.

If it were not scientifically verified, it would be a great storyline for a sci-fi flick, but NASA says alien microbes are hitching rides on meteorites. Some experts are stating that debris from outer space will only be increasing in frequency as they impact Earth in the coming year.

A meteorite's size can range from small to extremely large. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, frictional, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gases cause the body to heat up and emit light, thus forming a fireball, also known as a meteor or shooting/falling star. They can range from extraterrestrial bodies that collide with Earth or an exceptionally bright, fireball-like meteor regardless of whether it ultimately impacts the surface.

NASA has launched a new website to share details of meteor explosion events as recorded by U.S. military sensors on secretive spacecraft, kicking off the project with new details of this past February's fireball over Chelyabinsk, Russia.

The new "Fireball and Bolide Reports" website, overseen by NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, debuted Friday (March 1) with its first entry: a table with a chronological data summary of the Russian meteor explosion of Feb. 15 gleaned from U.S. Government sensor data. Scientists are calling the event a "superbolide," taken from the term "bolide" typically used for fireballs created by meteors.

Part of the worldwide interest in meteors hitting Earth stems from what is now verifiable evidence that alien lifeforms are coming along for the ride.

In 2010, Duane P. Snyder announced the discovery of the first and only known Ice Meteorite containing Extraterrestrial Life-forms. The Ice Meteorite's particle analysis, its gas analysis, and likely origin including photos of the life-forms found in the melt-water of the meteorite where also exhibited. Dr. Albert Schnieders of Tascon USA Inc, commented that they basically found nearly all elements up to 90u in the sample spherical particles tested.

As a SOTT editor, I like to keep an eye on what's going on in the animal kingdom. The big news in recent years on that score has, of course, been the high number of mass animal deaths. But has anyone else noticed the extraordinary number of stories about snakes in the news lately? I first noticed a spate of snake stories at the beginning of the summer, and over the last couple of months snakes have been turning up in close proximity to people, and in some highly unusual settings, at an alarming rate. There have also been some particularly horrifying reports of attacks and resulting fatalities by escaped pet pythons - on both children and domesticated animals alike.

It seems appropriate that 2013, according to the Chinese zodiac tradition, is the Year of the Snake!

The following is a quick run-down of some incidents worth highlighting, starting in May, which initially show a slow build-up of such stories, leading fairly rapidly to 'spikes' in reports, some of which we've carried on SOTT.

September, 22 - 2013. Sunday, 8:30 pm. At Ichmul, Chikindzonot city, south of Yucatan peninsula - Merida's state, in a poor community where live some remnants of mayas, the fall of a fireball that came from the sky, scared and still is scaring the dwellers of the place.

The locals were waiting to see a show of small circus in the center of the community, when they suddenly, all saw an object in flames falling at high speed.

Moscow - A 15-meter (approximately 50 feet) asteroid, similar to the one that exploded above Russia in February, was detected hours before it nearly missed the Earth over the weekend, Russian scientists said.

Vladimir Lipunov of the Moscow State University and the Sternberg Astronomical Institute said on Sunday a network of telescopes operated by his team recorded a celestial body approaching the planet.

"[The asteroid] was discovered on Friday night by our station near Lake Baikal and nine hours later it flew within 11,300 kilometers of the Earth surface, below the orbit of geostationary satellites. It was about 15 meters in size," he said.

The scientists originally thought that it could be a man-made object, such as a spent rocket booster, but rejected the idea when they couldn't find a match in the space junk catalogue.

Lipunov said his team had notified the International Astronomical Union of their discovery, but it is yet to be confirmed.

A meteorite exploded on February 15 above the Urals city of Chelyabinsk. The meteorite weighed 10,000 tons prior to the explosion, according to expert estimates. About 1,500 people were injured in the blast, most of them by glass shattered by the shockwave.

Stamford, Connecticut - An explosion leveled a six-bedroom house on Tuesday, scattering debris hundreds of feet away, but nobody was inside and there were no serious injuries, authorities said.

The homeowner was outside near a pool house on the property in Stamford, about 35 miles northeast of New York City, at the time of the explosion, said the town's director of public safety, Ted Jankowski. The homeowner was alert and conscious when emergency crews arrived, and he was taken to a hospital for observation.

Next-door neighbor Charlene Heffernan said she heard the blast.

"I thought a plane hit my house," Heffernan told The Stamford Advocate. "I have never heard anything so loud. My house shook from the top down."

Mayor Michael Pavia said the cause of the blast was under investigation but authorities suspected gas was involved. He said a 500-gallon propane gas tank on site was under a controlled burn Tuesday afternoon.

Stony Ridge, Ohio - An explosion leveled a home in northwest Ohio Tuesday morning, killing two people, injuring three and scattering debris up to a quarter-mile.

Investigators were looking into whether a leaking liquid propane tank near the home's attached garage sparked the blast, said Troy Township Fire Chief Randy Woodruff.

The tank was toppled over, and Woodruff said it was too soon to pinpoint the cause of the explosion.

Neighbors said the explosion woke them up around 5 a.m. and they saw flames at the ranch-style home near the village of Stony Ridge, about 15 miles south of Toledo.

One man died after being taken to a hospital, and the body of a woman was found in the rubble about six hours after the explosion.

When emergency responders arrived, four people were found outside the house, the Wood County Sheriff's Office said. Five people - all of them adults - lived in the home. Neighbors said they were a man, his wife, their two sons and a fiance.

Names of the victims were not released.

The explosion flattened the home and scattered pieces of it throughout the yard and across farm fields. Piles of insulation, mattresses, window screens and a door littered the yard. All that was left standing was a basketball hoop along the driveway.