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Numerous sightings of bright lights in the skies across Southern California may be the result of the South Taurids meteor showers.
These meteors are generally the most visible in the first half of November.
You can expect to see two to 10 meteors an hour, regardless of your location, according to the American Meteor Society.
Southern Taurid meteors are considered to be rather slow, but they make up for it by being exceptionally bright.
© NASA/MSFC/Bill CookeThis map shows the meteor's path across middle Alabama on Nov. 10, 2013.
"It was picked up at an altitude of 55 miles moving east of south at 51,000 miles per hour," Dr. Bill Cooke, director of NASA's Meteoroid Environments Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, said today in an email. "It burned up at an altitude of 27 miles just south of Anniston."
Based on the "light curve" created by the fragment's passing, Cooke said it was "about 2.5 inches across and weighed about 5 ounces. It was six times brighter than Venus at its peak."
© Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group/KGO PhotoA bright meteor lit up the Bay Area sky for a third night in a row.
Bay Area News Group photographer Ray Chavez snapped pictures of it from San Lorenzo and then tweeted them.
This is the third night in a row that large meteors have been spotted. Right now we are in the midst of the South Taurids meteor shower. It peaked last month, but can still produce stunning shooting stars.
Residents on the southwest side of Oklahoma City are trying to figure out what made a loud, roaring noise early Friday morning that interrupted their sleep for hours.
From about midnight to 2 a.m., News 9 received dozens of emails, phone calls and Facebook posts about the noise. People said it rattled windows and shook their homes.
From about midnight to 2 a.m., News 9 received dozens of emails, phone calls and Facebook posts about the noise. People said it rattled windows and shook their homes.
Two surprisingly large Near-Earth Asteroids have been discovered in just the last week or so, as well as a third moderately large asteroid which surprisingly has also gone undetected until now, even though it can pass close enough to the Earth to be classified as "potentially hazardous".
Not since 1983 has any near-Earth asteroid been found as large as the approximately 20-kilometer (12-mile) size of the two new large ones. In fact, there are only three other known near-Earth asteroids that are of comparable size or larger than the two new large ones.
It is important to note that none of these three new large near-Earth asteroids can come close enough to the Earth to represent a near-term threat to our planet.
The first of the new large near-Earth asteroid discoveries is named 2013 UQ4, and it is perhaps the most unusual. This approximately 19-kilometer (12-mile) wide object was spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 23 when the asteroid was 435 million kilometers (270 million miles) away from Earth. Not only is this object unusually large, it follows a very unusual highly inclined, retrograde orbit about the Sun, which means it travels around the Sun in the opposite direction of all the planets and the vast majority of asteroids.
Not since 1983 has any near-Earth asteroid been found as large as the approximately 20-kilometer (12-mile) size of the two new large ones. In fact, there are only three other known near-Earth asteroids that are of comparable size or larger than the two new large ones.
© NASA/JPL-CaltechThe orbits of 2013 UQ4, 2013 US10 and 2013 UP8 are shown in a view looking down on the plane of the solar system. While 2013 US10 and 2013 UP8 orbit the sun in a counter clockwise direction (so called "direct" orbits like all the planets and most asteroids), 2013 UQ4 orbits in a clockwise (retrograde) direction.
The first of the new large near-Earth asteroid discoveries is named 2013 UQ4, and it is perhaps the most unusual. This approximately 19-kilometer (12-mile) wide object was spotted by the Catalina Sky Survey on Oct. 23 when the asteroid was 435 million kilometers (270 million miles) away from Earth. Not only is this object unusually large, it follows a very unusual highly inclined, retrograde orbit about the Sun, which means it travels around the Sun in the opposite direction of all the planets and the vast majority of asteroids.
Californians from Fresno to San Diego reported seeing a crazy-looking fireball streak across the sky this evening around 8 p.m. There were a lot of fake photos being passed around, but CBS Los Angeles found some security footage that captured the fireball:
So what's going on here? It's likely a part of a meteor shower going on that has a reputation for putting on quite a show around Halloween every year. Every year in late October and early November, the earth passes through the dust of a comet named Comet Encke. One astronomy website described the shower this way: "Although a modest shower, the Taurids can surprise you with a flamboyant fireball or two!" A meteorologist with the National Weather Service told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that's likely what us Southern Californians saw tonight.
Comment: Regardless of whether it was a stray meteor from the Taurids meteor shower or not, something is afoot out there. Fireball sightings are becoming the norm instead of the odd occurrence all around the BBM. Comets and The Horns of Moses
So what's going on here? It's likely a part of a meteor shower going on that has a reputation for putting on quite a show around Halloween every year. Every year in late October and early November, the earth passes through the dust of a comet named Comet Encke. One astronomy website described the shower this way: "Although a modest shower, the Taurids can surprise you with a flamboyant fireball or two!" A meteorologist with the National Weather Service told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that's likely what us Southern Californians saw tonight.
Comment: Regardless of whether it was a stray meteor from the Taurids meteor shower or not, something is afoot out there. Fireball sightings are becoming the norm instead of the odd occurrence all around the BBM. Comets and The Horns of Moses
At its most intense, meteor fireball glowed 30 times brighter than the sun causing skin and retinal burns, say researchers
Scientists have published the most complete picture yet of the devastation caused by the meteor that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia this year.
The 20-metre-wide space rock hurtled into the skies over the city in February and began to tear apart at an altitude of 28 miles. Travelling at a speed of 12 miles per second, the rock exploded with the energy of around 500 kilotonnes of TNT, researchers found.
Directly beneath the meteor's path, the shockwave was powerful enough to knock people off their feet. Windows were shattered in more than 3,600 apartment blocks, and a factory roof collapsed.
In the local library in Yemanzhelinsk, 30 miles away, a statue of Pushkin cracked when it was struck by a blown-out window frame. At least 1,210 people were treated for injuries, most from falling building debris and flying glass.
© Marat Ahmetvaleev
The 20-metre-wide space rock hurtled into the skies over the city in February and began to tear apart at an altitude of 28 miles. Travelling at a speed of 12 miles per second, the rock exploded with the energy of around 500 kilotonnes of TNT, researchers found.
Directly beneath the meteor's path, the shockwave was powerful enough to knock people off their feet. Windows were shattered in more than 3,600 apartment blocks, and a factory roof collapsed.
In the local library in Yemanzhelinsk, 30 miles away, a statue of Pushkin cracked when it was struck by a blown-out window frame. At least 1,210 people were treated for injuries, most from falling building debris and flying glass.
The U.S. Geological Survey assigned the tremor that occurred about 12:35 p.m. near Countryside a preliminary magnitude of 3.7. Soon after, they downgraded the tremor to 3.2 and said it wasn't an earthquake, but likely was caused by work at a nearby quarry.
"Based on what they've looked at, we're pretty sure it's from a blast," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the Survey. "It is not an earthquake."
The website Did You Feel It?, which is operated by the agency, reported that by midafternoon more than 700 people had contacted the site to say they had, indeed, felt it. Police departments in Hinsdale, Elmhurst and elsewhere said residents called to report the tremor.
This car driver was lucky to have is camera on... He indeed recorded a long fireball traveling across the sky over Japan.
This great meteor record was caught on Oct. 30, 2013 near Yokohama, in Japan. The following picture was shot from Asahi Village in the Nagano Prefecture.
This great meteor record was caught on Oct. 30, 2013 near Yokohama, in Japan. The following picture was shot from Asahi Village in the Nagano Prefecture.
© http://sonotaco.jp/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3116&sid=82158aeeb5e267abbce200972516d5fcFireball seen across Japan – October 30 2013
© AD OrionBolide entering the atmosphere photographed from Sarajevo
The cameras of Bosnia and Hercegovina Meteorite Network run by Orion Astronomic Society and Hydrometeorological Institute in Sarajevo, located in Sarajevo, Gradačac and Pelješac, registered bolide incursion with above -9 magnitude equal to the Moon glow in the first quarter.
This is the brightest meteorite event every since the Meteorite Network commenced with its experimental activities in tracking the sky activity.
The fireball plummeted at 20 km/s speed and exploded/extinguished at about 30 km from the ground.
