Fireballs
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Comet 2

Unique 'ring comet' discovered by Hubble telescope


ESA/Hubble Space Telescope
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 23:47 UTC
Ring Like Comet
© ESA/Hubble
With the help of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a German-led group of astronomers have observed the intriguing characteristics of an unusual type of object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: two asteroids orbiting each other and exhibiting comet-like features, including a bright coma and a long tail. This is the first known binary asteroid also classified as a comet. The research is presented in a paper published in the journal Nature today.

In September 2016, just before the asteroid 288P made its closest approach to the Sun, it was close enough to Earth to allow astronomers a detailed look at it using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope [1].

The images of 288P, which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, revealed that it was actually not a single object, but two asteroids of almost the same mass and size, orbiting each other at a distance of about 100 kilometres. That discovery was in itself an important find; because they orbit each other, the masses of the objects in such systems can be measured.

But the observations also revealed ongoing activity in the binary system. "We detected strong indications of the sublimation of water ice due to the increased solar heating - similar to how the tail of a comet is created," explains Jessica Agarwal (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany), the team leader and main author of the research paper. This makes 288P the first known binary asteroid that is also classified as a main-belt comet.
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Fireball 4

Green meteor fireball spotted over Montgomery, Alabama

Andrew J. Yawn
Montgomery Advertiser
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 16:53 UTC
Green Meteor
© Andrew Yawn/Montgomery AdvertiserA home security system catches a glimpse of a piece of a comet that burned bright across the South Monday night.
Was it a dragon? A sign of the apocalypse? A warning shot from North Korea?

No, that bright, green fireball seen streaking over Montgomery early Tuesday morning was just your average piece of celestial space rock burning up in the atmosphere, according to Bill Cooke with the NASA Meteor Environment Office.

Cooke said the fireball was a fragment of a comet measuring about 5 to 6 inches in diameter. Igniting as it hurtled into the atmosphere about 54 miles above Highway 84 in Conecuh County, the fireball flew well over the speed limit at approximately 83,000 mph.

It was spotted by three NASA cameras located in Georgia and North Carolina at approximately 3 a.m., but perhaps the best footage was captured by one Montgomery resident's doorbell camera. Posted on Facebook Tuesday morning and shared with the Montgomery Advertiser, the video shows the comet briefly and brilliantly blazing by Alabama's capital, obviously late for something.
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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball fragments over Maryland and Pennsylvania

Mike Hankey
American Meteor Society
Sun, 17 Sep 2017 21:38 UTC
AMS Event #3210-2017
© AMSWitness Location and first estimated ground trajectory – AMS Event #3210-2017
The AMS has received over 125 reports so far about of a fireball event seen above Maryland and Pennsylvania on September 17th, 2017 around 00:59am EDT (04:59 Universal Time). The fireball was seen primarily from Maryland and Pennsylvania but was also seen from New York, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio and Massachusetts.

Eight witnesses near the Mason Dixon Line reported delayed boom sounds a few moments after the fall.

AMS Operations Manager Mike Hankey has been testing a new Raspberry PI based fireball camera system in his front yard for several months and this is certainly the best fireball video he has captured to date. The camera system is comprised of 6 cameras each pointing in a different direction. The light from the fireball was actually recorded on 5 of the 6 cameras. 2 cameras with slightly overlapping fields of view directly caught the meteor.

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Fireball

Very bright daytime meteor fireball explodes over Mauritius and Reunion Island


Sott.net
Sun, 17 Sep 2017 05:52 UTC
Meteor fireball explodes over Mauritius and Reunion
© YouTube/TéléPlus (screen capture)
A very bright meteor fireball exploded over Mauritius and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, September 14, 2017 around 18.00 pm local time.

A facebook report said, "I saw it was in Grand Bay. A meteor that enter Mauritius skies. A like a firework in full speed at about 6: 07 pm today." Some observers say the phenomenon was accompanied by a loud noise. After fragmenting the bolide left a smoky trail.

According to Thierry, a Reunion Island resident, "I saw a kind of ball passing in the sky, it lasted about 7 seconds, with a very straight trajectory ... It was multicolored in fact, it was a large ball of mauve color, blue , with a white, yellow streak." About four minutes after seeing this phenomenon, Thierry describes hearing an explosion before experiencing a tremor.

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Comet 2

Evidence suggest a collision and several close encounters with comets in the last 2000 years


Malaga Bay
Fri, 15 Sep 2017 01:06 UTC
Comet
© NASA
If you have long suspected the mainstream is being less than honest [or simply delusional] when they describe Comets as "dirty snowballs" or [more recently] "icy dirtballs" then you might be interested to discover Close Cometary Encounters are associated with sudden spikes in the level of Thorium 232.
Cometary nuclei are composed of an amalgamation of rock, dust, water ice, and frozen gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, and ammonia.

As such, they are popularly described as "dirty snowballs" after Fred Whipple's model.

However, some comets may have a higher dust content, leading them to be called "icy dirtballs".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet
Dangerous Close Cometary Encounters occur when:

a) Comets collide with the Earth.
b) Comets pass directly between the Earth and the Sun.

In the second case the alignment exposes the Earth to a potential Cometary Double-Tap whereby:

1) The "gas tail" of the Comet is delivered directly into the Earth's upper atmosphere.
2) The "dust tail" of the Comet side-swipes the Earth with a debris train.
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Fireball 2

Two bright meteor fireballs recorded over Spain on consecutive nights


Sott.net
Thu, 14 Sep 2017 05:52 UTC
Meteor fireball over Spain
© YouTube/Meteors (screen capture)
Two bright meteor fireballs were recorded over Spain on consecutive nights by the SMART Project framework.

The first meteor fireball was recorded on the night of 11 September 2017 at 1:26 local time (23:26 universal time on September 10) and began at a height of about 80 km and ended at an altitude of around 30 km. It was recorded by the SMART Project framework from the astronomical observatories of La Hita (Toledo, Spain), Sevilla and Huelva.

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Fireball 4

Meteor fireball shoots across the night sky in Iceland


Iceland Monitor
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 13:35 UTC
The earth-grazing fireball was observed in numerous places around Iceland and was prominent on social media.
© P. PszenieckaThe earth-grazing fireball was observed in numerous places around Iceland and was prominent on social media.
A strange light was visible in Iceland last night and lots of people posted photos and videos of it online, some speculating on what it could be. Astronomy experts confirm that it was a meteor.

"Did anyone see that meteor above Reykjavik," one Icelander writes on Twitter and another writes, "In the middle of an ocean of Northern Lights we saw a shooting star right near us, it seems. Like a huge rocket, flying fast across Mount Esja," wrote another. A tourist writes that the Northern Lights display last night was overshadowed by the meteor. "It was so cool."

On Stjörnufræðivefurinn, Iceland's leading astronomy website it states that the phenomenon was a meteor and that people had seen it all across Iceland. In the North, in Reykjavik and in South Iceland.

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Fireball 2

Meteor fireball streaks over St. Petersburg, Russia


RT
Tue, 12 Sep 2017 09:04 UTC
St Petersburg meteor fireball
© real.piter / Instagram
Residents of St. Petersburg and other cities in the vicinity were having an average, routine Monday night... except a meteor falling from the skies.

The city residents immediately took to social networks to share the videos of the burning meteor.


Comment: A few days ago an unidentified fireball was filmed over the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia.

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Fireball

Meteor shower stuns residents of Townsville, Australia

Andrew Backhouse
Townsville Bulletin
Mon, 11 Sep 2017 10:55 UTC
Meteor
© Townsville BulletinA meteor shower was seen in Townsville.
Dozens of people have reported seeing an impressive meteor shower over Townsville tonight.

The celestial event occurs when a number of meteors are seen to radiate from one point in the night sky.

Joe Martin saw the event from Bushland Beach at 7.06pm.

"I saw four or five lights that looked just like shooting stars or fireworks heading towards the ground,'' he said.

"Three of them got very bright, then I saw a flash. Then they were gone.
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Fireball

Huge, unidentified fireball filmed over Krasnodar, Russia


RT
Sat, 09 Sep 2017 17:55 UTC
fireball
A mysterious fireball has been filmed in the dark evening skies over the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia.

The burning object can be seen plummeting towards residential buildings.

The fireball, which crossed the region's skies from south to north, was witnessed by "thousands of people in Krasnodar," regional daily KP Kuban wrote.

People in other cities in the region, including Anapa and Sochi, also claim to have seen a "huge flash" in the skies around 9:40pm local time, according to the newspaper.

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