Fireballs
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House

'It was loud!' Mysterious boom, shock wave rattles homes in central Oklahoma

Mystery boom in central Oklahoma
© KFOR
Some people in the S.E. metro reported a large "boom" along with a shock wave Monday evening.

"Well, inside the house it sounded like maybe an M80 going off or dynamite. It was loud," said John Smith. "Vibrations. Big boom. First the big boom and then vibrations."

His neighbor, Donna Hood, was also shaken up.

"We thought we'd had an earthquake and we waited and looked on the news and everywhere else and nobody posted anything. So, we had no idea what it was," said Hood.

Data didn't show any earthquakes in the area and authorities say there were no explosions either.

Fireball

NASA - 2 new 'potentially hazardous' asteroids careening towards Earth

Asteroids
© YouTube/NASA
Two previously unknown "potentially hazardous" asteroids will pass close to Earth this week, and once again we're reminded that a) NASA's ability to spot potentially cataclysmic near-Earth asteroids is currently limited to a few days' warning, and b) the area around Earth is swarming with dozens of giant space rocks, which are apparently stealthy enough to remain undetected until it's too late. Not an encouraging combination, especially after the two near-misses last month (YD7 and 2018 AJ).


Comment: It is a sobering thought but There is NO WAY TO TELL what might hit, and when. The world's observatories were focused on 2012 DA14 when, 6 hours before its scheduled fly-by, another large rock - from another direction - arrived out of nowhere to explode over Chelyabinsk, Russia!


The new asteroids are named 2018 CC and 2018 CB, and are between 9 and 38 meters in size. For comparison, a standard X-Wing is about 12.5 meters long, while the Space Shuttle is about 56 meters.

NASA deems any asteroid that comes within closer than 4.6 million miles of Earth to be "potentially hazardous." This might not sound close in terrestrial terminology but in terms of space distance, it's close enough to worry.

Comment: The skies have been noticeably active recently with an alarming number of space rocks:


Fireball 3

Did a satellite just crash to Earth? Day after spectacular fireball over Peru, three large metal spheres found (VIDEOS)

peru metal spheres
© AFPThe mysterious spheres were found by peasants in southeastern Peru
Experts are baffled after large steel balls appeared to fall from the sky, terrifying thousands living in nearby neighbourhoods.

Reports have emerged that the mysterious object disintegrated above eastern Brazil and northern Peru.

The bizarre incident was accompanied with loud booms.


Comment: The booms probably wouldn't have been caused by the spheres per se, but whatever craft or larger object carried them through the atmosphere before disintegrating/exploding - assuming that they are indeed man-made and part of a satellite.


People living in Larancahuani, in the region of Puno, Peru, were reportedly left terrified when three metallic spheres crashed down.

The unexplained incident unfolded on January 27.

Video footage from the day appears to show a fireball hurtling through the sky.


Comment: Here's video footage of the mystery fireball:



It does indeed appear to have been a rocket reentry, according to an ID made by watchers.news:
The rocket was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 26, 2017, carrying AngoSat 1 Communications Satellite.

The SL-23 rocked body (international designation 2017-086D) re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 23:32 UTC on January 27, 2018, providing a rare opportunity to witness a rocket body slowly burning out in the atmosphere.
In 2016, three very similar objects landed all at once in Vietnam - loud booms were also reported in that case. In 2015, about 6 such objects fell to the ground in Spain. And in 2011, another metal sphere fell in Namibia.


Question

Widespread booms perplex residents of Fox Valley, Wisconsin

boom boom
QUESTION: What was the source of the loud booms in Neenah and Menasha last week?

ANSWER: Your question is one that has perplexed residents and authorities alike.

Starting at about 8:45 p.m. Jan. 26, residents began posting to Facebook about hearing loud noises or booms in Neenah. Some also reported seeing flashes in the air.

The initial reports came from the neighborhoods around Neenah's Recreation and Doty parks. Soon, though, people said they heard the booms in other parts of Neenah and in Menasha, Fox Crossing, Grand Chute, Greenville, Hortonville and on the south, east, north and west sides of Appleton.

It didn't stop there.

Fireball

Fireball spotted over Peru (VIDEO)

Fireball
© YouTube
Here at Outer Places, we pride ourselves in being both believers and skeptics in equal proportion.

When Peruvian residents saw a giant fireball careening through the sky before crashing in southeastern Peru earlier this week, they were understandably shaken. And though the Peruvian air force has since explained the event as the remains of a satellite, they were understandably skeptical.

What makes this more than your standard, cut and dry gap between civilian and government knowledge? The fact that we've seen personal footage of the fireball, too. A gentleman sent us in a video of the fireball, captured on his cell phone, that shows the object moving in inexplicable ways, far different than any falling object moves as it plummets to the ground. It's easy to understand why some are already racing to claim this is genuine evidence of an alien spacecraft.


Comment: We've seen a few video angles of this event. There wasn't anything unusual about its trajectory or rate of falling.


Meteorologist Alejandro Fonesca, from the Universidade Federal do Acre, confirmed that there were no meteorites scheduled to fall in the area, and thinks that the fireball was either an old satellite or other human-made space litter.


Comment: Meteorites are never 'scheduled' to fall. Meteor showers happen like clockwork, though there's variability with those too. Meteorites are the result of large meteors exploding/disintegrating in the upper atmosphere, and they're not usually part of the 'scheduled' showers.


Fireball

Mysterious satellite plummets to Earth in fireball near Bolivian border (PHOTOS)

Satellite
© Peruvian Air Force / AFP
A mysterious fireball spotted over Peru on Saturday turned out to be part of an old satellite falling to Earth.

The Peruvian Air Force was quick to reveal the source of the flames after the round object was found by locals near Larancahuani in the Puno region near the Bolivian border, La Nacion reports.

Locals alerted the Peruvian Air Force (FAP), which then released images of the debris to stop any theories about UFOs gaining traction. "According to the first analysis, it would be a fuel tank of a disused satellite," Commander Pedro Palza of the FAP's Center told AFP, La Nacion reports.

Meteor

Mysterious boom heard in central Michigan attributed to tannerite

Mystery boom
© The Scottish Sun
Sometime after 6 p.m. Saturday, dozens of mid-Michigan residents took to social media to ask the question: Did anyone else hear that?

A loud blast heard or felt from south of Shepherd to north of Clare and from Rosebush to Coleman was most likely caused by an exploding firearms target, Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main said.

Central dispatch took one report of a loud boom from the 4000 block of East Coleman Road just before 6:30 p.m. and while a check of the area yielded no definitive results, Main said it was most likely a Tannerite target.

"We get that type of complaint from time to time, it sounds like an explosion or Dynamite," Main said.

Tannerite is the brand name of a type of shooting target that explodes when hit by an object traveling at a high velocity, like a bullet.

Fireball 2

Meteor fireball streaks across skies of southern Spain, shines brighter than the moon (VIDEO)

meteor fireball southern spain January 29 2018
This amazing fireball, brighter than the Moon, was recorded over the South of Spain on 29 Jan. 2018, at 6:47 local time (5:47 UT). The event began at an altitude of 101 km over the province of Jaen, and ended at a height of about 41 km over the province of Albacete. According to the preliminary analysis performed by Prof. Jose M. Madiedo, the event was produced by a rock from an asteroid.

Comment: For more information on the increase in fireball events, see: Michigan Meteor Event: Fireball Numbers Increased Again in 2017

And a few others that happened just this month:


Fireball 5

Scientists: Bright meteor fireball near Grand Bend, Ontario likely dropped meteorites

Fireball over southern Ontario
© Western University
Western University scientists say a bright fireball event in Grand Bend likely dropped meteorites in the area.

A network of cameras directed by Western University observed a bright fireball across southern Ontario at 7:23 p.m. on Wednesday.

Analysis of the video data by Western scientists suggests that fragments of the meteor are likely to have made it to the ground between the communities of Saint Joseph and Crediton.

Western's Physics and Astronomy Department runs a camera network that constantly monitors the sky for meteors.

Attention

Loud, mystery boom rattles residents in southern Maine

Loud boom heard in Kennebunk, Maine
© visitthekennebunks.com
Residents in parts of Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel were left startled and baffled earlier this week when what was described as a loud boom was heard and felt across the area on two occasions, with no one able to pinpoint the cause.

Word of the mystery boom spread across Facebook Monday evening around 9 p.m. and again Wednesday around the same time.

People took to social media asking "Did anyone hear that? What was it?" Speculation ranged from thunder snow to a sonic boom, or a blown electrical transformer.

"I can't believe it was thunder. This was felt and heard from Cape Porpoise to Waterboro. Then two series of popping noises like semi-automatic gun fire," Kennebunk resident Wendy Lank said. "It was so loud, it really made me uneasy."