Fireballs
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Fireball 2

Another space object breaks apart over Thailand - Third major cosmic event there in 4 months

A fireball in Lampang.
A fireball seen in the early hours of Jan.2 in Lampang.
The sky in northern Thailand this morning saw not only the second light of 2016, but also a 30-second long fireball.

Aside from in Lampang, the mysterious light was also seen in many places up north including Chiang Rai, Loei and as far south as Phitsanulok.

The fireball that appeared at 6am Saturday was not a meteor but space debris, a collection of defunct man-made objects from old satellites or spent rocket stages, falling into the earth's atmosphere, an expert from Bundit Observatory believes.

Comment: See also:

2 November 2015: Huge meteor fireball lights up skies over Thailand

7 November 2015: Massive meteor fireball witnessed in Thailand, explosions heard


Fireball 4

Massive meteor fireball over Spain ends 2015

On the last day of 2015, a skycam in northeast Spain caught a tremendous fireball — a very bright meteor — burning up in the morning sky:

Spanish Fireball
© Ebro Observatory (E. Blanch/CSIC-URLl - JMTrigo/CSIC-IEEC)Watch animated GIF here
Wow. The camera is operated by the Ebro Observatory. The fireball is pretty stunning; it lasted only a few seconds, but probably got brighter than the full Moon. It was apparently seen by many observers in central and northern Spain.

There are two things I want to point out in the video. It looks like it passes under the clouds, but that's an illusion. A meteor happens when a solid bit of ice, rock, or metal (called the meteoroid) slams into Earth's atmosphere from space, moving many dozens of kilometers per second. The huge pressure generated as it compresses the air in front of it heats the gas up, which then glows. This luminous phenomenon is what we call the actual meteor. That typically happens 90 - 100 km above the ground (though sometimes lower depending on the given event), far higher than the clouds. It's so bright it shines right through the clouds, though, making it look like it's just above the ground.

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Fireball 5

Christmas Eve meteor fireball lights up Midwestern U.S. morning sky

Nebraska fireball
© WOWT
Nobody is sure what it was, but plenty of people saw it. Twas the Light Before Christmas and it lit up the night sky across a long stretch of the Midwest early Thursday morning.

Jay Poppe sent us the video he captured near Denton, Iowa.

That was just one of the locations between northern Kansas, through Nebraska and Iowa and into Illinois where sightings were reported.

It happened around 1:30 a.m. in the Omaha, Nebraska area.

What do you think? A meteor? Santa taking a few warm-up laps?


Fireball

Fireball over Las Vegas breaks up in the sky

Still from video footage of the fireball
Johnny Lere / YouTube
After dozens of reports of a light or object flying across the sky, officials from CSN Planetarium in Las Vegas said the object sighted is either a meteor breaking up on re-entry into the atmosphere or some type of space debris, such as a satellite.

​Dozens of videos surfaced Tuesday night showing what appears to be the reported object or light flying across the sky. The object was seen across Arizona, California and Nevada, but it is nothing to worry about.

Comment: More videos of this fireball:






Fireball 3

Huge meteor reported across Nevada skies

Nevada Meteor
© Johnny Lere/YouTube
A giant glowing object soared through the night sky near Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday, with excited witnesses rushing to post photographs and videos of the what they believed to be a meteor on social media.

Some videos also apparently show what appears to be pieces of the object breaking up as it swoops across the sky.

Comment: Another video of the meteor fireball fragmenting over Las Vegas:


There has been an increase in sightings of meteor fireballs from all around the world recently. Check out our Fire in the Sky section.

See also: SOTT Earth Changes Summary - November 2015: Extreme Weather, Planetary Upheaval, Meteor Fireballs

and Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection: The Secret History of the World - Book 3 by Pierre Lescaudronand Laura Knight-Jadczyk


Fireball 5

New discovered asteroid to zoom pass Earth tonight

Asteroid 2015 YB
© GettyThe asteroid was discovered just two days ago.
Astronomers were oblivious to the existence of the space rock, which is big enough to destroy a town and called 2015 YB, until Wednesday.

The Slooh Telescope internet channel is hosting a special live broadcast to capture the flyby at 2am.

A Slooh spokesman said the pass was so near it would be within range of geosynchronous satellites which orbit at the same rotation period as Earth.

He said: "Discovered just two days ago, Slooh will provide live coverage.

"The size and speed of this asteroid makes it very difficult to track.

"During our live broadcast, host Paul Cox and Slooh Astronomer Bob Berman will discuss why it is so difficult to track these fast moving objects, and of course, the kind of damage a (it) would cause were it to impact Earth, and why."

Meteor

Meteor fireball blazes through the Labrador sky

Laborador meteor
© Via twitter@Eddymckay55"seen this when I was up in the woods by South Brook NL it's in three pieces in the picture, if you look."
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a meteor!

Maybe.

Social media was abuzz Thursday as many Newfoundland and Labrador residents reported seeing what seems to be a meteor.

While the possible meteor was spotted in several areas of the province, Jamie Hickey of Muskrat Falls managed to record some video, which was uploaded to YouTube by meteorologist Eddie Sheerr.

But some people were skeptical about dubbing the burst of light as an official meteor.

One Twitter user called it "space junk," while another mused it might be a UFO.

Whatever it turns out to be, meteor sightings are not all that uncommon in the province.

Meteor showers peak during the August Perseids and December Geminids, the latter of which just occurred between Dec. 13-14 this year.


Fireball 2

Fireball meteor seen over Henry County, Georgia

Nasa fireball
© NASA Meteor Watch Facebook pageNASA cameras tracked the fireball to an altitude of 17 miles above the town of Locust Grove.
If you find an odd-looking "rock" in the Locust Grove area of Henry County, it might just be part of a meteor that came hurtling toward Earth at nearly 30,000 mph Thursday night.

Officials with NASA have confirmed that a fireball spotted over the south metro skies just after sunset Thursday was a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere.

"We have received numerous reports concerning a bright fireball that occurred over Georgia at 6:33 p.m.," space agency officials said in a posting on the NASA Meteor Watch Facebook page. "All 6 NASA all sky meteor cameras in the southeast picked up the meteor at an altitude of 50 miles above McDonough."

Officials estimated the fireball was caused by a piece of an asteroid weighing at least 150 pounds, moving at a speed of 29,000 mph.


Fireball 2

Mystery fireball seen falling from sky in Brevard County, Florida

Fireball
File photo
A mysterious, fiery object falling from the sky was reported in Brevard County, prompting authorities to launch a search, officials said.

Nothing was found after 911 callers reported seeing a fiery object falling to the ground.

The calls were received about 7 a.m. Thursday, with reports of the mysterious object striking the area near the Interstate 95 onramp on the southbound side of Palm Bay Road.

Palm Bay Fire Rescue crews and police searched the area but found nothing.

A check with Melbourne International Airport also turned up no information about the mysterious object., News 6 partner Florida Today reported.

Fireball

NASA cameras film fireball seen from Madison, South Carolina

Fireball
© NASA Meteoroid Environment OfficeFireball
A bright light seen in the skies from Madison County early Tuesday morning actually originated more than 300 miles away.

WAAY 31 viewers reported seeing the bright fireball in the sky from Madison Tuesday morning.

The fireball was captured by one of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office's cameras at 4:27 a.m. as it passed over South Carolina.

Dr. Bill Cooke with NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said the object was an estimated 4-5 inches in diameter and probably weighed about five pounds.

You can watch the video below: