Fireballs
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Fireball 4

Unidentified object, possibly a meteorite, crashes down near St. John's, Canada

Ryan Cooke
CBC News Canada
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 21:46 UTC
Meteorite
© CBC News CanadaA security camera on the waterfront in St. John's captured this shot of a light falling from the sky near the South Side Hills, across the harbour.
Andrew Wilkins was eating dinner at a downtown St. John's pub, looking out over the city's iconic harbour, when a flash of green light caught his attention.

"The whole sky just lit up," he said. "It was coming in on a 45 degree angle, coming down to the right."

Wilkins stopped eating and stared as the moving ball of light crashed down on the opposite side of the harbour, towards the largely uninhabited Southside Hills area.

He paused to determine if he could hear a crash, but the noisy chatter of the busy pub prevented him from hearing any sound the flash of light may have made.

"It was like a big green ball of fire, is what it looked like. At first I thought, 'Wow, geez, that's a really bright firework,' but fireworks don't shoot downwards."
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Fireball 4

Bright meteor fireball explodes over southeastern Poland


Sott.net
Mon, 23 Oct 2017 20:02 UTC
meteor fireball over Poland
A bright meteor fireball exploded over southeastern Poland on 16th October just before midnight. The phenomenon was captured by stations of the Polish Fireball Network (PFN) reported wmeritum.pl.

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Fireball

The mystery boom that shook northeast British Columbia was probably a fireball says astronomer


CBC News
Fri, 20 Oct 2017 07:00 UTC
Meteor from Perseid shower
© Ognen Teofilovski/ReutersA meteor streaks across the sky during the Perseid meteor shower at a windmill farm near Bogdanci, south of Skopje, in the early morning August 13, 2014. Astronomer Ken Tapping said it's rare to have advance warnings of meteors entering specific regions.
The source of a loud bang followed by shaking in northeast B.C., that caused confusion for residents, was likely a meteor shooting through the sky, says a B.C. astronomer.

"It's entirely consistent with it being a large fireball," said Ken Tapping, a National Research Council of Canada astronomer.

Residents who experienced the event said it sounded like the object was just outside their homes.

"It was like when a shotgun goes off and you're right beside it," said Donna Taylor of Charlie Lake, a small community northwest of Fort St. John, who was in her home when she heard the noise around 11 pm Wednesday night.

"I thought somebody threw something against my place or ran into it, because all the windows shook."

Jessica Krupp was in bed when the noise woke her up. "It sounded like a fuse blew or something electrical kind of snapped or crackled," she said. "Like an explosion almost.I thought a truck blew up or something."
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Fireball 2

Daytime meteor fireball seen over Connecticut and adjacent states

Jim Shay
Connecticut Post
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 16:32 UTC
sightings
© American Meteor Society Map
A bright daytime fireball was seen over the skies of Connecticut on Wednesday afternoon.

The American Meteor Society says the likely path of the meteor was southeast of Long Island over the Atlantic Ocean.

"The AMS has received over 130 reports so far about of a daytime fireball event seen above New York State on October 18, 2017 around 3 p.m.," it said.

"The fireball was seen primarily from New York and New Jersey, but was also seen from Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Hampshire."

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Fireball

Meteor explosion brightens southern Sri Lanka's skies

Chaturanga Pradeep
Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka
Thu, 19 Oct 2017 05:14 UTC
Meteor
© Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka
Colombo University Physical Science Department Prof. Chandana Jayaratne confirmed that the bright light and sound which was heard from the Southern Province (SP) this evening was because of an explosion caused by a meteor.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror he said the explosion was known as a 'fireball explosion' and occurs after an asteroid enters the earth's atmosphere.

"The asteroid could be a size of 50 centimetres. Every asteroid enters the earth's photosphere at a speed of 65 kilometers per second. With that speed one side of the asteroid gets heated up due to friction and the other side does not, therefore causing an explosion," Prof Jayaratne said.
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Fireball 5

Man videos 'meteorite strike' in Cairns, Australia; loud explosion heard

Chris Calcino
The Cairns Post
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 12:14 UTC
Video taken by a local resident at the site shows a large area of burnt trees and a deep hole in the ground (pictured)
Video taken by a local resident at the site shows a large area of burnt trees and a deep hole in the ground (pictured)
The city's "big bang" mystery continues to deepen with residents split on whether it was caused by a meteorite, gas bottle explosion, electrical transformer failure or sonic boom.

Beginning with the latter theory, a single FA-18 Hornet was heard flying loudly over Cairns on Sunday night, with a Department of Defence spokesman confirming it landed at Cairns Airport while carrying out a training exercise from RAAF Base Townsville.

But no jets were operating late on Saturday night when a god-almighty "explosion" was heard across the city.

As for the gas bottle theory — the most popular on social media — emergency services had no report of any such activity despite speculation it was the product of juvenile delinquents running rampant at Jensen St in Manoora.

The Cairns Post was called by an anonymous man trying to sell CCTV footage he swore showed a jolt of light shooting up a power pole and causing the ensuing aftershock.

Ergon Energy had no record of any issues.

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Comet 2

Comet 01-ASAS-SN brightens unexpectedly

Signe Dean
Science Alert
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 17:10 UTC
C/2017 O1 ASAS-SN
© ASAS-SN/Twitter
There are countless chunks of icy debris swirling around the Oort cloud on the outskirts of the Solar System. But it's always exciting when one of those comes in our direction for a rare flyby.

In July, astronomers discovered a brand new comet zooming through the inner regions of our space bubble. Since that time it's been steadily getting brighter, and now is about the best time to finally catch a glimpse of it in the night sky.

The comet C/2017 O1 ASAS-SN was first detected on 19 July by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, the same system that brought us new discoveries about the mysterious Tabby's star, massive space explosions, and stars shredded by black holes.

Now, for the first time, the survey has discovered a comet which Northern Hemisphere stargazers can readily spot in the sky with the help of a backyard telescope or even just binoculars.

Comet O1 ASAS-SN is a long-period comet, and it probably takes at least several thousand years to cruise around the Sun and come back - so being able to spot it right now is a wonderful treat.
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Fireball 2

Bolide streaks over western France


Sott.net
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 06:51 UTC
Bolide captured over western France
© Tioga Gulon, Boam Meteore, AstroChinonBolide captured over western France on October 5, 2017.
A very bright meteor fireball, known as a bolide, steaked over the night sky of Indre-et-Loire in western France on October 5, 2017 reports REFORME (Réseau Français d'ObseRvation de Météores).

The bolide, which was as bright as the full moon, was recorded by REFORME's all-sky camera..
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Fireball

South Carolina home hit by meteorite

Carla Field
WYFF NBC
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 10:23 UTC
Meteorite
© Melanie Casselman
Clemson astrophysicists have visually confirmed that an unusual rock that hit a Pawley Island home and ended up in a yard is meteorite from outer space.

"I looked at my house and my windows, and everything looked fine, so I just walked right on by," Casselman said. "I didn't even pick it up."

The next day, Casselman's partner, Dennis Suszko, found a strange piece of rock in the front yard, and she remembered seeing a similar rock in the side yard.

"These were odd-looking rocks," Casselman said. "It wasn't like anything around it, and I jokingly said, 'We must've had a meteor shower last night.'"

As they looked for more pieces of rock, they noticed a chunk of shingles missing from the eaves of their roof.

"We're not positive, but we believe that's where the meteorite first struck before landing in the yard," Casselman said.
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Meteor

Meteor fireball seen in sky before fire breaks out in New Hampshire mountains

Ray Brewer
WMUR
Wed, 04 Oct 2017 09:19 UTC
New Hampshire fire
© Notch HostelThis photo from Tuesday night, Oct. 3, 2017, shows the fire burning on the Dilly Cliffs near Woodstock.
A major forest fire continued to burn Wednesday morning in the White Mountains.

The fire has been burning for more than 24 hours near Lost River Gorge in Woodstock.

The fire was first reported about 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Woodstock's fire chief said the night before, a man said he was driving in the area when he spotted a meteor streaking across the sky.

Officials are not sure if the meteor, which is referred to as a meteorite if it reaches the ground and survives the impact, caused the fire. They said they have found no evidence of a meteorite, but they said it is considered a possible cause.

Comment: See also: Did a meteorite cause a brush fire in New Hampshire?

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