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Bright meteor wows Kiwi stargazers


The New Zealand Herald
Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:38 UTC
Meteor
© Thinkstock
A large meteor has been seen flying through the sky across New Zealand tonight.

The burning ball of space rock was spotted from locations throughout the country, including the West Coast, Auckland, Christchurch, Upper Hutt, Palmerston North, Napier and Nelson.

Many of those who sighted the meteor described it as large with a colourful tail, streaking across the sky about 6pm.

"[I] saw brilliant blue meteorite with long tail travel east to west across the northern sky. It seemed like fireworks at first and appeared close," Richard from north Canterbury posted on the WeatherWatch meteor watch website.

Another witness, Michelle, said: "Very large, beautiful meteor sighted over Napier, New Zealand aprox 6pm."

Steven said: "Very bright white light,showing the signs of a classic small meteor fly across Christchurch."
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Fireball spotted over north Georgia's night sky Saturday

Travis Maurer
Fox 5 News
Mon, 25 Aug 2014 16:59 UTC
North Georgia fireball
© NASACameras at the Tellus Museim in Cartersville caught a fireball on camera streaking over north Georgia on Saturday.
A lot of people across north Georgia and metro Atlanta messaged the FOX 5 newsroom this weekend about a bright flash across the night sky on Saturday.

Monday, scientists at the Tellus Museum in Cartersville confirmed there was a possible meteorite late Saturday evening. Their NASA camera caught the fireball passing over the state around 11:30 p.m.

Residents from Paulding County to Alpharetta to Gainesville reported seeing the streak. Some describe it getting as bright as daylight at one point.
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Meteor over Toronto captured on dash cam

Sarah-Joyce Battersby
City News, Toronto
Fri, 22 Aug 2014 14:25 UTC
Toronto Fireball
© Screen Capture YouTube
Some lucky Torontonians were treated to a light show Thursday.

A dashcam video posted to YouTube shows a bright object streaking across the sky over the Don Valley Parkway.

CityNews viewer Rahsaun Hutchinson was in a park in north Ajax and saw "a bright flying, star-like object" streak across the sky around 10 p.m.

Peter Brown, a professor in the Western Meteor Physics Group at Western University, says such sightings are common this time of year.

Having watched the video, Brown said the object appeared to be a "bright but not spectacular meteor" and likely not large enough to produce meteorites.
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Strange light seen in parts of Sri Lanka possibly a meteorite explosion


Emirates 24/7
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:34 UTC
Meteor Explosion
© Daily Mirror
Colombo - The strange light that were spotted by residents in several areas of the North-Central Province could possibly have been from an exploding meteorite, the Arthur C Clarke Centre said.

The Centre's Space Division Spokesman told Daily Mirror that the lights could possibly be from a meteorite explosion though it has not been confirmed yet.

He said meteorite could wither away under its high surface temperature but no investigation was possible because no object had hit the earth's surface as it happens in a meteorite explosion.

Eye witnesses said strange lights had travelled from the south and had come towards the earth but had withered away some ten feet from the earth's surface.

No signs of burnt patches have been spotted to suggest that any object had hit the ground.

The strange light had been witnessed by residents in several areas in the North-Central Province including Anurdhapura, Padaviya, Habarana and Hingurakgoda.
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Huge meteor spotted across southern B.C.


CTV Vancouver
Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:28 UTC
Chelyabinsk Meteor
© Associated PressIn this frame grab made from a dashboard video camera, a meteor streaks through the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, Friday, Feb. 15, 2013.

A massive fireball seen streaking across the sky Monday night may have been part of the Perseid meteor shower.

People across B.C.'s Lower Mainland took to social media describing what they thought may have been a meteor around 10:15 p.m.

Witnesses described seeing a white or yellow light trailing through the sky, so bright that it lit up backyards and streets.

Although the meteor showers officially peaked last week, the event does run through Aug. 24th, so it's possible it was part of the annual astronomical event.

Almost a dozen people between Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, all the way to Bellingham, Washington to the south reported the sighting on the American Meteor Shower website.

"I have seen shooting stars, but this was huge," a Washington State user named Shanni reported.

"I told my husband it was like seeing something half the size of the moon fall. And it was slow enough for me to catch sight of it and then cognitively register so that I could get a better look. I kept waiting for a huge explosion as if a plane had gone down."
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Loud boom over New Zealand district most likely a meteor

Anna Wallis
New Zealand Herald
Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:16 UTC
Meteor
© Wikimedia Commons
A lightning-like flash in the sky and then a loud bang experienced in Wanganui yesterday morning was likely a bolide.

Arthur Harris of St John's Hill said it was 6.20am when he saw the flash.

"An orange light was in the sky, and then the bomb went off. It was like an explosion."

A similar light was also seen in Christchurch and Dunedin according to reports on weatherwatch.co.nz.

Mark Lee of the Wanganui Astronomical Society said the light was a bolide, the name for a large, brilliant meteor, especially one that explodes.

Mr Lee said they were more common than people thought and could be a meteor, or space junk that had become too hot. "It doesn't explode, it is just disintegrating."

He said material only has to be the size of a refrigerator to be seen and heard.

Source: Wanganui Chronicle
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Residents in Sri Lanka see shiny object in skies, hear loud noise


Daily Mirror, Sri Lanka
Mon, 11 Aug 2014 23:01 UTC
Fireball
© newsfirst.lkPhoto used for representational purposes.
Authorities are investigating into reports that a bright light had been seen over the skies in the Anuradhapura district around 8 p.m. today accompanied by a loud sound, sources said.

However, it was not yet clear whether it was a meteorite or any other object.

Meanwhile, the Disaster Management Centre said they received a large number of inquiries from residents from the Dambulla to Seruwila stretch about a mysterious light in the sky.

The DMC said that they had alerted the Security Forces and Police about the complaints they received.
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Meteor fireball photographed above Cheltenham, England


Gloucestershire Echo
Mon, 04 Aug 2014 00:06 UTC
Fireball over Cheltenham
© Gloucestershire Echo
Can you help solve the mystery of this phenomenon seen in the skies above Cheltenham on Sunday. We were contacted by Jess on twitter who posted the picture of the 'fireball'.

She said: "Was a big flash then looked like something falling on fire, happened last night.

"The picture was taken from Benhall lookin towards glos/tewks. I zoomed in on it on my camera for a few shots."

Did you see it? What could it be?
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Fireball explodes over Alabama


SpaceWeather
Mon, 04 Aug 2014 23:12 UTC
On Saturday night, August 2nd, NASA meteor cameras detected a fireball that exploded in a flash of light many times brighter than the Moon. It came not from the Perseid debris stream, but rather from the vicinity of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Watch the movie, then read on for more information:


"The meteoroid was about 15 inches in diameter and weighed close to 100 lbs," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Travelling 47,000 miles per hour, it broke apart in a brilliant flash of light above the Alabama town of Henagar. Our cameras continued to track a large fragment until it disappeared 18 miles above Gaylesville, located near Lake Weiss close to the Georgia state line.

Comment: Possibly the same fireball in following video capture also from Saturday 2. August in Alabama:



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Sky gazers spot meteor in sky over Perth, Western Australia on Monday morning

Aleisha Orr
WA Today
Mon, 04 Aug 2014 01:06 UTC
Perth Fireball
© The Desert Fireball Network (Curtin University), and Badgingarra Primary SchoolThe 'fireball' seen across the Perth sky about 6am on Monday. Taken with a fish-eye lens.
A expert says the size and brightness of a meteor seen flashing across the Perth sky on Monday morning indicates it could have made it to earth.

There were a number of similar reports from across the metropolitan area of a blue/green light flashing across the morning sky shortly before sunrise.

The flash was caught on one of a number of cameras set up as part of the Desert Fireball Network, set up to photograph such astronomical events.

Curtin Faculty of Science Engineering Professor Phil Bland said the light captured on the camera was "really bright", indicating that it could have been a "decent-sized rock".

He said about 20 per cent of meteors made it to land without burning up.

Professor Bland said researchers would look at the images in more detail to find out more information.
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