Fireballs on the Rise

[Sevan Makaracı]

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There are increasing meteor reports recently all over the world. More debris from the Px tail...

ZetaTalk: Live Chat, written November 21, 2009

"When the debris from the tail of Planet X first started arriving in ernest, in 2004, the establishment chose to call this space junk. When the public became alarmed at the amount of space junk falling to Earth they tried to enhance the story by claiming that two satellites had crashed into each other, but this just made a bad story worse. Since fireballs have not gone away, but continued apace and if anything gotten worse, a new term has been used - asteroids. This is debris in the tail of Planet X, which is increasingly turning toward the Earth, hosed out from the N Pole of Planet X. This is why the wobble has gotten more violent, why electromagnetic disruption of dams and airplanes has occurred, and why blackouts will become more frequent. There will also be displays in the sky, some of which has already been noticed, from the electromagnetic tides assaulting the Earth's atmosphere. Stay tuned, more to come!"

March 3, 2012

Reports of a "bright light" and an "orange glow" were received by police across Scotland and the north of England around 9.40pm.

The Met Office tweeted: "Hi All, for anyone seeing something in the night sky, we believe it was a meteorite."

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said the force had been "inundated" with calls about a bright object in the sky across the west of Scotland. A Durham Police spokeswoman said a number of calls came in around 9.45pm from concerned members of public who had seen a "bright light or a fire in the sky" and believed it may have been incidents involving an aircraft. "

It has been confirmed with air traffic control that there are no incidents of aircraftin difficult and nothing registered on radar," she said. "

The sightings are believed to be either an asteroid burning out or similar which has been restricted to the upper atmosphere only." Grampian Police said reports of people seeing a "flare or a bright object with a tail" were received from across the region. And Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary said numerous calls were made about a "large ball of fire in the sky" across Annandale and Eskdale.

One user wrote on the force's Facebook page: "It was awesome to see! Really big and bright!" Hundreds of people took to Twitter to report similar sightings across Scotland and the north of England. People described seeing a bright fireball moving across the sky with a large tail.

The Kielder Observatory also reported the sighting of a "huge fireball" travelling from north to south over Northumberland at 9.41pm. The Observatory posted on Twitter: "Of 30 years observing the sky #fireball best thing I have ever seen period."

LINEAR INCREASE OF FIREBALL EVENTS SINCE 2010

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What a Meteor Looks Like

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What a Large Daytime Fireball Looks Like

Chelyabinsk Fireball (2013)

[jorge namour]

NASA: Friday’s fireball was a ‘probable’ meteorite
Friday, December 7, 2012

In an advisory just issued by NASA, scientists say the very bright fireball spotted by many people in Texas on Friday morning was a meteor, and is now most likely a meteorite.

And they’re interested in recovering it.

Here’s the official word from Bill Cooke, with Marshall Spaceflight Center’s Meteoroid Environments Office:

This morning at 6:43 AM Central Standard Time, eyewitnesses across Texas and adjacent states saw a very bright fireball streaking across the sky, moving roughly east to west. It was also recorded by a NASA meteor camera in Mayhill, New Mexico some five hundred miles to the West, which is very unusual and testifies to the brightness of the event.

This was not the re-entry of Kosmos 2251, which was destroyed in a collision with an Iridium satellite in February 2009; it is a meteor and not associated with the Geminid meteor shower.

Preliminary results indicate that there are meteorites from this meteor on the ground north of Houston, Texas – analysis is currently underway to refine the impact area. if pieces are recovered, it will be the 13th meteorite fall recorded in the state since 1909, and the first since Ash Creek, which fell in February of 2009.

video above, the moon is the bright object at lower center; the fireball is on the horizon at left and is surround by a white box when the camera detects it. Up is north, and left is east in the video.

http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2012/12/nasa-fridays-fireball-was-a-pr...

[Howard]

Fireball Observed Over Queensland Australia (Nov 26) -
The suspicious cloud of smoke which appeared in the sky on Monday is said to have been a meteorite. Plenty of locals witnessed the event.

http://www.cqnews.com.au/news/it-wasnt-a-bird-plane-or-superman/163...

A LOUD boom followed by a cloud of smoke in the sky had many Central Highlands residents taking a closer look on Monday.

Many residents speculated the theory behind the mysterious object was a meteorite heading for Earth at the speed of sound and disintegrating on entry.

A spokesman from the Bureau of Meteorology said that theory was most likely the correct explanation.

"We had a call from an Emerald resident at about 7pm (Monday night), wanting to know what it was," the spokesman said.

"It could have been a meteorite... or it may have been a bit of space debris."

If it was a meteorite, it could have been about 20,000 feet high, and the sound residents heard would have been a shockwave.

"If they come low enough they can cause a sonic boom as they enter the atmosphere lower down," the spokesman said.

"Not very loud, but distinctive … if they come into the troposphere - which is the lower atmosphere - when they lose velocity, you might hear a series of booms."

He said once it hit Earth, it would have been about the size of a small pebble and where it hit would be hard to determine.

"Depending on the direction it was coming through, it could have landed 100km (from where it was seen)," the spokesman said.

[Howard]

Fireball Streaks Across Texas Skies (Dec 7) -
KHOU 11 News viewer Mary Bush, in the Houston area, took this photo about two minutes after the flash.

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Strange-sight--182532251.html

From McKinney to the White Rock Lake area and all the way south to Houston, a bright flash reported in the sky Friday morning captured the attention of many across the Lone Star State.

One McKinney woman reported seeing what appeared to be a comet streaking across the sky in a bright flash around 6:42 a.m. near Stonebridge Shopping Center.

Justin Wagoner, who lives in the White Rock Lake area, said he saw a green trail and heard a large "sonic boom" around the same time. Others reported seeing white and orange colors. The sight only lasted a few seconds before vanishing in the sky.

According to Dr. James Roberts, a University of North Texas astronomer who talked to WBAP,  the mysterious object in the sky was likely a burned up meteor.

Mike Hankey, the operations manager with the American Meteor Society, said the flash was actually a fireball meteor, which is a meteor brighter than the norm.

The organization is comprised of amateur and professional astronomers focused focused specifically on meteor astronomy.

"For those not familiar with meteors and fireballs, a fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal. Most meteors are only the size of small pebbles," read  a report on the American Meteor Society's online site. "A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere."

[Howard]

Large Daytime Fireball Observed Over UK Skies (Nov 9) -

The burning object was seen in the afternoon skies for 5 minutes, fragmenting while falling to earth, leaving two sisters to wonder whether they had just witnessed a plane crash.

Eleanor, a student at Hylands School, said: "I haven't seen anything like that before – it was so bright."

She spotted the object – with a distinctive fiery core and long, forked tail – as she got ready for her after-school paper-round.

"I was just taking my trolley from the garage when I caught sight of it," said Eleanor.

"At first I thought it was a plane but it got brighter and brighter.

"I shouted for my sister and then we called our dad, who told us to take a picture."

The fireball – thought to be caused by debris burning up in the earth's atmosphere – spent five minutes visible in the Chelmsford sky before it disappeared behind some houses.

"I'm not sure what it was but it was bright and it definitely looked like it was burning," added Eleanor, who used a normal ten-megapixel camera to capture the images.

The event stunned the family so much that Eleanor's mother, Martine, called the police to ask if anyone else in Essex had seen a burning meteor.

"I just can't believe Eleanor and Leanne were the only two people to see it," she said.

A series of pictures were taken by Eleanor Collop, 13, and her 17-year-old sister Leanne, after they spotted the fireball from outside their home on the Beechenlea Estate.  The only picture made available to the public, however, is the following image of a fragment that detached from the large fireball.

Source

[Howard]

Meteor Drops Near Western Washington (Oct 31) -

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Meteors-spotted-falling-from-sky-in...

Snohomish County Sheriff's deputies investigated reports of a possible meteor falling somewhere near I-5 and Exit 212, between Stanwood and Arlington. K-9 officers also responded, but they didn't find anything.

An Arlington police officer confirmed seeing something fall from the sky, and KING 5 reports a number of viewers also emailed from Gig Harbor and Burien reporting they saw the meteor as well.

The Federal Aviation Administration said they also fielded calls from people who reported they saw a meteor.

An Arlington police officer confirmed seeing something fall from the sky. Viewers also emailed KING 5 News from Gig Harbor and Burien saying they also saw it.

Another source

[Sevan Makaracı]

Videos of San francisco fireball which Jorge posted above;

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/oct/17/bright-fireball-startles...

The American Meteor Society (AMS) reports online that a meteor arced through the sky shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, causing surprise and awe across broad reaches of Northern California. The "fireball" was visible only briefly, but was so bright that it was easily seen from light-polluted cities, as well as rural areas.

The AMS maintains on online bulletin board where people can report what they've seen in the sky. Here is a sample of comments made Wednesday evening:

Michelle Penick of San Pablo: "The colors were blue and white. It was so bright that the homes and trees were lit up. After the flashing, it began to break up. It was close enough I was able to see it breaking up and burning a fiery red."

Max Wilson of Sonoma: "I was looking at the ground, when there was what seemed to be a prolonged flash from a camera. (One of those very bright, professional ones.) I looked up to the sky to see a bright light, which kept getting brighte rand brighter. I realized it was moving, but didn't seem to going all that fast. before I knew it, it had travelled across the entire sky, with a trail that must have been (at least) 100 miles long."

Aguilar De of San Jose: "I've never witnessed anything so spectacular in m y life! The fragmentation was bright red, and broke apart into 8 or 9 distinct pieces that seemed to rain downward. The train was a very bright yellow/white streak, that continued to glow even after the meteor broke apart."

Derek Trusedale of San Jose: "I was walking the other way on a city street with street lights. The fireball was bright enough that it made me turn around to see what was causing the flash behind me. It looked like someone had sent off a nearby horizontal bottle rocket. no boom. very pretty. I suspect I'll never see anything like that again in my life."

[jorge namour]

Oct. 17th, 2012

BAY AREA FIREBALL: Last night, Oct. 17th, many people near San Francisco saw a slow-moving fireball exploding in the sky around 07:45 pm PDT. Witnesses report bright flashes of light and sonic booms that shook houses. Using a wide-field camera, Wes Jones caught the meteor disappearing behind the trees in the city of Belmont

"We don't know yet if the end point [of the meteor's flight] was over land or water," says meteor expert Peter Jenniskens of the NASA Ames Research Center. Jenniskens operates a network of Cameras for All-sky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) near the Bay Area. "Data from the CAMS system should give us an answer [about landfall]. We're analyzing the data now." Stay tuned.

Note: Although Earth is nearing a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the Orionid meteor shower, this fireball was probably not an Orionid. The timing and direction of the meteor do not seem to match the Orionids.

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[Howard]

Fireball Reported Over Washington DC Area (Oct 16) -

Several witnesses report seeing a fireball streak across the sky in the Washington, D.C. region.

“I was walking to Alliance Francaise from the Zoo metro stop around 7 p.m. last night, and I saw a white light in the sky zip past overhead, and then go out with a small boom while still traversing the sky,”

“Saw a VERY large shooting star around 7:15 p.m. near Centreville High School looking northeast.. not one of your average ones either, it was orangish red in color and lasted a bit more than your average blink of an eye shooting star..”

Marth Widra out of Glen Burnie, Md says she saw “an object that had a reddish fire-like ball with a yellow/orange tail.”

Keith Cross in Hughesville, Md. says it had “almost exactly the look of a very large firework but was moving incredibly fast and completely silent till it burnt out”. Cross added: “it was the brightest object I’ve ever seen flying across the sky”

Source

[Howard]

Another Asteroid Buzzes Past Earth Shortly After Its Discovery (Oct 12) -

Discovered on Oct 4, 2012,  Asteroid TC4, about the size of a house, buzzed Earth at one-fourth the distance to the moon last night.  Only 56 feet wide, it passed at a range of 59,000 miles.

Source

[Howard]

Fireball Blazes Across U.K Skies (Oct 12) -

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Amateur-stargazer-spots-meteor-...

Nigel Booth spotted what he believes was a meteor burning up over Grantham last night.

Nigel and his wife Debbie, of East Street, saw the round orange and blue light moving across the sky for almost three minutes - before it disappeared.

Nigel told granthampeople: "The sky was really clear so we went for a walk along our street, which doesn't have lights, shortly after 9.30pm.

"We were facing north and saw a largish, slow-moving, orange and blue coloured light at about a 60 degree angle from the earth.

"We watched if for between two and three minutes moving across the sky from the west to east, and then it faded out.

"It was really easy to see with the naked eye.

"It wasn't a comet, as it didn't have a tail, and it's unlikely to have been a satellite falling to earth or it would be all over the national news.

"I reckon it was a meteor."

Nigel, who has been an amateur astronomer for more than 30 years, has seen meteors before - but they were only brief sightings and 'very high' in the night sky.

See also: Fireball Seen Across UK and Scotland (Sep 22)