Fireballs on the Rise

[Sevan Makaracı]

Source

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

Source

What a Meteor Looks Like

Source

What a Large Daytime Fireball Looks Like

Chelyabinsk Fireball (2013)

[Howard]

Hundreds Report Seeing Fireball Across 4 States (April 11)

Skywatchers across the Chicago area reported a streaking fireball in the sky so intense that some thought they’d witnessed a fiery plane crash on the Southeast Side.

Reports of the fireball starting coming in about 8:25 p.m. with over 100 people from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa reporting the light show.

Descriptions ranged from simply a blue-green fireball to a yellow fireball with a red center and a trailing blue-and-white tail.

John from North Chicago wrote “12sec nw green/blue very bright unknow it only lasted about 12sec but it was a sight to see truly amazing.”

But while many delighted in the display, others thought they’d witnessed something much grimmer as emergency crews responded to 126th Street and Avenue 0 on the Far Southeast Side of the city to investigate a possible plane crash.

A police helicopter was also called to help search Wolf Lake, which sits on the Illinois-Indiana border near the Hegewisch neighborhood.

Searchers found nothing, and authorities soon found that while no aircraft had been reported missing, many skywatchers were reporting a “very bright” meteor falling about 8:20 p.m. and crews stopped their search, the Chicago Fire Department said.

No one from NASA or the National Weather Service could be reached for comment.

Source

[Howard]

April 3, Lake Michigan, Wisconsin -

"A call that brought out search and rescue crews off the Lake Michigan shore Tuesday night may have been sparked by a falling meteor.

The U.S. Coast Guard Canal Station in Sturgeon Bay responded to a sighting of an off-shore white flare near Jacksonport Tuesday night.

“We had a call at approximately 9:15 p.m. local time of one white flare an undetermined distance off the shore” near Jacksonport, said BMC Justin Longval, executive petty officer at the station.

A white flare does not necessarily mean distress – a distress flare is red – but the Coast Guard launched its 45-foot response boat and called in an aircraft from the Air Station in Traverse City, Mich., for the search.

The Coast Guard searched by air and water for two hours without finding anything or anyone, Longval said.

A helicopter from Traverse City conducted a first-light search Wednesday morning. It found nothing.

“It’s always better to report it” and make sure there is nothing there, he said.

The Coast Guard has received no reports of missing persons or vessels and concluded the sighting may not have been flare.

“Meteorite, falling star, whatever you want to call it,” Longval said. There is no way to know."

[Sevan Makaracı]

APRIL 2, TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO

FIREBALL LEAVES AREA RESIDENTS WONDERING

People who reported seeing a fiery ball of light in the cloudless noon sky Monday really did see an unidentified flying object.

It was likely falling space debris or a meteor, according to the National Weather Service.

“It could definitely have caused that,” said meteorologist Pat McDonald. “It's the only thing we can think that could have caused that.”

Jane Marke, an amateur astronomer, said she was at a traffic light near the airport when she saw a bright light streaking across the eastern sky at 11:49 a.m.

“I saw a brightness of light fall from the sky, going very fast,” Marke said. “I would say it was about 1 magnitude. That's about as bright as you can get.”

She said she believes it was a meteor, though it could have been “a piece of space junk.”

A San Antonio Express-News photographer driving between Kerrville and Comfort saw what he described as a very bright ball of light low in the sky at 11:50 a.m.

Around the same time, a 911 caller reported seeing some sort of airborne fiery object that appeared to be falling near Johns Road north of Interstate 10 in Boerne. A police officer was dispatched but didn't find anything, a department clerk said.

Sheriff's offices in Kendall County and Kerr County reported receiving no calls about the object.

The Army, which operates an ammunition storage and transfer facility at Camp Stanley in Northwest Bexar County, reported no unusual activity Monday morning.

“All the ranges at Camp Stanley are closed, so we weren't testing ammunition and we haven't had any incident today regarding the storage and transfer facilities,” said Phil Reidinger, an Army spokesman at Fort Sam Houston.

The Air Force said none of its planes at two local bases was involved in an incident that could have caused the flash.

“We don't have anything that would generate a great flash of light in the sky,” said Dave Smith, a spokesman with the Air Education and Training Command at Randolph AFB....    Source

[Howard]

Four Asteroids Buzz Earth Within 10 Day Window

An asteroid the size of a passenger jet zoomed near the Earth Sunday (April 1), just in time for April Fools' Day, but the space rock flyby posed no threat of hitting our planet, NASA officials said.

The asteroid 2012 EG5 was closer than the moon when it flew by Earth at 5:32 a.m. EDT (0932 GMT). The space rock is about 150 feet wide (46 meters), according to a NASA records. Scientists with the space agency announced the April Fools' asteroid flyby on Friday, March 30.

"Asteroid 2012 EG5 will safely pass Earth on April 1," scientists with NASA's Asteroid Watch program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., wrote in a Twitter statement.

The space rock may have visited Earth on April Fools' Day, but its flyby was no prank. The asteroid crept within 143,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) of Earth during its closest approach, which is just over half the distance between Earth and the moon's orbit. The moon typically circles the Earth at a distance of 238,000 miles (382,900 km).

Asteroid 2012 EG5 was the third relatively small asteroid to buzz the Earth in seven days.Two smaller asteroids passed near Earth on Monday (March 26).

Early Monday, the bus-size asteroid 2012 FP35 came within 96,000 miles (154,000 km) of Earth. It was followed a few hours later by asteroid 2012 FS35, which is the size of a car and passed Earth at a range of 36,000 miles (58,000 km).
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Like asteroid 2012 EG5, those two smaller space rocks on Monday posed no risk of hitting Earth. Those space rocks were so small they would not survive the trip through Earth's atmosphere, even if they were aimed at our planet, Asteroid Watch researchers said.

Asteroid 2012 EG5 was discovered on March 13 by astronomers searching for near-Earth space rocks. Another space rock, the asteroid 2012 FA57, was discovered on March 28 and will fly by Earth on April 4 when it passes at a range just beyond the orbit of the moon.

[Howard]

Fireball Streaks Across New Zealand Sky (April 2, 2012)

The glowing ball steaking across the sky that fascinated the country last night was most likely a meteor.

The bright and colourful light was spotted in the lower North Island and the South Island, including Wellington, Blenheim and Christchurch, about 6.30pm.

While some initially suspected the ball and the long trail behind it was from an aircraft, with a condensation trail from the engine, Carter Observatory programme manager John Field said it was most likely to be a particularly bright meteor, known as a fireball.

"Fireballs happen on average about once a day around the world, but it's just rare to be in the right place at the right time.

"They would so often appear in isolated areas away from cities, or at 3am when everyone is sleeping, so we were very lucky to get to see such a sight."

There were no satellites due to re-enter the atmosphere at the time, and its unusual flight path ruled it out as an aircraft, Field said.

"It was seen across too large a geographic area to be an aircraft, especially when you consider it's non-linear flight path."

Because of the positioning of the sun at the time, the fireball appeared extra bright in the sky.

"It was high up so was catching the light from the setting sun, which made it easily visible for so many people.

"It was a fantastic combination of elements that came together to put on quite a show."

[Howard]

Flash of Light Observed Over Great Plains (March 13)

"A flash of light in the early morning sky over the Great Plains on Tuesday lit up social media and cyberspace as witnesses tried to figure out what they had seen.

“It was like the whole sky lit up for just a second,” Joe Kleinsasser said in an e-mail about what he saw as he drove from Hillsboro to work at Wichita State University at about 6:45 a.m.

More than 50 people in five states — Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska and Missouri — reported the flash to the Lunar Meteorite Hunters website on Tuesday."

[Howard]

Fireball Spotted Over North Georgia (March 7)

CARTERSVILLE, Ga. (WXIA) - Scientists at the Tellus Science Museum said they observed a fireball in the sky over north Georgia Wednesday evening.

The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office confirmed that a bright fireball streaked across the skies over parts of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia at 10:19 p.m. Wednesday. The fireball was captured by cameras at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, as well as by cameras in Tullahoma, Tenn., and at the Tellus Science Museum.

NASA says the meteor was first recorded at an altitude of 51.5 miles, just southeast of Tunnel Hill, Ga., moving to the west-southwest at about 33,500 mph. The fireball was last spotted near Rock Spring, Ga., along Ga. Highway 95.

[Howard]

Seems this was also observed in Australia:

Meteor Dazzles Victorian Sky

 - March 05, 2012 -

The meteor was seen across Victoria at about 10.45pm, including at Anglesea, Frankston, Berwick, Cairnlea, Tullamarine, Dandenong.

The fireball even caused a sensation in the UK with police inundated with emergency phone calls.

The control tower in Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport was also flooded with calls from locals fearing there had been a plane crash.

Astronomer David Reneke said it was unusual that the fireball was spotted across the globe and said it was probably the lead up to a meteor shower that was about to happen.

He said usually at the end February fireballs were often seen but not in March.

"To be seen around the world - it's crazy," he said.

"They are just slow moving bits of rock that catch on fire and burn.

"On occasions they even explode."

Herald Sun reader Brad Dorrington, of Newborough, witnessed the sky show.

"(It) looked amazing several red hot glows with a trail behind them with what looked to be dust behind it," he said.

Benjamin Cross, of Berwick, said it was surreal to glimpse the fiery tail.

"(It was) the most amazing thing I have ever seen," he said.

[KM]

Here is some further information on the meteor:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109920/Meteor-lights-sky-E...