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]

Bright Fireball Lights Up Thai Skies (Nov 2)

A large ball of fire was seen streaking across the night sky in several parts of the country, including Bangkok, on Monday.

The suspected meteor was seen in Bangkok, Chon Buri, Ratchaburi, Kanchanaburi, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Pathom, among other provinces, around 8.35pm, according to messages sent to the JS100 Twitter account.

"I could see it clearly in Chum Pphae district, Khon Kaen province. It's moving west," said @Libpon on her Twitter account sent to JS100.

"I saw it on the expressway on my way to the Rama II exit, too," said @Kinokim_knk on another account.

The Thai Astronomical Society said shortly after on the Facebook page after the incident that it was "expected" to be a meteor.

Source

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/751972/suspected-meteor-lig...

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/11/01/halloween_fireb...

Very Bright Fireball Over Europe Last Night

Nov. 1 2015 8:30 AM

Last night (Halloween, Oct. 31, 2015) at around 19:00 local time, a smallish bit of cosmic debris entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up over central Europe. It was very bright, and because it happened in the early evening, a lot of people saw it. Twitter was lit up with reports.

It was seen from south Sweden, Germany, Poland, and as far east as Belarus! Impressive.

Pictures and video started getting posted to YouTube and Twitter as well. Here’s one of the best ones, taken from Poland, that shows the fireball quite well.

As you can see, it gets bright very rapidly, leaves a nice glowing train (the technical term for the trail of glowing debris), and then you see the still-hot solid meteoroid fall away. This is typical behavior for meteors. The solid part (called the meteoroid) is moving so rapidly — usually more a few dozen kilometers per second — it rams the air in front of it violently. A compressed gas heats up, and the shocked air can reach several thousand degrees. This heats the meteoroid up, causing it to glow.

The rush of air past it blows the melted material off (this is called ablation), and that leaves the glowing train. The meteoroid decelerates viciously, falls below the speed where it heats the air up, and then begins its long fall to the ground (assuming it’s big enough to reach the ground). It may glow for a few more seconds, but at 40 – 80 km high the air is quite cold, and it cools rapidly. It may break apart, raining meteorites down over some area, or big chunks might hit as well. That last part’s rare, though. Unlike movies, where they show small pieces hitting at high speed, the meteoroid(s) slows to terminal velocity, usually a couple of hundred kilometers per hour (or much slower for smaller pieces), for the rest of the trip down.

This video missed the first second or two of the European event, but you can see the sky light up blue-green from it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xaaxz0yWnE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aQ41XdsJRo

A lot of folks say it looked green to them, which means it may have been metallic; nickel glows green when heated to incandescence, and metallic meteoroids are generally mostly iron with several percent nickel. Magnesium can be blue-green as well, and that’s common in stony meteorites too.

On Twitter, I got a lot of people questioning if this was related to 2015 TB145, the 600-meter asteroid/dead comet that passed Earth yesterday. Almost certainly not; the direction it was moving doesn’t line up, and the difference in time makes it unlikely as well (remember, these things are moving at 20 – 40 kps, and TB145 passed us many hours earlier; they were separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometers at least).

This video, taken by the Polish Fireball Network, shows it moving roughly SE to NW; note the Big Dipper on the horizon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmPeoEbuhaM

As it happens, the annual Taurid meteor shower is ramping up right now. It’s possible this was related; that shower is known for its fireballs. The direction kinda sorta lines up, and the radiant of the shower (the part of the sky from which meteors appear to come) was just on or above the horizon at that time, so it’s possible. But if this fireball was in fact from a chunk of metal, it wasn’t related; Taurids come from an old comet, and have essentially no metal. Hopefully we’ll know more soon.

The final question is, how big was the meteoroid? It’s hard to tell. I’d guess it was less than a meter across, but that really is just a guess. Objects that small rarely survive re-entry intact, but again it depends on what they’re made of.

All in all, a nice example of a fireball, and a good reminder that our atmosphere does a great job protecting us from the 100 or so tons of material that hits us every day.

And, of course, a reminder to look up. You never know what you might see.

[jorge namour]

A meteor crossed the sky last night Tucuman - ARGENTINA

Sunday October 25, 2015,

Past 23 Shooting Star went northbound. It would have fallen near Rosario de la Frontera.

http://www.lagaceta.com.ar/nota/658592/sociedad/meteorito-cruzo-ano...

https://translate.google.com.ar/translate?sl=es&tl=en&js=y&...

Tucuman were many who watched last night, with much astonishment, the passage of a shooting star northbound. Although there was no official confirmation, the body would have disintegrated on its entry into the atmosphere but in social networks claimed that had fallen near Rosario de la Frontera in Salta.

23 minutes after a strong flash in the sky tucumano caused a stir because of its brightness.

From Salta town there were reports of a loud explosion, which quickly was related to the phenomenon.

[Howard]

Bright Fireball over Southern California (Oct 23)

The American Meteor Society received over 230 reports so far about a fireball event over California Friday, October 23th 2015 ~ 10:33pm (Saturday, October 24th 2015 ~ 05:33 UT). Observers from as far as Tucson, AZ and southwestern Utah reported seeing a bright light in the sky. The event has also been seen from Sacramento, CA to San Diego, CA.

Witness accounts:

"I was driving on the 5 North freeway when I saw it. It was huge and glowing. It was definitely not a shooting star."

"This thing was bright Green almost the same color as the traffic light. It was was very bright and I thought it was going to impact."

Sources

http://www.amsmeteors.org/2015/10/bright-fireball-over-california/

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2015/2635

[Howard]

Huge Fireball Sighted Over Western Finland (Oct 23)

The Ursa Astronomical Association’s online observation system lit up with reports of a large bright object streaking across the sky on Friday evening. The apparent fireball stirred consternation in neighbouring Sweden.

Finland’s main Astronomical Association, Ursa, says that dozens of people reported spotting a light phenomenon in the western skies just before 8 pm Friday. According to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, the apparent meteor startled some residents in the Stockholm area.

Most of the Finnish sightings were from the Turku region, with others ranging from southernmost Hanko to Merikarvia on the Ostrobothnian coast and Mariehamn in the Åland Islands.

Those reporting observations said the object was seen in the west-south-west sky, close to the horizon.

The streak of light lasted for several seconds, says Jukka-Pekka Teitto, coordinator of Ursa’s Artjärvi observation centre in Orimattila.

“This object from space has mostly moved across Sweden,” he tells Yle.

Teitto says that while this incident was particularly dramatic, there are in fact observations of meteors or fireballs over Finland nearly every week. Bursting into flame at an altitude of about 100 kilometres, they can often be seen over a large area.

Depending on their size and angle of approach, most fireballs flicker out at an altitude of 50-60 kilometres. They usually burn up completely, leaving only ash, says Teitto.

“If it’s a bigger piece, some of it may strike the earth’s surface, in which case it’s called a meteorite,” he explains.

Teitto says that this meteor seems to have been exceptionally bright when passing over Sweden. Expressen says that the light phenomenon scared some residents of the Stockholm region, some of whom described it as resembling lightning.

Swedish broadcaster SVT reports many sightings in Kalmar, south-eastern Sweden, and on the island of Öland.

Source

http://yle.fi/uutiset/huge_fireball_sighted_over_western_finland/84...

[Howard]

Fireball Over South Dakota (Oct 18)

Jason Rumpca of Beresford was driving to Sioux Falls from Pierre Sunday night when a bright streak lit up the sky.

“I could see glowing orange debris (and) fragments falling from it as it entered the atmosphere,” Rumpca said.

He wasn't the only one to catch a glimpse of the meteor-like flash, which prompted social media posts and calls to authorities.

The Charles Mix County Sheriff's Office received a call around 9:15 p.m. from a Lake Andes woman reporting a bright light in the sky, kind of like lightning. A nearby officer verified the sighting, according to the sheriff's office.

“(It) looked like a large ball of fire with pieces falling off as it got closer to the ground,” Bobby Mousseau, a police officer in Santee, Neb., said. “It disappeared well before the ground.”

The bright streak appeared larger than a typical falling star, according to Sioux Falls fire fighter Jim Powers.

“To me it looked green,” Powers said. “It was only there a second or two.”

“I have never seen anything like it in my life,” said Katie Christie.

Source

http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/local/2015/10/12/maybe-meteor...

[Howard]

Bright Fireball Over S. California (Oct 13)

A fireball blazed across the sky above southern California Tuesday night.

Reports from Ventura to San Diego counties described the same bright green flash.

AMS website has received over 50 reports on this startling phenomenon.

"I've seen many meteors and a couple of fireballs in my 45 years on earth, but this is the closest, brightest, longest-lasting, most dramatic one I have ever seen."

"I hope other people saw it. It was the biggest meteor I have ever seen."

"This was by far the brightest I have ever witnessed: Bright as lightening flash, and sound."

Sources

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2015/2597

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2015/10/13/many-southern-california-...

[Howard]

Summary of fireball reports this week.

Fireball Over Southern Italy (Oct 3)

A bolide plunged into the atmosphere causing a luminous trail over Puglia, Basilicata and Campania.

The bright glow in the sky attracted the attention of many people in South Italy.

The luminous trail crossed the sky lighting up for a few moments a large portion of the sky. The event was reported at around 21.15 today, October 3, 2015.

Reports have also been received from Molise, Sicily and Calabria.

Source (translated by Google)

http://www.inmeteo.net/blog/2015/10/03/ultimora-bolide-precipita-in...

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&a...;

Fireball Over Florida (Oct 2)

"Was over in 3 seconds but the fireball/meteor continued over the horizon but the smoke trail persisted."

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2015/2456

Fireball Over Southeastern U.S. (Sep 30)

"It was much larger than anything I have ever seen in the sky that was not the sun or moon."

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2015/2446

Fireball Over Southern California (Sep 29)

"This was bigger than an airliner size, it was a big yellow fireball with red and orange on edges. Even with the super moon nearby, it was bright."

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2015/2438

Fireball Over Mid-Western U.S (Sep 27)

"The longest and brightest I've ever seen in my 20 years of watching. It lit up the whole valley overcoming the bright light of the nearly full moon."

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2015/2415

[M. Difato]

9/22/2015

Flash followed by tremor scares residents Palotina, Brazil
UpdatedSeptember 22nd, 2015- Fonte e Fotos: www.UbirataOnline.com.br
He spent a fireball that was beautiful to see, it was a huge ball the same. "Said a resident from the vicinity of La Salette Shrine. Palotina from city residents were startled late on Tuesday (22), after a flash in the sky, followed by a loud noise. In social networks some report seeing something bright falling from the sky, others report that after the loud bang the walls of the houses shook for a few seconds, you must say it was probably a meteorite.

http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/2015/09/palotina-brazil-l...;

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&a...;

[M. Difato]

Video showing a Fireball explode over Philippines

Meteor caught on cam over Quezon City Philippines September 16, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=59&v=n-JzwouirQM
Joje Vitug, a resident of Barangay Pasong Tamo in Quezon City, uploaded a video of a meteor lighting up the night skies.

"I was about to reach my house last night when I saw a meteor that seemed to explode in mid air and illuminated the sky. I paused before going to my garage because I was not sure of what I saw," Vitug said.
He was lucky that his vehicle's dashboard camera was able to capture the scene, which he considers a "once-in-a-lifetime event."
Vitug sent his video to ABS-CBN News on Thu, Sep 17.

Sources

http://manila.coconuts.co/2015/09/18/qc-residents-dashboard-camera-...

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/09/17/15/watch-meteo...