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Meteors & Meteoric Fireballs (Observed Aloft)

That fireball woke me up! I live on the Devon end of the Blackdown Hills and I was woken up by a terrific rumbling / roaring sound which I thought was one of those large military planes flying very low up the valley (which we get from time to time, but never at night). Just after that there was a bright (moving) glow of light that shone in through the velux window (in our converted attic) for a couple of seconds.
This is an interesting Fortean phenomenon in itself. Sound is much slower than light, so the sound should have been several seconds after the light. But many people report the sound first, or simultaneously with the visible sighting.
 
This is an interesting Fortean phenomenon in itself. Sound is much slower than light, so the sound should have been several seconds after the light. But many people report the sound first, or simultaneously with the visible sighting.
Most likely: It's making sound before it lights up enough to be noticable.
 
This is an interesting Fortean phenomenon in itself. Sound is much slower than light, so the sound should have been several seconds after the light. But many people report the sound first, or simultaneously with the visible sighting.
Yes that's a very good point and something I've been thinking about since my first post. It only occurred to me after I posted my experience that it was a bit strange that the sound had come first, when you would expect it to come after (like with lightning and thunder).

All I actually remember is being woken up by that noise and then after that seeing the unusual light. I can't remember exactly how long it was after the sound that the light appeared but it was soon after (but not immediately).

What I do know is the sound definitely came first because that's what woke me up.
 
An incoming meteor / fireball big enough and near enough to hear will track for a long time across the sky. The sound you initially heard came from earlier in its flight.

Some years ago I (along with my then-wife and another couple) were camping atop a mountain. That night we were sitting on a scenic rock outcropping that allowed us a vista extending for dozens of miles. We saw a bolide approaching from the south and watched it until it disappeared from sight at the northern horizon. About halfway along its whole-sky trajectory the bolide exploded into 3 or 4 fiery chunks. The chunks that remained visible made it all the way to the northern horizon before the really loud percussive blast from the mid-course breakup arrived something like 15 seconds after it happened (I was counting the seconds). Anyone who'd heard the dramatic boom first would have had the opportunity to look up and see the still-flaming remnants of the bolide.
 
The meteor shower that wasn't:

Kimberley 'meteor shower' is debris from a Chinese rocket falling out of orbit​

A "meteor shower" that lit up the skies over northern Western Australia earlier this week was actually the wreckage of a Chinese rocket falling out of orbit.

Key points:​

  • Streaks of light lit up the skies over Broome in the early hours of Monday morning
  • Experts say the light show was caused by a Chinese rocket part
  • The object may have made fallen to earth somewhere in the vast interior of northern WA

Streaks of light lit up the skies over Broome in the early hours of Monday morning, with sonic booms reverberating around the town.

Several locals captured the moment on videos that were posted to social media, showing debris breaking up and streaking across the night sky at around 12:30am on Monday.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-01/meteor-shower-kimberley-long-march-rocket/101116644
 
Mysterious flashing fireballs seen streaking across US skies with experts saying it may have been a Russian rocket

Jul 13 2022

The celestial shower rained down on Tuesday evening - but some meteor specialists have pointed out that the otherworldly sighting may be pieces of an old fuel tank.

The American Meteor Society documented 29 reports of falling fireballs that started flying through the sky at about 10pm.

e608c99d-f3cf-4548-b4c9-088c2f2bb088.jpg


Residents in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon recorded the surreal experience.

"This may have been the fuel tank of an old Russian rocket," Spaceweather.com reported.

"Shortly before the explosion over Montana, the US Department of Defense Space Track website issued a Trajectory Impact Prediction (TIP) message for an object called 'BREEZE-M DEB (TANK.)' "

The fuel tank had been orbiting the Earth for nearly 10 years, Spaceweather.com reported.

"It was part of a rocket that launched Russia's Yamal 402 geostationary communications satellite on Dec. 8th, 2012," the website reads.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/5771714/fireballs-seen-us-skies-russian-rocket/

maximus otter
 
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A huge 'meteor' has been spotted in the sky over Scotland.

Residents from across the country have been left stunned as the suspected meteor appeared shortly after 9pm on Wednesday, September 14.

The UK Meteor Network received 35 public reports of the fireball as Scots began posting footage on social media.


In one CCTV clip taken in Linlithgow, West Lothian, the fireball could be seen hurling through the sky in the distance.

Stevie Doyle, who captured the clip, said: "We just witnessed something bright moving west through the sky which I guess must be something burning up in the earth’s atmosphere. Caught it on the security cameras."


More: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/huge-meteor-spotted-sky-over-27995046

 
A huge 'meteor' has been spotted in the sky over Scotland.
Residents from across the country have been left stunned as the suspected meteor appeared shortly after 9pm on Wednesday, September 14. ...

Update ... This most recent fireball is believed to represent a deorbiting Starlink satellite.
Experts say 'fireball' streaking across sky in Scotland, Northern Ireland likely space junk

People in Scotland and Northern Ireland saw something unusual in the sky on Wednesday night -- a fiery streak that looked like a meteor, but wasn't.

... The UK Meteor Network said about 800 people reported seeing the streaking fireball, which was visible for about 20 seconds. ...

Astronomers believe it was a piece of space junk, possibly connected with SpaceX's Starlink satellite program. That possibility was strengthened by the fact that the fireball appeared to break apart as it headed northwest across the sky. ...

"The preliminary trajectory has been calculated by the [International Meteor Organization] and indicates that the object, which we now believe to be space debris, would have landed in the Atlantic south of the Hebrides," the UK Meteor Network said in a tweet. ...

UK Meteor Network astronomer John Maclean said the fireball was traveling too slowly to be a meteor.

"What we're looking at at the moment is a Starlink satellite, which was actually due to deorbit or re-enter the atmosphere," Maclean said according to The Guardian. "But it is possible it could have deorbited slightly early." ...
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Science_News/20...eteor-scotland-ireland-britain/6001663246977/
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62891265
Kevin Morgan, from UK Meteor Network, had earlier told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland the speed it was travelling at could indicate that it was space junk.
After questioning whether it could have been part of Elon Musk's SpaceX programme, the network of citizen scientists, tweeted: "We have checked the Starlink de-orbit and it would not have come anywhere near the UK.
"At this point we cannot find any known space junk or satellite de-orbit that could account for this fireball. We are looking at the data again."
-
"It came on an asteroidal orbit and entered the atmosphere at 14.2 km/s," the network tweeted. "The observed portion of the trajectory covered over 300km.
"If any meteorites did fall, they ended up in the ocean."
The expert group said it was "now 100% confident this was a small part of an asteroid".
 
On November 19 a bright fireball streaked through the night sky in the Lake Ontario region.

Fireball-2022 WJ1-221119.jpg
Eerie green fireball detected hours before smashing into Lake Ontario in the dead of night

At half past 3:00 a.m. (EST) on Nov. 19, a bright green fireball streaked through the sky over the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Witnesses reported seeing a helicopter-like object cruising silently through the air before lighting up huge swathes of the night like an enormous lightning bolt. After about 10 seconds, it was gone.

This fireball was a small meteor, detected by astronomers just three hours before it tumbled through Earth's atmosphere, caught fire and broke up into hundreds of pieces. Most of those pieces likely smacked straight into Lake Ontario, though some small chunks may have impacted land on the lake's southern shore, according to NASA.

Seven observatories around the world watched the meteor make its early morning death dive, and at least 59 people in New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the nearby province of Ontario, Canada reported seeing the fireball on the International Meteor Organization's meteor-watching database. ...

The Nov. 19 fireball — now officially named 2022 WJ1 — was likely a small asteroid measuring no more than 3.2 feet (1 m) in diameter. When space rocks like these enter Earth's atmosphere, they heat up and slow down from the intense friction, producing a visible wake of fiery light behind them. Depending on a meteor's composition, it may also glow green as it tumbles to its doom. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/bright-green-fireball-us-canada
 
A bright fireball - apparently part of the annual Ursid meteor event - was captured on Alaskan home surveillance video 3 days ago.


Fireball streaks across the dark sky over Alaska

A bright fireball illuminated the dark sky over Alaska and was caught on camera in the south-central part of the state.

Multiple home security cameras in the Anchorage and Wasilla areas captured video when the large meteor crossed the sky over the state about 5:47 a.m. Wednesday. ...

The fireball sparked numerous reports to the American Meteor Society.

The AMS said Earth is currently passing through material shed by a comet, causing an annual event known as the Ursid Meteor Shower. The shower typically peaks around Dec. 22-23 ...
SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/12/22/fireball-Anchorage-Alaska/9481671737085/
 
Oh man. It was overcast here last night (North Wales) and i missed it. Very envious of anyone who actually saw it!
 
A very bright object was reported on the local Face Ache about 10/11 pm
last night coming down over the Lancaster area, those that saw it seem
to think it was more space junk than meteor, I didn't see or hear anything.

Edit likely was a meteor seen from as far south as London,
don't know if this is a pic of it or some random pic as it
was posted without any other info.

1680948952390.png
 
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Evidently no specific thread for the 'Eta Aquarid' meteorite shower which peaks this weekend.
I was outside late last night and there was only a small part of the sky that wasn't obscured by clouds.
Didn't see nowt.
 
Some years ago a friend asked me to go bar hopping with him. For some reason, as we were driving around, he asked about meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids - what they are, what the difference is, etc. (There may have been a meteor shower at the time, but I'm not sure.)

Amazingly, on the way home we saw a big light streak across the sky. He asked what it might have been, and I said "That was the type of meteor known as a fireball, and the biggest meteor I've ever seen!"
 
The object below lit up the skies of far north Queensland last night before impacting somewhere in the Gulf of Carpentaria.


‘Rogue meteor’ lights up far north Queensland’s sky in an epic spectacle​

Some Queenslanders were lucky to catch a glimpse of an unexpected space object which plummeted from the sky on Saturday evening.
Queenslanders in the state’s far north region witnessed an out-of-this world experience on Saturday night when a bright fireball-like object plummeted from the night sky.

In a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it event, a suspected meteorite was captured descending from space emitting a white and orange glow, before appearing to crash.
The epic scene occurred at about 9.22pm and was observed across multiple suburbs spanning from Barcaldine in the state’s far west to Cooktown in the far north.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/...e/news-story/414e7b5e2673f51556c3f35c53f12d55
 

Massive fireball lights up the skies over Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida


A massive fireball lit up the sky over the South as a meteor shower had some fearing of 'Armageddon'.


Reports of more than 50 sightings across Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida of a massive fireball flying through the sky were recorded by the American Meteor Society.

Witnesses said they saw a bright falling object light up the sky 'like fireworks' last Friday morning at around 4.30am.

Multiple recordings of the bright burst of falling light show flashed of green, blue, orange and yellow light.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...siana-Florida-leaving-fearing-Armageddon.html

maximus otter
 
Vid at link.

Watch: Fiery ‘meteor’ over Australia probably Russian space rocket​

Flaming debris was seen blazing across the night sky in Melbourne on Monday, sparking a flurry of social media posts questioning if it was a meteor.

The Australian Space Agency said in a statement that the flashes of light were probably remnants of a Russian Soyuz-2 rocket re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

The rocket had been used to launch a satellite earlier in the evening.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-australia-66436211
 
Because I'm quite frequently outside after dark (usually having a smoke) I always gaze upwards to see what I can spot.
Last night we had unusually extremely clear skies here, so at about 11pm I was enjoying the good view.
I pretty much 95% of the time spot something, usually a satellite or two, occasionally a brief trail across the sky of a 'shooting star' and these have been a little more frequent over the past few nights thanks to the Perseids, but it has also been rather cloudy previous nights, so last night felt like a treat.
Anyhoo....As I was out there I remarked to myself that I could count at least a dozen aircraft at various heights and distances, and had already spotted 3 satellites, when suddenly, shooting from North to the West, a large (ish) fiery flaming meteorite flew across my field of view, brightening in intensity before vanishing, leaving a clear smoking trail in the sky!
"Excellent!" I thought. (Maybe a bit of some discarded rocketry that was burning up?)
And then, just a couple of minutes later, another large (ish) fiery flaming meteorite flew across my field of view, this time from North to South, very similar in brightness and duration to the previous one, again leaving a clearly visible trail in the night sky.

How lucky was that to see 2, within minutes of each other?
 
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