Geminid Meteor Shower Set to Light up Skies in December 2010

The Geminid Meteor shower is set to peak during the night of December 13th and the morning of the 14th.  The bright flashes of light in the sky produced by the Geminids are thought to originate from an object called 3200 Phaethon, which is more like a rocky comet, than your typical icy comet.  This object is dusty, and as it orbits around the sun in our solar system, it is continually shedding dust and debris.  Thus, debris from 3200 Phaethon  is  able to produce large fireballs as they enter the Earth's atmosphere. The best chances for catching a glimpse of one of these fireballs will be when the Geminid Meteor Shower peaks, with a rate of about 60 per hour during the early morning hours of December 14.

Fireballs over England
The Geminids have been known to produce occasional large fireballs. The meteor shower has been known to start as early as December 6th.  Once such fireball may have been sighted over England the other night.  This bright object flashed across the skies of England and lasted about 5 seconds.  Many news reports have stated that astronomers think thatthe object was about the size of a football when it entered the Earth's atmosphere. Now, it is hard to  say if the fireball seen in England was associated with the Geminids, since there are several weaker meteor showers that are still ongoing during the month of December.  The full extent of the Geminid meteor showers remain much of a mystery since they are not caused by your typical comet.

Meteors and Fireballs Seen across England and Scotland

Meteors were sighted last Monday evening across the Brittish Isles, as various news sources reported sightings from residents in the United Kingdom. Meteor sighting reports came in at different times, so it is likely that several where seen over a period of several hours. It is believed that these meteors belong to the Taurid Meteor shower, which puts on sporadic display duinng October and November.
Sightings were made at around 5:30pm in the afternoon in Chorley, Edinburgh and Kiddernminster in Scotland. The following morning additional flashes of light were seen across England during the early morning hours.

Expect meteor sighting reports to increase over the next couple of days and the Leonid Meteor shower picks up steam. Be sure to get out during the early morning hours after the moon has set for the best chance to see any meteor showers. At my home location, it looks like it is going to be a cloudy night, so I may not have much luck in spotting any meteors.

Iceland Volcano and a Fireball across 5 Midwestern States

A volcano eruption in Iceland continues to spew so much ash into the air, that it is beginning to have an effect on air travel across Northern Europe. The Eyjafjallajokul Volcano erupted on March 20th, and there has been an upswing in activity over the past several days. Airport in England, Denmark, and Norway have been shut down due to the ash.

Volcanic ash is extremely dangerous to jet engines. The particulate matter in volcanic ash can be sucked into the jet intakes causing catastrophic damage to the engines.

Meanwhile, a fireball streaked across five mid-western states last night. The fireball was seen over Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. It could likely have just been a fairly large chunk of space rock making an fiery entry into the earth's atmosphere.

Meteor seen over London Skies

According to a London Free Press report, a meteor streaked across the skies of London on the evening of February 20th. The fireball it created lit up the skies for several seconds. There was a witness who saw the meteor for as long as five seconds as it moved across the sky. Dave McCarter, president of the Royal Astronomical Society said that the meteor was probably about the size of a peanut.

Usually fireballs of this type give off a green hue, but the one that was sighted over London was orange, ans then turned to white. If you happened to see this fireball, feel free to leave a comment about what you saw, where it traveled, etc. thanks!

Fireball in Mexico May Be From Russian Satellite

A fireball was seen racing across the skies over Mexico City, and there was speculation that the burning object may have impacted the ground. Initial reports from the area stated that a 30 foot wide crater resulted from, the impact. However, when reporters visited the area where the reports originated from, they could not find any evidence of an impact.

The fireball may have been caused by the re-entry of fragments from the Russian Cosmos 2421 satellite that was launched in 2006. Cosmos 2421 was thought to be spy satellite that literally fell to pieces in space shortly before it was said to have completed its primary mission. Since this seems to be a fairly common occurrence for Russian spy satellites, it is quite possible that they contain some sort of self destruct sequence.

Source: Discovery News

Meteor streaks over Beijing China

A quick news flash from China...

A fireball exploded in the sky over a suburb of Beijing China during the mid evening hours of December 16th, 2009. The meteor came in at around 10:23 PM.

The object was witnessed by a large number of people, and even captured on film by the Beijing Planetarium. Eye witness reports, along with the camera footage indicate that debris from the object fell about 40 km west of central Beijing. There is an ongoing search for any debris that may have reached the ground.

Residents are being encouraged to contribute any fragments that they find to the Beijing Planetarium. It would be a great addition to the planetarium if they would be able to study and display fragments from a meteor that fell locally.

Source: China Daily

Nebraska Earthquake With a Meteor

In what may just be an instance of cosmic and earthly coincidence, a 3.5 magnitude earthquake, centered near Auburn Nebraska was accompanied by a fireball that was visible from Nebraska to Oklahoma City.

I have heard of lightning, or bright lights that have been reported with earthquakes, but I am not sure if this was the case in the Nebraska quake.

The fireball came in at at around 9pm on the evening of December 16th. The earthquake was measured to have occurred at 8:53 pm, right at about the same moment the meteor streaked across the skies. This fireball also produced several loud sonic booms, and may have exploded in the atmosphere.

The sky was lit as bright as daylight for several seconds over several states, which would be a good indicator that an upper level atmospheric explosion took place. Therefore, there may be a chance that some fragments were able to reach the ground.

If anyone saw the event, feel free to leave a comment on what you saw.

Fireball Seen Over Minnesota and Wisconsin

A fireball streaked across the skies of Western Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin at about 1:15 AM in the morning on Friday December 11th.

Night sky observers reported seeing a bright green flash that turned night time darkness into near daylight to the local National Weather Service Office in Grand Forks, ND. Other reports were made to the Duluth, MN office as well.

Interestingly, the Beckers County Sheriffs Department reported a similar occurrence about a month ago. Conditions were foggy, so it was difficult for them to tell where the object was headed.

The Geminid Meteor shower is just about to reach its peak over the next couple of days. The fireball over North Dakota and Minnesota may be related to the Geminid meteor shower, or it could be a sporadic hunk of rock that just happened to enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Source: The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead

Fireball streaks across South African Skies

Last Saturday during the late evening hours, a meteor streaked across the skies in South Africa. The fireball entered the Earth's atmosphere around 11 PM local time and tracked across Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Botswana. As it streaked across the sky, it had a blue-green color.

It believed to have landed in the Lampopo province. There were several reports that included sonic booms, or sounds of an impact.

If you happen to have video footage of this fireball, the Johannesburg Planetarium would like to have a look. There are additional reports and information about the meteor on their webpage. The footage could be used to help make a determination where the object may have landed. There is an interested in recovering any possible debris for study.

Texas Fireball Likely a Metallic Meteor

A fairly large meteor cam crashing down in west Texas last week just after a pair of satellites were reported to have collided. There was a lot of speculation that chunks of satellite debris fell over Texas as a large fireball. At about the same time sonic boons were being heard over Kentucky, and something was said to have fallen from the sky somewhere in the eastern part of Kentucky.

Officials that are tracking the satellite debris, say that the falling objects could not have been from the left over satellites since they were not in the vicinity. It is more likely that both were meteorites. Based on the burn color, the meteorite in Texas is metallic in origin, and likely to have been the size of a pickup truck.

Since the meteor was so big, a number of meteorite hunters are flocking to West Texas to try to find pieces of the space rock. Texas is a big state! To find something on the ground, hunters are going to have to rely on pure dumb luck!

Rocket Re-Entry Over Southern Australia

I wrote about sighting of a fireball over Sweden as possibly being the Molniya-M Stage 3 that was set to make an entry sometime later in the day last Saturday. The Russian rocket motor actually entered the atmosphere off of the coast of southern Australia, on the opposite end of the world. Since this was an uncontrolled re-entry this is no real surprise that the location and timing of the re-entry was so far off from the predictions. In addition, from what I read in their reports, it was traveling in the opposite direction of the old Russian rocket.

So, it is unlikely that the witnesses in Sweden were looking at a rocket motor, but most likely just a regular old meteor burning up.

The word Molniya means "lightning" in Russian. These rocket motors have been in service since the 1960s. The one that burned up over southern Australia was launched back in 1982. That's quite a long time that it spent floating around in space before it came down!

Fireball in Sweden; Look for Rocket Rentry in Brazil Today

Air rescue server units, and other Swedish authorities received a lot of call last night as a fireball was seen streaking across the sky. Authorities have attributed that object as being a bolide.

The fireball was seen across southern and western Sweden for several seconds.

Meanwhile, a little later today at 20:38 UTC a Molniya-M Stage 3 Rocket is expected to make re-entry into the atmosphere just off the coast of eastern South America. The Molniya is a rocket that is built by the Russians. The third stage it an upper stage on the rocket body and measures about 7 to 8 feet long by a little over 6 feet wide. Looks like the projected path of this re-entry is going to be out over the Caribbean and Western Atlantic ocean. It is common for a couple of these to come down each year.

However, the re-entry time prediction for this rocket stage is plus or minus 14 hours. It may be that the sighting in Sweden may have actually this rocket stage, since its projected path takes it over southern Sweden a few orbits before re-entry. If I get a little better confirmation on when the rocket make reentry, I will update.

All Sky Cameras Keep All Night Watch

Computer controlled "all sky cameras" have popped up all over the United States and Canada providing a continuous watch for meteors and fireballs as they streak across the sky.

The setup for these cameras come in a variety of methods. In most cases they have some sort of fish eye type lens that provides a view over the entire sky. These cameras are then connected to a recording device that allows one to go back and review the data. Image analysis software usually allow azimuth information, and perhaps even sky charts to be super imposed, to allow for easy analysis.

Some more sophisticated setups may have automatic motion detection software that not only keeps track of meteor count, but also deter nines origin and track across the sky.

There are also many all sky cameras that feed their images directly to the internet, like this sky camera from the University of Arizona. This is a good one because, on most nights the skies are clear, and you get a good view of the sky.

I think "all sky cameras" are pretty neat. Not only would you be able to sleep peacefully at night and still be on the lookout for meteors, but you would also perhaps catch the UFO. You would thing that with all of these cameras out in the field, at least one or two would have spotted a UFO.

Fireball and Sonic Booms in Alaska

On Monday December 29th, a possible fireball streaked across the sky and created sonic booms over Tok, Alaska. The loud booms and contrails had local residents concerned that an aircraft mishap had occured. There were even some theories that the Air Force was operating, or maybe UFOs had landed.

Where the heck is Tok? Well it is a leisurely 6 hour drive from Anchorage along Alaska Route 1. It is really amazing how big the state is.

Calls started streaming in to a local 911 dispatch shortly after 330 pm in the afternoon, with people reporting hearing a large sonic boom. Others saw a smoky contrail, while some actually did see the fireball come down and break up into several pieces.

The area is quite remote, so there will probably be little chance of finding any pieces. The object was probably about the size of a volleyball, or maybe a little larger.

Alaska misses out on most meteor showers in the summertime because of the nearly 24 hour daylight in that occurs over most of the state.

In the wintertime, it is another story, as it is dark most of the time, so your chances of seeing object streaking in from space are much greater.

Source: NewsMiner

Meteor Streaks Across Australia

At about 8:25 PM local time, a meteor streaked across the skies above Perth, Australia.  The flash was seen for several seconds and described as having several different colors, ranging from blue to orange.  As the Southern Hemisphere is in their summer season, this meteor occurred just before sunset.  

Locations that reported seeing the fireball included: Leonora, Perth, and Kalgoorlie.

Fireball Brings Beautiful Sunset over Auckland, New Zealand

Here is a picture of a meteor that was visible for several minutes over Auckland, New Zealand, as it entered the Earth's atmosphere last night on December 3rd. The fireball occurred near sunset which lead to a beautiful display. It is estimated that the size of this chunk of space rock was about the size of a car wheel. There is more on the story and also a video from this New Zealand television station that reports on the meteor.

Thanksgiving Meteor Lights ups Skies over Seattle

Another bright meteor within the past month has lit up the skies over the Western United States. On Thanksgiving night a meteor streaked across the skies over western Washington, and even was captured on live television on the KOMO channnel 4 Queen Anne Tower camera. This meteor entered the atmosphere at about 5 AM on Thanskgiving DAy morning.

Meanwhile, scientists in Canada have reported finding some fragments on the ground from the meteor that was widely televised as it entered the atmosphere last week. The fragments were found along the Battle River along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

Edmonton and Western Canada Lit up by Fireball

It seems like the 5:30 PM time frame is becoming the choice time for heading out to look for bolides streaking across the sky. The past several nights have seen a lot of fireball activity, most likely in association with the Leonids Meteor Shower, which is just past peak. Last night, we saw reports out of western California, and tonight, New Orleans had a nice fireball sighting.

The latest report comes from Western Canada, where a fireball was visible over a widespread area. The meteor sighting was reported from Edmonton, to Regina. After it fell, the phone lines lit up at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police station in the region as many saw the event.

With the meteor coming down in Canada, there were some reports of it descending to the ground. Others also reported hearing a loud boom as it came down.

Meteor Lights up the Sky over New Orleans

On Thursday evening on November 20th, a fireball streaked across the sky in Louisiana over the city of New Orleans. Some have speculated that it is the lost tool bag from the International Space Station. Not hardly, as the tool bag is slowly spinning away from the space station. It will be carried by its inertia away from the station at a constant rate, until the earth's gravity gains the upper hand, probably in a year or two.

The fireball over New Orleans was visible by many in the early evening, and even the Air Traffic Control Tower made note of its passing.

Meteor Streaks Across California Sky

On November 18th, at around 5:30 PM, a fireball streaked across the sky in central California. The object traveled from east to west and broke up into several pieces. The meteor was seen in the Sacramento area, from Modesto to Lincoln. A meteor sighting, probably the same one, was also reported across the San Francisco Bay area at about the same time. Since the Taurids are waning now, this most likely was a meteor that was associated with the Leonids.