Fireball leaves area residents wondering

From staff reports
Updated 10:53 p.m., Monday, April 2, 2012

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

The flying object has not been identified. But no one has conjectured that it held little green men with giant eyes.

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.”

A space rock or piece of an old satellite burning up as it hits the Earth’s atmosphere is not a rare occurrence, said Joe Wheelock, the public affairs specialist at the McDonald Observatory.

“It’s not uncommon at all,” he said.

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.

For those who missed the fireball, the good news is that the Lyrid meteor shower can be seen April 21-22.

Colin McDonald, Zeke MacCormack, Sig Christenson and Scott Huddleston contributed to this report.

via Fireball leaves area residents wondering – San Antonio Express-News.

Meteor shower dazzles Victorians lucky enough to see it

Aleks Devic From: Herald Sun
March 05, 2012 6:45AM

UPDATE: A FIREBALL that streaked through the sky last night had many thinking a plane had crashed.

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.

Did you see the meteor shower? Send your photos or video to news@heraldsun.com.au

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.

– with Angus Thompson

Meteor shower dazzles Victorians lucky enough to see it | Herald Sun.

Meteor lights up the sky across England

People described a bright ball of fire moving across the sky with a large tail

By TARA BRADY
UPDATED: 02:50 EST, 5 March 2012

Police forces across the UK were inundated with calls last night after a large fireball, thought to be a meteor, was spotted in the sky.

Reports of a ‘bright light’ and an ‘orange glow’ were received by police across Scotland and the north of England at about 9.40pm yesterday.

Some people are believed to have phoned the police fearing a plane had crashed.

A spectacular shot of the meteor taken by amateur astronomer Graeme Whipps in northern Scotland

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

The Kielder Observatory also reported the sighting of a ‘huge fireball’ travelling from north to south over Northumberland.

The Observatory posted on Twitter: ‘Of 30 years observing the sky, fireball best thing I have ever seen period.’

Meteors are particles from space that burn up in a streak of light as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, whereas meteorites are larger objects that survive the trip and reach the surface of the Earth.

Dr David Whitehouse, an author and astronomer, said: ‘Judging by its brightness, it may have have been large enough to survive and hit the ground but until people work out its trajectory we won’t have any idea where it might have come down.’

Dr Whitehouse said the object was about the size of a fist and was probably the debris of a planet that never properly formed.

‘It’s a chunk of rock that’s probably come from somewhere between Mars and Jupiter has been in space for thousands of millions of years.

‘There are tens of thousands of bits of rock and grains of sand orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Some of it comes out of that orbit and some of it hits the Earth.’

Amateur astronomer, Graeme Whipps, spotted the bright light while taking photos of the aurora in Chapel of Garioch near Aberdeen.

Graeme, 48, who works as a meteorologist, captured the image with a Canon 40D, 15 second exposure.

He said: ‘It looked like it was moving south or southwest, whilst brightening.’

He is one of a number of people across Britain who saw a meteor across the north of England and Scotland.

Mike Ridley, an amateur photographer, of Durham City, managed to capture a stunning image of the meteorite against the backdrop of the ‘Global Rainbow’ – a laser display by artist Yvette Mattern installed in Whitley Bay to celebrate the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad in the north-east of England.

Mr Ridley, 49, a Quality Assurance Inspector for Nissan in Washington Tyne and Wear, said: ‘I was standing with my friend when we saw a bright light in the sky moving really fast.

‘I was there to photograph the laser show in Whitley Bay, but the light caught my eye so I turned the camera around.

‘At first I thought it was a firework, then my friend said he thought it was a meteor or comet – I caught the white light and an orange glowing tail in my picture.

Amazing: The stunning meteor is captured shooting across the sky behind a laser show in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. The shot was taken by amateur photographer Mike Ridley using time-lapse photography

‘I managed to capture the trail it left because I took my photo with a long exposure.

‘The light was heading north to south. It lasted thirty seconds or more, It was really spectacular. We waited around to see if we would see anything else, but it was over very quickly.’

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.

In Durham, calls started to come in at about 9.45pm to its constabulary 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.

She said: ‘The sightings are believed to be either an asteroid burning out or similar which has been restricted to the upper atmosphere only.’

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 where they had seen the shower and Adrian West, of Meteorwatch, said he had seen reports of sightings from Scotland to Devon.

He spotted the meteor in Berkshire and believed it could have gone down in the English Channel or the Bay of Biscay.

Mr West told the BBC it was a ‘fireball flying from north to south’, that was ‘very bright in the sky’ and lasted for a few seconds.

He said: ‘It had a very bright orange nucleus and a green tail.

‘It was seen by hundreds, maybe thousands of people.’

Meteor lights up the sky across England | Mail Online.