Telegraph.co.uk UFO sightings could be explained by meteor showers and ball lightening, according to an Australian astropyhsicist. Dr Stephen Hughes has made a ...
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Hughes, Stephen W. (2010) Green fireballs and ball lightning. Royal Society of London. Proceedings A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. (In Press) This paper presents evidence of an apparent connection between ball lightning and a green fireball. On the evening of the 16th May 2006 at least three fireballs were seen by many people in the skies of Queensland, Australia. One of the fireballs was seen passing over the Great Divide about 120 km west of Brisbane, and soon after, a luminous green ball about 30 cm in diameter was seen rolling down the slope of the Great Divide. A detailed description given by a witness indicates that the phenomenon was probably a highly luminous form of ball lightning. An hypothesis presented in this paper is that the passage of the Queensland fireball meteor created an electrically conductive path between the ionosphere and ground, providing energy for the ball lightning phenomenon. A strong similarity is noted between the Queensland fireball and the Pasamonte fireball seen in New Mexico in 1933. Both meteors exhibit a twist in the tail that could be explained by hydrodynamic forces. The possibility that multiple sightings of fireballs across South East Queensland were produced owing to fragments from comet 73P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 is discussed. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/38939/ |
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2 comments:
Just saw one a little over an hour ago here in Valdosta, GA. It was big! Looked like a big fireball! It started off light, then got brighter, then turned a green tint, then back to an orangish color before it faded out fast. Disappeared basically. I called my friend who was driving a couple mins behind me to see if he saw it and he described it as a big fireball too. I believe I was heading south on the road I was driving on.... So, I THINK it was moving from west to east. I know it went from my right to left. It might have been a plane crashing, but I can't be sure. We live next to Moody AFB. But I didn't see a smoke trail or a big firey crash and burn and no loud bang sounds. And no sirens or anything like that... and we live 30 seconds away from a firestation.
Thank you Jenny! What time was the event?
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