300g 'meteorite' crashes through roof of Thai house. 28JUN2016
As reported in today's Bangkok Post.
Via: RSOE-EDIS.
Excerpt: "Department head Sarawut Tuantam said the rock’s crust was charcoal black, indicating it had been burned entering Earth's atmosphere at very high speeds. The test also found the chunk contained large amount of iron and was attracted by a magnet."
Please visit the original article for full details.
Latitude: 16.84N,100.23E (NW Thailand).
Time: 07:26AM Local / 00:26AM UTC
METEORDETECTIVE at GMAIL dot COM
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
Sharp increase in number of <0.5AU asteroids for current period
In the previous 24-hours, the number of <0.5AU asteroid discoveries for current period (L) has sharply increased from 284 to 1199 (increase of 915). 1 AU = ~150 million kilometers
As of yesterday, the most recent announced discovery was 2016 LJ11 (decimal equivalent = 2016, L, 284). As of 07:55 British Summer Time, this has been superseded by 2016 LY47 (decimal equivalent = 2016, L, 1199).
Within those 915 new discoveries, none have a close-approach of <10LD - which is quite unusual.
Normally (whatever 'normal' is), 0.7% of the running total <0.5AU discoveries are in the <10LD range, with 0.1% of the running total making a close-approach <1LD.
1 LD = Lunar Distance = ~384,000 kilometers
Remarks:
1) New period "M" starts as of 00:00 Thu-16-June-2016.
2) In comparison, 2015 (periods A-L inclusive) saw a total of 47,551 new <0.5AU discoveries. For the same period of 2016, so far, there have been a total of 29,742 new <0.5AU discoveries - so we're currently 'down' by 37.5% on last year's totals (so far).
Comments & queries to "meteordetective AT gmail DOT com".
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
Analysis of St. Patrick's day fireball over the UK
reported by meteordetective
An excellent follow-up to the 'St. Patrick's Day' meteor (which was widely reported and seen across much of England) has been posted at The Watchers website. It seems like the meteor was, perhaps, part of a (fast-moving) Comet?
Please visit, read and return!
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
Fireball over Southern Germany: Sun 06 Mar, 22:37CET/21:37GMT
reported by meteordetective
Post on German website/magazine: "Cologne News Magazine"
Original Source:
http://www.rundschau-online.de/aus-aller-welt/megaheller-meteor-polizei-wegen-feuerkugel-am-himmel-ueber-sueddeutschland-alarmiert-23681638
"Straubing - A particularly bright shooting star has made in the early hours of Monday in southern Germany a stir. Several eyewitnesses from Bavaria alerted the police because of the celestial phenomenon. As the University Observatory in Munich reported that there was a meteor that was visible from Bavaria to the Saarland."
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
2 x Major USA fireball events: Sunday 06-March-2016
reported by meteordetective
INITIAL POSTING: Mon-07-Mar-2016: 07:20GMT
Update 6) Tue 08-Mar-2015, 19:35Z
A video of what might be a third event at 21:45 Pacific has been posted to Youtube on XenonRocket's Channel. I'm unable (no e-mail address available) to contact the YouTuber directly, but here's the embedded video. According to the directions & location provided, the meteor seems to be travelling NE->SW.
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Update 5) Tue-08-Mar-2015, 05:00Z
Overnight, I had a witness from the Dallas event e-mail me a full set of answers to the Sightings Questionnaire, which was invaluable in assessing the Texas sighting of 20:45 Central Time on Sunday 6-March-2016.
It would appear to have been a large bolide (-4 mag.) travelling South-North on a moderate descending trajectory. The witness described the bolide as "Light orange in front with blue long tail. Very blue almost totally round in front then narrowing tail. Not like a far away shooting star." Note the use of the word "round". With regard to size, the witness states that it was: "Rounded front part was about size of thumb" (at arm's length), so the bolide was clearly large in size.
I'm still struggling to find any photos or videos of the event, so if you should find any, please let me know?
Thank you.
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Update 4) Mon-07-Mar-2015, 19Z43.
Second confirmation that the 8:15 pm is a distinct and separate (and I believe to be space-trash at this point) event - compared to the slightly later 20:26 event (which looks like a proper fireball). Second witness suggests that the space-trash landed east of route 101 - after coming-in at a steep angle.
No media coverage??
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Update 3) Mon-07-Mar-2016, 18Z53.
Well, it seems that at least one of the California events was something man-made re-entering our atmosphere. I've also had a report by e-mail of a potentially earlier event - around 8:10pm Pacific Time. Here's the first video I've seen of what I strongly suspect is NOT a meteor/meteorite (at least for one of the California sightings).
It looks like 2 events, 2 hours apart. Initial reports are that the California fireball' was very large, although the 15-20 seconds sighting-length of the CA event suggests space-trash? More data needed, please!
a) Texas, 20:45 Central Time / 02:45GMT
b) California, 20:25 Pacific Time / 04:25 GMT
I've checked by telephone with Vandenburg AF Base and they were not aware of any launches etc.
AMS' pending queue does not reflect the traffic that LunarMeteoriteHunters has been receiving, but AMS has both events in pending status.
END UPDATE
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Website traffic & a couple of e-mails suggest that there's been a major event over California USA on Sunday evening at +/- 8:30PM local time, with a second report from Dallas, TX for a similar time (don't know whether the events are related/same at this point).
If you witnessed this event and/or have images / video which you are happy to be posted (with credit) here on Lunar Meteorite Hunters website/blog, then please e-mail meteordetective@gmail.com with the following information, if possible.
1) Time and location of sighting
2) Angle from observer to the object in the sky - i.e. 90 deg. = overhead to 0 deg. = ground-level.
3) Estimated elevation/height of the object(s)
4) Apparent direction of travel: decent angle (e.g. 45 deg. down) + azimuth (N to S etc)
5) Estimated size of the object(s) - using your thumb/thumbnail at arm's length as a comparison.
6) Velocity: How many seconds to cross what portion (e.g. 1/2) of the sky
Thank you for your contributions and information. My intention is to post more information, along with the best images & videos - once I have more detail.
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
Major bolide over North Scotland, 29-Feb-2016!
reported by meteordetective
** Update: 01-Mar-2016, 23:24Z.
Well, it seems that the excitement and news coverage of this event were equally high. All data, reports and first-hand sightings which I've seen in the 24 hours since the meteor buzzed the Scottish highlands - point towards a near-miss (for a surface impact).
According to a report which was included in the Independent's coverage, people could smell burning afterwards: "Here in Carrbridge we saw it very clearly as a bright blue light for three or four seconds at 6.45pm followed by a distinct burning smell in the air for a few minutes after." (Carrbridge is 33km / 20mi SE of Inverness). If it's true that you could smell burning and that burning was a direct result of the meteor and nothing else, it seems to me that Scotland just had a close-call.
"Looking south from our living room I noticed the sky suddenly lighting up extremely bright for a few seconds. The light was flickering and in a blue / green color. After about 3-5 minutes I could hear two explosions. It sounded like a very low frequency rumble coming from a great distance. (Estimated distance for 3-5 minutes would be between 60 - 100 Km.)" Unfortunately, he didn't mention where he lives.
"..this one would have been about 10cm (4in) across." and "...it probably burnt up at an altitude of 20 miles (32km) without any pieces reaching Earth."
I'm not so sure that I agree with his analysis. Something which burns-up at 20 miles in the sky is unlikely to leave a burning smell on the ground just minutes after the event. What I saw looked significantly larger than 10cm across, too.
Kudos and thanks to Ian Sample (Science Editor of The Guardian) for being on-the-ball and for being helpful, and likewise to the senders of the report I received from Seaham Harbour, County Durham.
For those of you whom are already familiar with Genesis, here's a little something on the sky-watching theme to enjoy. For those of you unfamiliar with Genesis, this was "prog(ressive) rock" at its finest.
Keep your eyes on the skies.
** Update: 01-Mar-2016, 07:54Z.
Many people have reported a major bolide sighting over Northern Scotland during the evening of Mon 29-Feb-2016. I'm still collating/determining all the information, but it looks to have tracked ESE->WNW at around 18:45Z. The bolide turned night in to day for a few seconds.
This appears to be an unknown/undetected meteor/meteorite. Of the latest 3 discoveries, the closest (by time/date proximity) is 2016 DL1 with a close-approach of 4.68LD at 01-March at 18:22Z, but I don't think the Scottish bolide and 2016 DL1 are related, at the moment.
A second, HD, video which shows the meteor itself has been published to Youtube by the owner of the dashcam and has allowed a track of East-to-West (at an approximate latitude of 57.2º) west of Aberdeen to be established (and coordinated with the Glenlivet sighting). (Click thumbnail to enlarge screenshot, below).
The meteor appears to have produced one or more sonic booms and disintegrated during descent, so there *may* be meteorites on the ground on a track of, roughly, Aberdeen-Aviemore-Fort Augustus...but likely further west than this, too.
Meteor Observed: NE Coast of Morocco, Friday 19 Feb 2016, 19:06Z
reported by meteordetective
"Fireball observed over Morocco on 19 Feb. 2016, at 19h 06 m UT. The event was recorded by several meteor observing stations operated by the University of Huelva in Spain."
Direction of travel: NNW -> SSE, Descent angle: +/- 30 degrees. Approx Lat/Long: 35.65N,4.90W.
Posted to YouTube by Meteors.
Two Comets to make record close-approach during March 2016
reported by meteordetective
Click-on image to enlarge | Credit: Nemesis Maturity 2016
Two comets headed for close approaches to Earth record-breaking comet flyby in March 2016.
March turns out to be the month of great celestial events in 2016.
On March 21 the comet 252P/LINEAR 12 will make its closest approach yet, passing just 3.1 million miles (5.3 million km)
Comet P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS) is set to pass by Earth at a distance of 2.1 million miles (3.5 million km).
This is a record-breaking approach to Earth for a comet!!!
Comet's P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS) passage will be the closest known comet flyby of the last 230 hundred years. Comet P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS) was discovered by the Pan-STARRS survey
on 2016 Jan 22
"Twin" Comets Headed for close approaches to Earth Record-Breaking Comet Flyby March 2016
Posted to Youtube by: nemesis maturity 2,624 views
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
