Get Ready for the Year's Best Meteor Shower CBS News What promises to be the best meteor shower of the year is hitting its peak just in time for the holidays, but skywatchers should act fast: This sky show ...
HA NOI — The brightest meteor shower of the year, named Geminids, is expected to be seen tonight and early morning on Wednesday throughout Viet Nam, ...
Meteor shower building to Tuesday peak UPI.com 13 (UPI) -- The annual Geminid meteor shower, one of the biggest and brightest of the year, has arrived and will be at its best on Tuesday, US astronomers ...
PLANETARY SOCIETY, INDIA: Geminid Meteor Shower 2010 By PLANETARY SOCIETY, INDIA Organisation for Promotion of Space Sciences. Geminid Meteor Shower 2010. For more details/sky maps and other instructions come back here after 5.00 p.m.. Here is the Animation of Geminid as it would appear in the sky : Older Post Home ...
Meteor showers expected tonight The Hindu Stargazers can look forward to one of the most spectacular annual event among celestial phenomenon as the Geminid meteor shower is predicted to peak on ...
U.S. Military in Talks to Share Fireball Data from Secret Satellites By Leonard David SPACE.com's Space Insider Columnist posted: 10 December 2010 07:37 am ET For decades, the U.S. Department of Defense has operated classified spacecraft loaded with high-tech gear to carry out a range of reconnaissance duties. But the satellites have also spotted the high-altitude explosions of natural fireballs that routinely dive into the Earth's atmosphere, and talks are
Maryland Weather: Geminid meteor shower peaks this week - Weather ... By Frank Roylance Geminid meteor shower peaks this week. Meteor shower 2010 FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS: Watch for “shooting stars” this week as we near the peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower, late Tuesday evening and early Wednesday. ...
Meteor showers tomorrow Times of India The Geminid meteor shower - peaking on December 13 night before making its way into the wee hours of December 14 - is the most intense of such celestial ...
Geminid meteor shower set for clear skies The Guardian Some experts believe the annual Geminid meteor shower is becoming more spectacular – though if it is, nobody is sure why – and with cloudless skies possible ..
It's Geminid Time! Sky & Telescope But the Geminid meteor shower of mid-December ties or even surpasses the Perseids as the year's richest and most reliable meteor display. ...
Reader of Meteor/Meteorite News reports: Claremore OK 1:45AM CST Dec 12 2010 just south of old rt66 on the south side of the city of Claremore, Oklahoma Saw a meteorite glowing green and moving incredibly fast as it burned up with possible large orange spark of material descending after the main flare of the burn out was facing north while taking out the trash and it seemed to come from behind me so it was falling at a south to north orientation and it burned up what looked like "airliner circling an airport" height and an orange spark continued from it a bit further down and went out of sight beyond the houses and trees to the north of me.I never saw one this close, usually waaay far off and barely visible and it almost scared me until I realized what I was seeing was just a much closer version of meteorites burning up. (contact info on file)
This looks to be a genuine video of this event posted to Youtube by johnnythefixer. The video is taken from a moving vehicle travelling on a bearing of approximately 35 degrees east of north (NNE), along Brookside Avenue, Knotty Ash, Merseyside. The video shows a the passage of the meteor from 17:35:09 UT to 17:35:13 UT.
With respect to the fragmenting fireball of 2010 December 08th 17:30 - 17:45 UT, seen from across Britain, Alastair has updated the forum posting detailed above as follows:
I've analysed the available data from 58 reports on the December 8-9 fireball now. The meteor probably happened within five minutes or so of 17:36 UT that evening.
Places across Britain were treated to a view the event, between Swansea in south Wales, Somerset, Dorset and Berkshire in southern England, north to Renfrewshire, Stirlingshire and Fife in central Scotland, as well as across the country from Anglesey off north Wales to the northeast coast of Norfolk in East Anglia.
While the data did not all confirm a single pattern for where the meteor may have been, there was a high probability it had a generally east to west trajectory above central-northern England. Two early reports suggested it had passed almost overhead from the York-Leeds area of Yorkshire. Further analysis indicated a reasonable probability that the fireball had started somewhere above North Yorkshire, the East Riding, or the North Sea offshore of there, as the first point of a "central line" to this broader area, possibly around 10 km east of Filey near 100 km altitude. The visible end was then plausibly over central-western North Yorkshire, or perhaps the adjacent parts of southern County Durham or northern West Yorkshire around the Leeds-Bradford region, centrally again, possibly above the eastern Pennines around the Lofthouse-Masham Moor area of upper Nidderdale, around 55 km altitude. These central line specific locations were around 54.2° N, 0.1° W to 54.2° N, 1.7° W. Likely errors for the heights were at least +/- 10 km, for points along the central line path +/- ~40 km, and for the geographic coordinates,
roughly +/- 0.5°.
This central line is not definitive, merely a best-estimate drawing on what most of the available sightings would at least partly support. However, if we assume it to have been approximately correct, the projected surface path would have been ~105 km long. The fireball's atmospheric trajectory would have been descending at about 23°-24° to the horizontal (or between about 12° to 30° dependent on the error margin), giving an atmospheric path length of ~115 km (or between 108-123 km).
Estimates for the object's visible flight ranged from 1.5 to 10 seconds, according to those who saw all or most of the event, but most (87%), including the few more experienced astronomical observers, favoured a duration of six seconds or less, the majority (68%) between 2 to 4 seconds, with an overall average for all the estimates of 4 seconds. Using this average with the atmospheric path lengths proposed above gives an atmospheric velocity for the meteor, not allowing for deceleration, of ~29 km/sec (error range ~27-31 km/sec), so meteorically slow. This would be consistent with the relatively low start height, as slower meteors tend to ablate lower in the typical ~90-120 km altitude meteor zone.
With this path direction and length, the meteor was likely a sporadic or possibly a late Northern Taurid (recent International Meteor Organization video results have indicated the Northern Taurids probably continue their activity until December 10, rather than ending in late November as we have long supposed). The path direction would have to have been much more northeast to southwest, the estimated velocity somewhat swifter, the path length greater and angled more shallowly to the horizontal for the event to have been a potential Geminid, given that that shower's radiant had barely risen to the northeast when the meteor happened.
Thirty-five observers commented that the object broke apart, probably in a severe fragmentation event quite late in its apparition, producing around 4 to 7 main pieces and likely a lot of smaller sparkling droplets. Seven people suggested the meteor had left a short-lived persistent train for around two seconds, though two people saw no train at all (possibly because of different local observing conditions).
Colours mentioned in the main fireball included white (30%), green and orange (21% each), yellow (19%), blue (7%) and red (2%), while those in the tail or the persistent train (not everyone was clear about the distinction) were orange and blue (29% each), green and yellow (14% each), or red and white (7% each). Nobody in the open air reported hearing any sounds associated with the meteor.
The lack of acoustics and the relatively high end height counted against the possibility of any meteorites having fallen from the event, and increased the difficulty of identifying the more likely fall zone. Any solid objects continuing along the centre line would have splashed-down into the Irish Sea around 20 km offshore of the Barrow coastline of Cumbria. The Irish Sea would have been the more probable fall area overall, or the adjacent lands of the British Isles. No such fall reports consistent with the timing of this event have yet been received, however.
Super long meteor path - Dec 09, 2010 - New Mexico
I captured a fireball last night that traversed a vast amount of sky in the all-sky camera. Here is a link for a .mp4 movie. 1 MB The radio reflection was about one minute long but I just included the head echo and twenty seconds or so of forward scatter. http://www.heliotown.com/FBns20101209_1106utHE_Ashcraft.mp4 Thomas Ashcraft | HELIOTOWN | New Mexico
980 CJME News Talk Radio “I'm banking on it was a meteor of some sort and just fizzing out before it hits ground.” Experts say the description is similar to what is reported during ...
Readers of Meteor/Meteorite News report: Palouse,Washington ~3:00 am 9DEC2010 Guest734 (guest) wrote:Yes I saw a green fireball with a huge orange tail on it about 15 minutes ago over western washington state,USA t was to the nrth of me towards Canada.
Surrey, BC - white fireball 6pm Dec 8th Guest655 (guest):surrey, bc - saw a bright white fireball with a long tail around 6pm Dec 8th -amazing!
Large Fragmenting Fireball 2010 12 08 17:30 - 17:45 UT in the UK
My wife just saw an amazing meteor in the UK.....Unfortunately I still had my head in the car unloading and missed it :-( It must have been very spectacular further north as she observed at looking into the remainder of the glowing light from sunset and with a fair bit of light pollution....very low slow and distant. She reports as follows: Site Location:Swannington,Leicestershire, England Latitude: 52°44’16.92”N, Longitude: 01°22’ 51.65”W Date 8DEC2010 Time: 17h 39m 00s GMT Visible duration (in seconds): at least 3 Train Details: large fragmenting fireball Sounds: None apparent Fragmentation: Yes Colours: White Large fragmenting fireball brighter than Jupiter but not as bright as the full moon travelling apparently east to west seen for the length of the plough directly below the plough, low, (3/4 above horizon 1/4 below plough) Initial start of hot flight not noticed so could have lasted longer. Seen through light pollution and probably too distant to hear associated sounds/detonations. Report by Graham Ensor in the UK
Other reports from the UK-
And (guest) reported on elp allsky : just saw a bright white/blue/purple meteor with a long orange/yellow trail over Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Guest919 (guest): just saw a fireball go across Melton Mowbray, United Kingdom... it as quite low and went really fast... trail of like fire behind it!! any way of knowing what it was at all?
Guest521 (guest): Saw fireball just before it had a tail which broke up as it sped NNE to SSW over Glasgow, Scotland at 1735hrs. It was the comparative size of the Moon which was low in the west at the time.
Guest366 (guest)reported on elp allsky: I saw it over Sheffield at 17:35 GMT. Very impressive.
Guest995 (guest): Saw it 17.35 GMT Dudley, England travelling SW.Could it be 1st stage of Falcon 9 rocket re-entering atmosphere?
The SPA Meteor Section have so far received about 15 reports of a bright fragmenting fireball from across northern England and Scotland see at apporoximately 2010 12 08 17:30 - 17:45 UT. I'm sure there'll be more on this shortly. reported by David E.
Guest66 (guest): Saw a bright light in the east sky around an hour ago in western iowa, turned green before it faded, any ideas?
Guest838 (guest): I saw a large green sparkly meteor slowly shoot over northeastern Iowa and also was curious if anyone else had seen it!
MEXICO 7DEC2010
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fiat128: Yesterday at aoubt 5:00 PM (more or less) I saw a meteor fall in Juarez Mexico, just across the border before.The angle was nearly straight down (about 85-89 degrees). I've seen several meteors before but this is the first one I every saw in the daylight. The fireball went out before it crossed the horizon so I guess it burned up. I can't find any mention of the event on the internet,have you guys heard anything about it? My name is Wiley Robinson and I will try to get more specific information today such as the coordinates, direction etc.
Guest204 (guest): Just saw bright orange meteor in low eastern horizon about 20 minutes ago in Yuma AZ. Lasted 3 to 5 seconds, large and long orange tail started then stopped,then main portion,thought at first it was a flair from Naval gunnery range, but too large and flew in wrong directions had me stunned watching it at first, lol. reported on elp allsky
Meteor/Meteorite News: Meteor fireball spotted over UK BBC News Stargazers throughout the UK have reported seeing a meteor-like streak of light in the darkened skies. The BBC was contacted by people in Scotland, ...
Space.com December's night sky spectacular will feature the best meteor shower of 2010 as well as the only total lunar eclipse of the year – sights should outshine ...
تقوم وزارة الدولة لشئون البيئة حاليا بإتخاذ إجراءات إعلان منطقة ( نيزك جبل كامل ) كمحمية طبيعية والتى تقع على الحدود المصرية السودانية خط عرض 22 و شرق جبل العوينات بحوالى 120كم تمهيدا لإعلانه على مواقع التراث الفلكي العالمى فى إطار اتفاقية التراث العالمي التابعة لمنطقة اليونسكو. ... The Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs is taking action declaration of the zone (meteor whole mountain) as a nature reserve, which lies on the Egyptian-Sudanese border line width of 22 and east of Mount Owainat about 120 km in preparation for the announcement of the heritage sites astronomical world in the framework of the World Heritage Convention of the UNESCO. ... (original story in Arabic) البيئة تستعد لإعلان منطقة (نيزك جبل كامل) محمية طبيعية
Where, How Astronomers Could Find Alien Life ABC News Scientists could find life that came aboard a meteorite or comet. They also could find life — deep in the sea or beneath Antarctica's ice — that is so ...
Man catches sky fireball on camera UPI.com 7 (UPI) -- A Georgia man who used his video camera to record what appears to be a fireball rocketing across the sky said he does not know what the object ... (NOT a meteor or fireball! a jet contrail!; bad reporting!)
