Planet X Incoming: the Latest
Fireballs Reported Around the World
Tina Robertson was just trying to catch a stray cat out in front of her property when she heard it.
“It freaked me right out,” she said.
Then she looked up to see a “big ball of fire.”
“It was moving like hell,” she said. “It was big, but not as big as that one in Russia.”
What she and other witnesses as far afield as Seattle and Nanaimo seem to have seen around 6:50 p.m. Friday was a type of meteor known as a bolide. Bolides are as bright as a full moon; they’re a meteor that doesn’t just burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, it explodes.
(Hat tip to Seattle Twitter user Reb Roush for pointing us all to the term.)
Robertson’s partner Wilf Krickhan was loading up firewood in a bobcat behind the house when he saw the blue-green bolide flash across the sky.
“It had an orange streak behind it,” he said.
The couple live on a farm about 25 kilometres up Chilliwack Lake Road. From their vantage point, it looked like the meteor flashed out up the slopes of Mount McGuire, in the direction of Vedder Road and the site of the former CFB Chilliwack.
Friday was the start of the Geminid meteor shower, so keep your eyes peeled at the sky for the next two weeks. The peak period will be on Dec. 13 and 14.
People in Seattle saw a bright streak in the sky around the same time, and so did Andrew Arthur, who was driving south through Ladner on Highway 17A.
“It was close: cloud level almost. Very bright,” he told The Province via Twitter. “Burned up as it travelled southwest.”
Across the Georgia Strait, Marc Kurtagic was out for an evening stroll when he spotted the bright light off in the eastern sky.
“It looked like a distant star at first, then became brighter, then produced a green glow with a bright tail,” he said over Twitter. Like Robertson, he was reminded of the famous 2013 bolide, captured by video in Chelyabinsk, Russia, but agreed it was much smaller.
“What caught me with surprise was the speed of it. It looked like a plane approaching at night at first,” he said.
As for Robertson's stray cat, she still hasn't caught it. She and Krickhan said people keep dropping off unwanted pets up their way and they wish the practice would stop. "It's heartbreaking," she said.
Meteor caught on camera as it blazes through the night sky over Cheltenham – Did you see a meteor in the skies above Cheltenham last night? They were caught on camera by Allan Carter who posted the images on twitter this morning. He wrote: “Caught this bright meteor breaking through the clouds on two cameras to the north East over Cheltenham area.” READ MORE
Bright Fireball Seen In Barcelona – A very bright bolide appeared on Nov. 28th, 2015 at 19h07m08s TUC was recorded by Folgueroles SPMN station operated by Pep Pujols (Agrupació Astronòmica d’Osona). Trajectory reconstruction from other 4 stations was made by Dr. J.M. Trigo-Rodriguez (CSIC-IEEC) giving clues on the fragile nature of the meteoroid producing this bright fireball that disrupted abruptly at a height of 80 km. READ MORE
Early Geminid fireball photographed over Tucson
Early Geminid fireball – caught December 2, 2015 at 10:34 p.m. from the Tucson, Arizona foothills.Geminids meteors are beginning to fly. The shower peaks on the night of December 13.
Our friend Eliot Herman - who has a very cool set-up for capturing
meteors - sent us this photo. It appears to be an early Geminid meteor,
and not just any meteor but a fireball, or exceptionally bright meteor.
We're still many days away from the peak of this shower on the night of December 13 (morning of December 14), 2015. But the shower should be gearing up around now. Eliot wrote:
Fisheyes curve, or distort, so one needs to be a bit careful about projecting back [to the radiant point], but it looks like the right place.He's talking about the fact that meteors in annual showers, like the Geminids, all appear to stream in our sky from a single point, called the radiant point. You don't have to be looking at the radiant point to see the meteor shower, but - to see the greatest number of meteors - it's better if the radiant point is above the horizon, and best if it's high in the sky. For the Geminids, the highest point in the sky is around 2 a.m. local time. That's the time on your clock no matter where you are on Earth.
Giant column of gas erupts out of Mexico’s Colima volcano; authorities warn of falling ash
Mexico’s Colima volcano has spewed a column of gas and ash into the sky in the latest of a series of intermittent eruptions. Mexico’s civil protection authorities said the column rose 2,500 metres over the crater before it was pulled by winds heading north-east. The explosion prompted the civil protection authorities to warn nearby residents to watch for falling ash and to wear face masks when outdoors.
Located in the south-western Mexican state of Colima, the volcano — known locally as the Fire volcano — has been exhibiting continuous activity since July 9. The Colima volcano, which is part of the Pacific’s Ring of Fire, was also active in January and February. Mexico contains over 3,000 volcanos, but only 14 are considered active. READ MORE
Drone Footage Shows Carlisle Floods From the Air
State Of Emergency Strikes Britain over floods in North
Heavy floods in Britain’s northern regions on Sunday forced the country’s emergency response committee to call an urgent meeting to study the situation in affected areas. The meeting was called after prolonged heavy rain caused widespread flooding in northwest England and forced emergency services to evacuate residents from their homes.
Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said the government committee had been called to “urgently assess the scale of the floods and ensure the response remains coordinated, effective and gets help to those affected as quickly as possible,” Reuters reported. Reports say storms battered the country overnight, killing one man and leaving hundreds of homes flooded and without power. Police declared a major incident and coastguards were called in to rescue stranded residents. READ MORE
Apocalytic storm in Paraguay destroys parts of the capital city – Most powerful storm in 18 years
The storm mainly affected the capital city and the metropolitan area iss the largest in the last 18 years according to wind and precipitation data. The storm began at 4.20 am. 90 millimeters of rain fell in just two hours and wind speeds reached 100 mph. READ MORE
Guatemala Volcano has entered new “Eruptive Phase”
An active volcano in Guatemala has entered a new eruptive phase, sending huge lava fountains into the air. With no evacuation measures announced, people living in the area have been able to capture breathtaking images of the volcano and share them with the world.
Volcan de Fuego – which translates as “the volcano of fire” – is located some 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the capital, Guatemala City. The volcano is experiencing a new peak in activity, with lava and smoke erupting from its crater, and ash covering the surrounding areas, AFP reported, citing the Guatemala Institute of Volcanology. READ MORE
Mount Etna’s stunningly violent eruption was among the strongest in decades
Early Thursday morning, southern Italy woke up to see this remarkable display — Mount Etna, Sicily’s tallest peak and active volcano, was erupting after two years of silence. The sky glowed red above Sicily, seen above from Calabria, Italy’s most southern region. The skies were cloudless on Thursday morning and Mount Etna was capped in white snow. Scientists say it was among the most violent eruptions from the volcano in the past two decades. The intense eruption exploded from Etna’s Voragine crater, and lofted ash 10,000 feet into the sky. The whole thing lasted less than an hour, according to Italy’s national institute of volcanology. The lava fountain reached heights of close to a mile.
High level winds from the southwest pushed ash over villages in Sicily and southern Italy, which was seen clearly on infrared satellite images. Numerous lightning bolts were also captured in the billowing ash cloud, which can sometimes happen in the most intense eruptions: Lightning in volcanic eruptions is caused by the same reason it occurs in thunderstorms — negative and positive charges separate in the atmosphere, and lightning is what restores the charges to balance. But why the charge separation occurs in volcanic eruptions in the first place is still not well-understood. FULL REPORT
Earth has lost a third of arable land in past 40 years
The world has lost a third of its arable land due to erosion or pollution in the past 40 years, with potentially disastrous consequences as global demand for food soars, scientists have warned. New research has calculated that nearly 33% of the world’s adequate or high-quality food-producing land has been lost at a rate that far outstrips the pace of natural processes to replace diminished soil.
The University of Sheffield’s Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, which undertook the study by analysing various pieces of research published over the past decade, said the loss was “catastrophic” and the trend close to being irretrievable without major changes to agricultural practices. READ MORE