Friday, May 19, 2017

Planet X Incoming: Fireballs in May

Bright fireball videos exploding over Brazil and Australia in May 2017

SOURCE

It’s been a long time that I haven’t reported any meteors / fireballs disintegrating in the night sky.

But beginning of May 2017 wasn’t so quiet around the world, especially in Brazil. Now, enjoy the videos below.

This brilliant fireball meteor disintegrated in loud sonic booms and rumbling sounds over the city of Groningen, Netherlands in October 2009. Robert Mikaelyan Via APOD

The bright meteor fireball in the first video was recorded on the coast of São Paulo and São Jose dos Campos by Exoss cameras located in São Sebastião / SP and in São José dos Campos / SP and at the Vale do Paraíba University – UNIVAPAt at 00:41 a.m. on May 13, 2017:

The following video is from the same meteor but captured by BRAMON cameras at the Araruama / RJ station. It was not possible to calculate accurately the end of the trajectory because the trail of the meteor exceeded the limits of the field of vision. But as you will see, the space rock disintegrated very slowly:

On May 8, 2017, an Exoss camera located in São José dos Campos / SP recorded a low-speed meteor with multiple fragmentations:

The next video presents different meteors and fireballs captured by BRAMON cameras at different station throughout Brazil during the Eta Aquariids Meteor Shower 2017:

As the Eta Aquarid meteor shower favors the Southern Hemisphere and ranks as one of their finest showers of the year, it’s normal to finish this list with a meteor exploding in the sky of South Australia over the Southern Ocean:

Green meteor fireball turns on explosive performance over New Zealand

The Gisborne Herald
Fri, 19 May 2017 01:17 UTC

Hundreds of people across the district last night got a perfect view of an extraterrestrial visitor, as a meteor briefly entered the atmosphere and exploded in a ball of green light.

"It was like a shooting star then it sort of exploded and fireballed itself a bit further, then it was gone. It was as moving so fast, but so so pretty," one witness reported to The Gisborne Herald.

Other witnesses said it resembled a "green fireball", and one said it was the size of "six houses".

Scores of others also reported the sighting to weatherwatch.co.nz.

"Biggest brightest comet we've ever seen in all our 56 years. Quick and flashy. Seen in awe from Otoko near Matawai," one report said.

Sightings of the meteor were recorded from 7.15pm onwards, and were noted across New Zealand.

Met Service meteorologist Lisa Murray confirmed there were no unusual atmospheric conditions at the time.

"There was plenty of clear sky, so it would have been perfect viewing, with a temperature of 12 degrees and very light winds."

After viewing a video of the exploding fireball, taken by Pirates rugby club members, astronomer and Otago Museum director Ian Griffin said the object was definitely a meteor.

"It's a lovely example of a meteor burning up high in the Earth's atmosphere and the flashes you can see are where bits of it are breaking off because it's moving very quickly through the atmosphere and burning up.

"This is probably just a random piece of rock from space entering the Earth's atmosphere and the folks watching the rugby game were lucky to be in the right place at the right time."

Although witnesses said the light was low in the sky, Mr Griffin said it was likely that was due to the "line of sight" effect. The meteor would probably have been between 50km and 150km high in the atmosphere.

Given that the brightness of meteors is related to size, it would probably have been about the size of a cricket ball.