Meteor sightings continue, this one in Alabama | |
Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 137330 United States 11/29/2006 08:13 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | 2 nd sighting in consecutive nights in australia now being confirmed as meteorites 'UFO' sightings most likely meteors PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL STORY The World Today - Wednesday, 29 November , 2006 12:46:00 Reporter: Nance Haxton ELEANOR HALL: Over the last two days, police and news organisations in South Australia and western Victoria have been inundated with reports of mysterious lights in the night sky. Some have described a fireball shooting across the horizon just before sunset, while callers in north-west Victoria have reported seeing a bright object flying across the sky. The Astronomical Society of South Australia's Dr Tony Beresford has told Nance Haxton that while the sightings have sparked some UFO speculation, the cosmic mystery is most likely a meteor. TONY BERESFORD: It was just one particular meteor which was widely observed. It was observed from around the metropolitan area to, I suspect, over in the border regions of Victoria and New South Wales. NANCE HAXTON: And how do we know that it was a meteor? TONY BERESFORD: Well, it was a short time, it was moving quite fast, faster than a satellite would've and there were no satellites due to come in. NANCE HAXTON: And are there any reports of what happened to that meteor? I mean, does it burn up before landing or… TONY BERESFORD: This one almost certainly did. It's… in fact, I have several reports which indicated at the end it more or less exploded. NANCE HAXTON: How common is it for meteors such as this to be seen so brightly and be reported by people? TONY BERESFORD: Well, about once a year or so, maybe twice. NANCE HAXTON: So meteors are really falling from the sky all the time, it's just sometimes we see them? TONY BERESFORD: Some, yes. We're in a cosmic shooting gallery. There are several moderately recent craters in the Australian continent, but the most recent appreciable-sized one is of course the very famous meteor crater in Arizona, only about 50,000 years ago. NANCE HAXTON: 50,000 years ago? So hopefully our number's not coming up for a while yet? TONY BERESFORD: Well, you don't… you never know. I'm one of these people who think we should do proper surveys for an asteroid that could possibly impact the earth, because we… if we did find one then we could probably divert it enough. You don't have to change its orbit very much. The Australian Government doesn't believe in it, but the Americans are spending money employing two people up at Siding Spring looking for it. NANCE HAXTON: You think that the risk of an asteroid hitting earth is enough that Australia should really look at taking more note of the risk? TONY BERESFORD: Yes, yes they should. The risk is very small, but the number... the possible global consequences are enormous. ELEANOR HALL: That's the Astronomical Society of South Australia's Dr Tony Beresford speaking to Nance Haxton. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 12576 Canada 11/29/2006 09:01 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Riddle of UFO 'invasion' 28.11.06 "A UFO scare was sparked after the police were flooded with calls about a fleet of 'spaceships' invading the coast of Britain. Thousands of people spotted the bright orange orbs off the Channel coast at Brighton. Police and air traffic control centres were inundated by reports of the strange spectacle, the Daily Express reported. Shocked witness James Gordon-Johnson said: "I hadn't been drinking. I was sceptical about UFOs before but this has changed my mind. "I saw this big orange light in the sky. Then another one appeared in mid-air. Then another. And another." Experts are baffled by the phenomenon, but believe it could be linked to a meteor shower. The Hermstmonceux Observatory in East Sussex said a cloud of comet dust had produced a meteor shower which peaked with a display of shooting stars. And an earlier Ministry of Defence study into UFOs concluded that many sightings could be "glowing clouds of gas created by electricity charges." [link to www.thisislondon.co.uk] |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 163698 Canada 11/29/2006 10:11 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 163669 Ireland 11/29/2006 10:26 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
grimreefer User ID: 160756 United States 11/29/2006 10:35 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | i see meteors all the freakin time down here in athens, ga. the ones i've seen lit up the sky, you could see clouds and the smoke trail behind the meteor, it was very very bright like when you burn magnesium. it does not last long, 1-2 seconds. some seem to go on longer though. i always thought this was a common occurence since our atmosphere is bombarded by things all the time. am i wrong? something stranger going on here? |
swarthmorean User ID: 164205 United States 11/30/2006 06:24 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 161339 United States 11/30/2006 11:59 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Meteor Shower Could Be Sign of Comet That Could Come Dangerously Close to Earth Finnish Star-Gazer Discovers Meteor Shower - Tail of New Comet Pinpointed December 1, 2006 Helsingin Sanomat - Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland Jarmo Moilanen, a municipal computer expert and amateur astronomer in the Finnish community of Vaala, has detected a new shower of meteors in the tale of a hitherto unknown comet. Moilanen’s two monitoring cameras that he keeps pointed at the sky and linked to his computer, registered an unexpected meteor shower already in October last year. The discovery was published in the Finnish astronomy magazine Tähdet ja avaruus ("Stars and Space") on Wednesday. Moilanen’s article was written with the help of NASA meteor expert Peter Jenniskens, who is considered one of the world’s leading authorities in the field. The comet itself has not yet been pinpointed, but it is believed to have an orbit around the sun that is about 4,000 years long. It comes closest to Earth just inside this planet’s orbit, and is considered one of the five most potentially dangerous comets for Earth in the long term. Nevertheless, experts say that the likelihood of a collision with Earth in the coming millennia is vary small. "It could be coming, or then the meteor shower could be material that it has left behind, such as dust or grains of sand. There is no sense in being too frightened by it", Moilanen says. It was confirmed this autumn that the shower can be seen each year in October. The name that was proposed for the the event is the October Camelopardalis, because the meteor showers linked with the comet appear in the sky near the constellation Camelopardalis, or giraffe. [link to www.hs.fi] |
Torino Scale User ID: 159941 United States 12/01/2006 12:06 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | May the fury of God strike us down. We are getting closer to the absolute core of the soul. Signs in Heaven and Earth will increase. The absolute necessity of peace and love will smack us right upside our heads in a big way. One way or another change is gonna come. Big change. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 73687 United States 12/01/2006 01:07 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |