December 21, 2012 - SKY - Here are several of the latest online reports of spectacular multi-colored fireballs from across the globe.
Fireball Streaks Across Warwick, Rhode Island - 13th of December, 2012.
There's a lively discussion on the Web about this video of a burning object streaking across the Warwick sky. A providencejournal.com reader says a co-worker shot the video just before 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 13. One commenter on YouTube declared it a fake. Others had various explanations. Ian Dell Antonio, a Brown physics professor contacted by providencejournal.com, had two theories: " A plane. At 4:40, the sun would have set, but the plane would still be in sunlight -- as a result, the exhaust trail would be lit much brighter than the sky, and look like a fireball (the shape of the trail also would match -- you see two exhausts and that is typical of planes with wing engines, whereas a hunk of rock would not give you two trails). "A much smaller object much closer ... that's on fire. I'm more skeptical of this, although it looks like the trail passes in front of the telephone wires, because the angular speed is too slow for something falling, so it would have to be floating or actively flying (model airplane?) as I said, I think it's not as likely as the plane explanation..." -
Providence Journal.
WATCH: fiery object streaks across Warwick skies.
Shooting Star Over Local Farm in Philadelphia - 15th of December, 2012.
What the heck landed in Christ Beiler's cornfield nearly two weeks ago? A number of people in East Lampeter and Upper Leacock townships reported hearing a loud explosion Sunday, Dec. 2, about 5 a.m. That noise coincided with what Beiler reportedly saw while he was milking cows on his farm along Hobson Road near Smoketown. According to a friend, Sam Stoltzfus, of Gordonville, Beiler saw a light streak into his field before he heard a "boom.'' "He did find the spot in his field and you can still see it,'' Stoltzfus reports. "There was also a strong acrid smell. That's why they called the fire company.'' Christian Kauffman, assistant fire chief of the Witmer Fire Co. and Stoltzfus' son-in-law, says a number of people dialed 911 and the county's 9-1-1 Center alerted the fire company. Among the concerned were East Lampeter Township Police officers. They heard the explosion inside their station along Route 340, Kauffman says. The fire company investigated and found nothing, according to Kauffman. Heavy fog that morning hindered the investigation, he adds. "We said, officially, that the report was unfounded,'' Kauffman notes. "But now I'm beginning to believe it probably was a shooting star.'' Stoltzfus says he and others have walked all over Beiler's field looking for possible fragments of a meteor, also known as a shooting star. They have not found anything. But Stoltzfus has no doubt a shooting star landed in that field. "It wasn't the Star of Bethlehem,'' he concludes. "It was the Star of Bird-in-Hand.'' -
Fire Engineering.
NASA Cameras Capture 2012 Geminid Meteor Shower - 16th of December, 2012.
Flaring brighter than the full moon, this spectacular Geminid meteor lit up the sky above Cartersville, Ga., at 2:29 a.m. EST on the morning of December 14, 2012. NASA says that this is one of the brightest fireballs observed by the NASA network of meteor cameras in over four years of operation. The 2012 Geminid Meteor Shower, which peaked on December 13th and 14th, is the most intense meteor shower of the year and can still be seen this week. It lasts for days and can be seen from almost any point on Earth. The 2012 Geminid meteor shower can be seen around 8 p.m. every evening at the viewer's respective local time. The meteor shower will be the most intense and directly overhead during the hours of 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. The meteor shower sets in the western sky just before sunrise. A new moon coincides with the 2012 Geminid meteor shower peak. So the dark night sky will make the display even more spectacular. Geminid meteors stream from a point called "the radiant" in the constellation Gemini. -
Brevard Times.
WATCH: 2012 Geminid Meteor Showers.
Huge Fireballs Light Up Evening Sky Over Punjab, India - 17th of December, 2012.
Eyewitness - Kamalpreet Singh, Jalandhar, Punjab, India at 7.36pm.
5 seconds duration - Travelling from left to right. Bright yellow colour. Same brightness as the moon, like a huge ball from the sky.
Eyewitness - Rahul Sharma, Jalandhar, Punjab, India at 6.50pm.
5 seconds duration - N-E direction, heading east and downward diagonally. Firstly it was bright green / blueish, then it changed into orange around midway. No sound. It was as bright as the full moon, like a huge burning ball. I have seen many meteors in my life, but this one was huge. It lit up the sky like a firework. - Lunar Meteorite Hunters.
Calgarian Left Scratching Head Over Odd Light In The Night Sky - 18th of December, 2012.
She admits it sounds nutty. But Janine Coburn swears she spotted a fiery green orb streaking across a clear night sky on the weekend. It was moving faster than an airplane, Coburn insists, and it was bigger than a falling star. "It's as if it were flung by a giant," she said. "It was vivid." The Somerset resident was out for some fresh air shortly before midnight on Sunday when she watched the mysterious object soaring north for at least five seconds before vanishing. It's left Coburn scratching her head to explain the apparent cosmic show. Combing through online communities has been fruitless, so she's asking Calgarians for answers. "I've done research since then and it hasn't made me feel any more comfortable with what I saw," she said Tuesday. Phil Langill, director of the University of Calgary's observatory, is also unsure what Coburn witnessed. Photos pulled from a sky camera reveal Sunday was actually a cloudy evening, which leads Langill to believe it was a low-flying object - possibly fireworks. "If it were below the clouds it would've been man-made," he said. "If it were above the clouds it could've been a meteor." Experts predicted rural skywatchers could have seen as many as 100 shooting stars per hour during the Geminid meteor showers, which peaked last Friday. Devon Hamilton, a PhD in astrophysics, suggested the local sighting was a highly visible meteor known as a fireball, based on Coburn's loose account. A highly charged meteor often emits distinct colours as it passes through Earth's atmosphere, according to Hamilton, a vice-president with the Telus Spark science centre. "In the case of green meteors, the composition can be connected to nickel," he said. "Although other factors can contribute to the coloration, including tricks our eyes and brains play on us." -
Calgary Herald.
