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Fireball over Europe

By Gurbir Dated: September 23, 2012 4 Comments

Fireball over Scotland - Craig Usher
Picture from Craig Usher

For a change the sky was clear. I could have seen it but I didn’t.

Last Friday a brilliant (magnitude -7) fireball swept across the sky over western Europe. Numerous visual sightings, pictures and video testify to a great night-sky spectacle but no one still knows what it actually was – meteor or space debris.

A detailed report here from a Dutch blogger brings together video clips and reflects on what the object may have been.  Concluding that it is unlikely to have been space debris. If it was then it must have been associated with secret satellites probably American or Israeli. If so, the only people on the planet who already know the origins of this object are military.

 

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Comments

  1. Marco Langbroek says

    25th September 2012 at 22:02

    It is very clear now that this was not man-made space debris, but a true meteoric fireball.
    A first very rough orbital solution suggests it to be a small piece of an Aten asteroid:
    http://sattrackcam.blogspot.nl/2012/09/the-21-september-fireball-small-aten.html

  2. Gurbir says

    25th September 2012 at 23:03

    Marco,
    Thanks for your efforts. I acknowledge the tentative nature of your results but still you bring a fascinating and detailed insight to the origins of this object. Keep us posted.

    Anyone curious – if you have not already done so – do check out the link above.

Trackbacks

  1. Episode 56: 7th October 2012 - SpaceguardUK - AstrotalkUK says:
    7th October 2012 at 00:43

    […] fireball over Europe in September 2012, demonstrated the risks are with us […]

  2. Episode 56: 7th October 2012 - spaceguard - AstrotalkUK says:
    17th October 2012 at 19:51

    […] fireball over Europe in September 2012, demonstrated the risks are with us […]

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