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Home  Fireball Reports |
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Fireball Reports The Section continues to regularly receive reports of bright meteor events, which are kept on file. By established definition, a fireball is technically any meteor brighter than the planet Venus - in other words, an event of magnitude -5 or brighter. Reports of fireballs are frequently made during the major annual showers (the Perseids and Geminids are rich sources, as have been the Leonids during their recent high-activity years). Of potentially yet-greater interest are the isolated fireballs which may result from the arrival of sizeable chunks of interplanetary debris from the asteroid belt, knocked into Earth-crossing orbits by collisions in the astronomically-recent past (perhaps a few tens of thousands of years ago). The hope is always that analysis of eyewitness accounts of a fireballs will lead to recovery of any resultant surviving meteorites on the ground: the harsh reality of our island location is that most end up over the sea!
A majority of the sighting reports we receive come from single witnesses, which is unfortunate! Occasionally, however, major fireballs are seen by large numbers of people over a wider geographical area, allowing at least an approximate ground track to be established.
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Fireball update - early 2008 |
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Fireball reports to the section from July 2006 to February 2008.
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Read more...
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Fireballs, Jan/Feb 2006 |
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2006 January 11 2239 UT
Three reports, from Oxford, Woking (Surrey), and a group of Liverpool AS members at the Pex Hill Observatory near Widnes, Cheshire. No clear indication of magnitude, but all witnesses describe the fireball as blue-green, and fragmenting into three-four pieces in the northern sky. Probably over the northern end of the Irish Sea.
2006 January 21 2100 UT
A bright fireball seen due south (over the English Channel) from Salcombe, Devon, travelling east-west. Also seen from the Forest of Dean (Glos.) and from Swansea, where it was estimated at about magnitude -6. A green object travelling slowly, visible for around five seconds and leaving a long white ‘smoke trail’.
2006 February 16 0025 UT
Seen in Stockport and Cleveland, a magnitude -6 to -10 blue fragmenting fireball, probably over the North Sea. |
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Fireball - 2005 February 20 0955 UT |
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A daylight event on a clear, cold Sunday morning, widely seen across southern England from Essex to Cornwall and the Bristol area, and south Wales. |
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Fireball - 2005 January 18 0635 UT |
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In the predawn, high to the south from central Scotland, and to the west from Peterborough, Cambs. Blue-green with a brief train, probably overhead in the west Midlands. Three reports.
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Fireball - 2004 September 24 0627 UT |
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In a bright sky just before sunrise, this brilliant white event was seen by numerous witnesses between Wigtownshire in SW Scotland and Devon, Oxfordshire and Essex in southern England. Some observers report a reddish tinge at the trailing edge, and fragmentation. The track appears to have been from Cumbria towards East Anglia or Kent. This event was briefly highlighted on a BBC programme covering near-Earth asteroid Toutatis a few days later.
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Fireball - 2004 August 6 2018 UT |
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John Kemp, just north of Canterbury, Kent, reports a slow-moving mag. -7 fireball low to the north moving west to east, leaving a smoky persistent train. Vague mention (no useful details!) of the event appeared on the uk.sci.astro newsgroup. |
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Fireball - 2004 June 11 2115 UT |
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A couple of reports, from NW London and Essex, where the object was first seen in the zenith, ending about 45 degrees above the SSW horizon. Estimated to be as bright as the Full Moon, fragmenting in flight. Duration 4-5 seconds. |
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Fireball - 2004 May 20 2155 UT |
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A bright (mag. -6 to -8) green meteor, reported by three witnesses - near Coventry, in Staffordshire, and in Hay-on-Wye near the English-Welsh border. The fireball exploded at the end of its path, and was apparently well seen from the France-Belgium border where it was overhead. |
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Fireball - 2004 March 25 2204 UT |
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Widely seen across the southern UK, despite conditions of patchy cloud at many locations. This event seems to have been below the usually-accepted fireball brightness, at about mag. -3, but was noteworthy for its widespread visibility a, slow trajectory and fragmentation, described by witnesses from locations spanning Essex, Worcs., Herts., West London and Devon.
Observer reports suggest a track heading southeastwards, probably over France and certainly well south of the British Isles. Stewart Moore in Essex, for example, saw the meteor heading from Gemini towards a point just east of Alphard in Hydra, low over the SSW horizon. |
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Fireball - 2004 January 16 1946 UT |
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A mag. -5 to -6 event was seen from Devizes, Wilts., and Sheffield, S. Yorks. From eyewitness reports this would appear to have been over the Irish Sea west of Cumbria. |
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Fireball - 2003 December 11 2305 UT |
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In a brightly moonlit sky, a slow-moving orange-red fireball with green trail was seen taking 10-15 seconds to traverse a long path more or less west to east by witnesses in Cambridge, Chesham (Bucks.), Lower Pilsey (Derbys.),, ad Cheltenham (Glos.). Its approximate track would appear to have been over the south Midlands. although occurring during the shower's rise to maximum, the object was not a Geminid. |
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