Fireball explodes & lights up Spanish skies 14 April 2013

Originally posted by starfoxxx
I bet the OP is infamous hoaxer

Sacha FAILS...

Tnx .

anyway back to the fireball - these things, as far as i'm concerned, are definitely on the increase (not just increasingly reported). what they signify, i don't know, though i suspect it might not be good news. they're becoming almost commonplace.

Originally posted by RoScoLaz
these things, as far as i'm concerned, are definitely on the increase (not just increasingly reported). what they signify, i don't know, though i suspect it might not be good news.

I don't see why they should be bad news. The vast majority of fireballs pose no threat whatsoever. We had a single exception to this (the Chelyabinsk event), but there is absolutely no reason to suspect that events on this scale are increasing in frequency - one large event means nothing statistically.

We (Earth) move through patches of space that have more debris (meteoroids) every year when we encounter meteor showers, and the frequency of meteoroids entering our atmosphere increases for a while before it decreases. Most of the debris that makes up meteor showers is relatively small, and consistent in size, so when we pass through the debris, we don't get an increase in very large objects entering the atmosphere, and it is no different in the case of fireballs.

Big fireballs like the Chelyabinsk event are caused by small-medium sized asteroids, which are completely random in their nature. Because we see smaller run-of-the-mill fireballs that we normally see, it means nothing as far as Chelyabinsk sized events are concerned - they are unrelated.

In my opinion, regular sized fireballs like this one filmed over Spain are actually a good thing, since they often drop meteorites that can be studied and give us valuable information on how to defend ourselves if we are ever faced with the prospect of a truly devastating impact.

Originally posted by RoScoLaz
they're becoming almost commonplace.

How do you know they were not commonplace before?