It's Fireball Season!

I just wanted to remind everybody, this time of year is still fireball season, and we can expect to hear about fireball class events for a few more weeks.

Not only does spring herald warmer days and blooming flowers, it also kicks off fireball season—a time of year when bright meteors appear in greater number than usual. Oftentimes fragments of asteroids and comets, meteors typically range in size from a few feet to smaller than a grain of sand. As these objects enter Earth’s atmosphere, they break apart in fiery displays that last only seconds. In the weeks around the start of spring, the appearance rate of bright meteors, aka fireballs, can increase by as much as 30 percent. The reason why is still unknown, but one hypothesis is that more space debris litters this section of Earth’s orbit. In search of the answer, NASA scientists set up a network of ground cameras that track and record video of meteors flaming overhead. The footage can be used to pinpoint a meteor's orbit and origin.

Source: NASA


Related Links:
NASA - The Fireballs of February
Annual and diurnal variations in fireball rates (International Meteor Organization)

Awesome sauce!! Can't wait! Hopefully i can see one

I don't think I ever heard the term "fireball season" until last year. Even though NASA "says" this time of year has always been called "fireball season", I certainly don't remember it ever being called that before, and I asked a friend and a relative of mine who are both amateur astronomers, and they said they had only heard of the term recently, I think it is just one more reason why people say NASA stands for Never A Straight Answer.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE
I don't think I ever heard the term "fireball season" until last year. Even though NASA "says" this time of year has always been called "fireball season", I certainly don't remember it ever being called that before, and I asked a friend and a relative of mine who are both amateur astronomers, and they said they had only heard of the term recently, I think it is just one more reason why people say NASA stands for Never A Straight Answer.

Why attack NASA? Why not instead do a little bit of research?

The term Fireball has a lot of different meanings:

A 'fireball' is a brighter-than-usual meteor. The International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as "a meteor brighter than any of the planets" (magnitude −4 or greater).[21] The International Meteor Organization (an amateur organization that studies meteors) has a more rigid definition. It defines a fireball as a meteor that would have a magnitude of −3 or brighter if seen at zenith.

Then when a "fireball" gets even brighter and detonates, astronomers have yet another word for it, called bolides

Fireballs reaching magnitude −14 or brighter are called bolides.[25] The IAU has no official definition of "bolide", and generally considers the term synonymous with "fireball". Astronomers often use "bolide" to identify an exceptionally bright fireball, particularly one that explodes (sometimes called a detonating fireball).

Many people notice that meteors spotted during the spring (both random and during showers) often appear brighter, hence the usage of the term "Fireball" as show above is used to denote meteors that appear brighter than seen otherwise.

Someone decided to coin the term "Fireball Season" not too long ago because of this.

Nothing sinister about it.

But of course, leave it to some to try and make something more out of it than it really is.

reply to post by FireballStorm


I have never heard the term fireball season before so did a little research. I found a video on youtube (really reliable, I know ) However am halfway through it and although long and quite boring it does bring up several verifiable facts.

Did Nasa Just coin the term Fireball season out of nowhere??

Well here is the vid

Interesting discussion here: tech.groups.yahoo.com...

Using Mike Hankey's fireball data: Just events with over 50 observations the biggest months are Feb (by far), March, Jan...then Nov/Dec tie.

The months with the most number of fireballs is: Nov, Dec, Jan, then Oct.

The months with the biggest average observers (size/number) is Mar (not even counting the NY event), Feb, April So in general the months of Feb/Mar have the largest fireballs, and Nov/Dec have the most fireballs.

As the ecliptic is higher in the sky in the Northern hemisphere in winter during nighttime, you can expect more ecliptic fireballs in winter generally: say October to March.

The second part of that period is when the ecliptic is highest in the sky in the evening - good for slow grazing fireballs (objects that are "overtaken" by earth) that attract attention.

The latter effect is why spring/early summer has a slightly elevated number of meteorite falls, favouring the afternoon and early evening.

I have never seen convincing quantified data showing the existence of true fireball streams in spring.

Might be of use....?

www.meteorscan.com...

it is a live picture screen showing meteors (large and small) entering the Earth's atmosphere.....

NOT actual footage but information about each.

Have a look

PDUK

Originally posted by maythetruthbeknown

I have never heard the term fireball season before so did a little research. I found a video on youtube (really reliable, I know ) However am halfway through it and although long and quite boring it does bring up several verifiable facts.

Did Nasa Just coin the term Fireball season out of nowhere??

Well here is the vid

It seems that way, but the Orwellian thought police would have you think otherwise.

Originally posted by eriktheawful

Why attack NASA? Why not instead do a little bit of research?

Why attack NASA? Well, how about the fact that they regularly lie to the people who pay their salaries. Evidence of which is all over this site and the rest of the internet.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE

Originally posted by eriktheawful

Why attack NASA? Why not instead do a little bit of research?

Why attack NASA? Well, how about the fact that they regularly lie to the people who pay their salaries. Evidence of which is all over this site and the rest of the internet.

edit on 5-4-2013 by PlanetXisHERE because: addition

You mean your subjective opinion, not evidence.

You, as with several others around here have an ax to grind with NASA and JPL. However, like the Moon Hoaxers, you never provide enough established evidence to show this. Only speculation and conjucture, time and time again. All of which get's demolished each time.

How many times need you be told? You don't assume something and then try to make the evidence fit.

You find the evidence and see where it leads you, even if it does not support what you speculate about.

I would have thought Nibiru taught you that from last year, when you tried to make things fit for it to show up by August last year. You were absolutely sure it would show up, and claimed that all the evidence was there for it to.

But it didn't.

Might your thought process about NASA and JPL be just as flawed? Ponder it for a while. Think about how you (and others) are going about things. See if their just might be a flaw in your thinking.

Originally posted by eriktheawful
I would have thought Nibiru taught you that from last year, when you tried to make things fit for it to show up by August last year. You were absolutely sure it would show up, and claimed that all the evidence was there for it to.

I said the EARLIEST it could be possibly seen by the naked eye would be August, and never bought into the Dec 2012 mania, though I know through EVIDENCE that our planet is undergoing rapid changes not seen in our times or not seen in our recorded history, and will not live in denial as many.

Normalcy bias is a proven and widespread condition.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE

Originally posted by eriktheawful
I would have thought Nibiru taught you that from last year, when you tried to make things fit for it to show up by August last year. You were absolutely sure it would show up, and claimed that all the evidence was there for it to.

I said the EARLIEST it could be possibly seen by the naked eye would be August, and never bought into the Dec 2012 mania, though I know through EVIDENCE that our planet is undergoing rapid changes not seen in our times or not seen in our recorded history, and will not live in denial as many.

Normalcy bias is a proven and widespread condition.

Interesting.

How do you know that our planet has not undergone these changes before recorded history? Since recorded history is defined as starting just about 6,000 years ago, that is only a fraction of a fraction of a drop in a ocean compared to how long the Earth itself has existed.

It's even a fraction compared to how long humans have existed.

No one is talking about you or anyone else living in denial. I could really care less how you live since I don't actually know you I'm afraid, nor is it really any of my business.

Until you start making wild claims and accusations on here. Then yes, I and others make it our business for other readers out there.

It's not living in denial. It's called offering thought out research, logic and common sense side of things.

For example this thread right here, where we're talking about Fireballs and this time of the year. You were the one that posted accusations at NASA........but then did not offer any substantiating proof or evidence, and instead decided to use rhetoric and conjecture.

People just love to claim that NASA and JPL are hiding things from us, but when we ask why, we either get no response, change of subject, or more wild claims with no proof at all.

But that's okay, because the objective readers out there see that, and can come to their own conclusions.

Granted, NASA sometimes come up with headlines or wording that isn't exactly precise science. If so, you have to forgive them, they are just a space agency trying to do public outreach and give their articles catchy headlines.

Good job that NASA aren't holding the monopoly on astronomy, or science in general; that's the job of astronomers, universities, observatories, etc. If there is something unusual out there in space, they (the astronomers) will tell us.

reply to post by eriktheawful


So you are saying there are changes our earth has undergone before that us humans may not be aware of, or only a select few may be aware of, changes that could up-end our delicate technological society?

I would have to agree with you on that one.

Originally posted by PlanetXisHERE
reply to post by eriktheawful

 

So you are saying there are changes our earth has undergone before that us humans may not be aware of, or only a select few may be aware of, changes that could up-end our delicate technological society?

I would have to agree with you on that one.

Our Earth has under gone many changes of many kinds, both before humans, before recorded history, and even during recorded history.

However, please, don't let me rain on your parade. You have shown time and time again that you are not happy unless you think that there is a boogy man called NASA under your bed, who some how keeps complete control over what is going on out there in space, and is able to keep millions and millions of amateur astronomers, professional astronomers, universities, non-government observatories, etc, etc, etc, from knowing anything at all about what is going on out in space.

I guess I should be really impressed that a government agency that has a budget so small that now they can't even keep up their PR and Outreach programs is able to control the entire world of astronomers out there.

Simply amazing...........