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from the Rudolph-getting-pre-Christmas-exercise dept.
Fireball that streaked across Phoenix sky was a meteor, astronomers say
Astronomers say the bright light that streaked across the night sky Tuesday was "almost certainly" a meteor. The city of Phoenix captured the illumination on one of its observation cameras and posted it to Twitter. In the video, a large, glowing bulb appears in the top-right frame and then fades out in three seconds. A smaller light can be seen in the lower portion of the frame, off in the horizon. It happened around 8:30 p.m.
[...] "Given the speed and everything, this was almost certainly a meteor rather than a piece of space junk," said Laurence Garvie, curator of Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies. Specifically, the meteor was a "bolide" — a type of fireball that explodes in a bright terminal flash, according to the American Meteor Society. "This thing wasn't huge. I'm going to guess about 5 feet across. It broke up quite quickly," Garvie said.
Four fireball meteors flashed across the sky over the U.S. and Europe on Tuesday night (archive)
Three other meteors kept the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization very busy on Tuesday night. At 8:40 p.m., a fireball lit up the sky over southern Ohio. Later in the night, two meteors zoomed over Europe — one over Germany and the other over France. More than 1,300 people sent reports to the organizations, making last night the busiest night they've ever had since the online reporting forms were launched.
It looks like the fireballs were at least somewhat related — the Taurid meteor shower peaked on Saturday, and Taurid meteors are still shooting across the sky. "Associated with the comet Encke, the Taurids are actually two separate showers, with a Southern and a Northern component," the American Meteor Society wrote on Wednesday morning. "Both branches of the Taurids are most notable for colorful fireballs and are often responsible for an increased number of fireball reports from September through November."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 16 2017, @06:48PM (1 child)
Nah, the problem isn't humanity in general. The real problem is the socio-economic systems we have yet to grow out of. It is a long standing tradition for the wealthy to start wars for profit, and without the propaganda of those assholes the general populace would not have such bloodlust. So basically sociopaths have manipulated the public for millennia and created power structures to reinforce their grip. I would say that right now the average human is ready to make peace with the world and we're well equipped to truly help each other out.
Again, the only thing stopping us are the sociopaths who won't loosen their grip. If aliens were going to stop humanity from harming the planet they would have stepped in a few decades ago.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 17 2017, @04:57PM
The same socio-economic systems have resulted in the greatest gain in human well-being, globally, ever. I agree that these are far from perfect, but I think it is wise to recognize what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong.