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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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 Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 4:27 pm Post subject: Fireball Seen Across Northern Europe 2009 01 17-18 19:08 UT |
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There are widespread reports from across Europe, from as far west as the Netherlands and as far east as Poland of a bright fireball seen during the early evening of 17th January. The time is reported to be 2009 Jan 17-18 19:08 UT. The event appears to be of a similar magnitude to the recent Canadian fireball which deposited meteorites in Saskatchewan.
There is a video of the event, from Sweden, here.
Klaas Jobse's all sky camera located in Zeeland, in the southwest of the Netherlands, captured an image of the event low in the north-eastern sky [I've correct my earlier mistake here]. Klaas's camera would have been approximately 550 kilometres from the event. Klaas estimates the direction of the event as follows:
| Quote: | Observing station Oostkapelle:( 51 34' 22" N 3 32' 16" E )
Begin: Az 51 H 6 degrees
End: Az 47 H 3 degrees
Azimuth will be fairly accurate but the height above the horizon is a bit of a guess because of the lack of reference stars. |
One of the cameras of the Polish Fireball Network (PFN) captured a flash from the fireball. This flash is accurately timed at 19:08:30 UT +- 3 sec. See this blog (in Polish) for discussion and determination of path.
This news report from Germany appears to include the account of a pressure wave observed from Rostock on the north coast of Germany. A translation of one section, provided by my sister, is below:
| Quote: | | Callers said they had seen a long light, like a tail, that was visible for several seconds. Unfortunately nothing was recorded [see below for update]. 'There was a dull rumbling noise, and I felt a pressure against my chest' one eye witness in Rostock said just after the flash of light. A spokesperson / employee from the German Centre for Air and Space Travel in Neustrelitz said 'It was probably a Meteorite. That would explain the shock wave and the noise.' Whether it was really a piece of rock falling from space, we don't however yet know for sure. |
TV2 coverage from Denmark (in Danish).
News report from Denmark mentioning the sonic boom (in English).
Report from Geologisk Museum here (in Danish), including a recording of typical sounds associated with a large fireball. The recording is actually from the Bovedy fall from Northern Ireland (25th April 1969). You can hear the recording here.
Report from the Tycho Brahe Planetarium (in Danish) here.
Additional information is being collated here.
The event may just have been observable from elevated eastern parts of Britain with a clear view to the east. If visible, the event as seen from Britain, would have been low on the horizon and unspectacular due to the extreme distance.
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David Entwistle
Last edited by david entwistle on Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:11 am; edited 21 times in total |
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goodtime
Joined: 18 Jul 2007
Posts: 1022
Location: 55° 53' 24" N, 3° 42' 15" W
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| Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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Wow David, thats an impressive display, it'll be interesting to see how it compares to the Canadian one...
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Andrew
Eyes, binoculars, DSC-F828
There's no place like 127.0.0.1 |
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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I've updated some of the links in my original report and added additional information. See above for details.
As of 2009 01 29, I haven't seen any reports of a meteorite find associated with this fireball.
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David Entwistle |
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david entwistle
Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 660
Location: Goosnargh, north of Preston, UK
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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| david entwistle wrote: | | As of 2009 01 29, I haven't seen any reports of a meteorite find associated with this fireball. |
The Geologisk Museum, part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, now have a report of meteorites being found associated with the fireball of 2009 01 17-18 19:08 UT. There is also a news report on the Politiken website. Both articles are in Danish. A recording of a German TV interview with the finder, Thomas Grau, is here.
The material is reported to be carbonaceous chondrite.
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