PA Fireball Captured By Astro Photographer Mike Hankey
The PA Fireball seen over northern Maryland and souther Pennsylvania last Monday morning has caused quite a stir in the rural communities around York, PA and other surrounding cities and townships.
Monday July 6th at 1:06am there was a large fireball seen and heard for miles around. Mike Hankey, an amatuer astronmer and astro photographer snapped a photo that will go down in history as one of the most lucky shots in astro photography. While zoomed in on the Andromeda Galaxy during a 3 minute exposure Hankey captured an image of the fireball. The chances of this happening are extemely remote. Everything had to be perfect for it to happen that way!
Sky & Telescope Magazine picked up the story and published a Hankey’s photo, and the video of the fireball taken from the York Water Co just outside of York, PA. Read Kelly Beatty’s article in S&T titled U.S. Meteorite Hunters Go Bicoastal
This is one of, if not the best daylight meteor fireball videos I’ve ever seen. It’s absolutely phenomenal! The duration of the event is very long. It stays in the sky for a very long time streaking a long smoke train behind it as it flashes through the air. To see a meteor is very rare, to see a fireball even more so, to see a daylight fireball is extremely rare, and to see one AND catch it on video? That’s is absolutely beyond comprehension. Statistically speaking this is pure luck! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
UPDATE: Here’s some video and an article on this one. Steve Arnold, Mike Antonelli, and his twin brother David were at the York Water Co. Looking at surveillance video. The video will help located where this fireball might have dropped meteorites. If any meteorites are on the ground they will be found. Professional meteorite hunters from all over the United States are researching this event as I write this.
The hunt is on! Good luck out there! I hope you find some space rocks…
Take a look at the video below.
Fireball Video: York Water Co. Surveillance Video
Asteroid In Space
July 6th 1am a HUGE fireball was spotted and heard all across southern Pennsylvania in the area of York, and Lancaster, and Northern Maryland!
York Water Co. located in York PA captured video of this fireball on a surveilance camera. This video has be posted here.
An amateur astronomer in Freeland MD possibly has a very good photo of the fireball too. It looks at first glance like a time lapsed photo of a plane going by. However the angle is very sharp and there are too many streaks for it to be a plane. It seems the meteoroid (if that’s what this is) broke apart into many pieces which left bright almost vertical streaks of light in the photo. In some areas of the photo you can clearly see where the light got brighter then dimmed again. Fireball Photo?: Mike’s Astro Photos I’ve added his link to my blogroll as I will be visiting again. He’s got some nice work, check it out!
People decdribed the fireball as bright, and larger than the moon, and some said it lasted in the air as long as 10 seconds. Newspapers and TV stations all across Maryland and Pennsylvania are reporting on this event. Professional meteorite hunters and scientists are compiling data because it is believed there may be meteorites on the ground from this huge meteor fireball.
People describe their houses shaking, doors rattling and windows shook in the frames. Shock waves from the explosive blast were so powerful it shook items from atop shelves in numerous homes across south PA.
Accuweather.com is also looking to see if this meteor fireball was captured on Radar. In addtion, famous meteorite hunter Steve Arnold of the Science Channel’s new cable show “Meteorite Men” has stated to the Baltimore Sun that “…That security camera footage is badly needed…”
This could be a meteorite dropping fireball. A fireball is a large meteor. Often meteoroids survive impact with the ground, when they do they are called meteorites. Meteorites are not hot when they hit the ground, and contrary to what people may have heard, no, they are not radioactive!
Meteoroids & Asteroids In Space
When a meteoroid enters our atmosphere it is traveling very fast. Sometimes as high as 26,000 MPH or more. This super speed creates tremendous pressures in front of the meteoroid. The meteoroid moves so fast that air cannot get out of the way fast enough and it compresses. This creates termendous heat which burns the meteoroids outer surface to a depth of a few milimeters at most, though the interior of the stone remains frozen.
What? This sounds wrong doesn’t it? See most meteoroids are small, grain of sand sized particles that burn up in the atmosphere, however from time to time a larger mass will enter our planets atmosphere, one with enough mass to reach the ground. Now scientists will argue how large a meteoroid has to be to survive all the way through the atmosphere not to mention impact the ground. But on average there have been small and large meteorite falls.
Back to the frozen part… How can a meteorite be cold when it impacts the ground if it’s burnins in the air? Well, that’s really very simple. Meteoroids (that’s what they are called in space) have been out there floating around since the formation of our planet. This is a very very long time. It’s cold in space. Very cold! -400F or colder. Being out in that cold for so long a meteoroid freezes. When it enters our atmosphere it’s traveling so fast it’s only incandescent (on fire) for a few seonds. Picture holding a blow torch to large block of ice! Holding the torch to the ice for 5-10 seconds would only melt part of the ice block.
A meteoroid is not ice! It’s rock or solid iron. When it hits the atmosphere it’s traveling so fast it’s only burning just long enough to burn the outer most surface of the stone. This blackened surface is called fusion crust.
Freshly Fallen Meteorite: Notice the black fusion crust.
Meteorites have been reported to be warm to the touch, as in the case of the Peekskill meteorite that fell and struck a car. It totaled the car and when the cars owner walked outside to investigate the noise, they discover the meteorite laying under the car and there was a small impact depression in the concrete driveway. When they reached down to pick up the stone they reported it was only warmto the touch. Almost never has ther been reports of a “hot” meteorite. Hot meteorites have not been confirmed by science as of yet.
As for the York Fireball, this is most likely a meteor fireball, and it’s a big one! For so many people to have reported sonic booms, and big bursts of light and explosions there is a very good possibilty that there may be meteorites on the ground from this event.
We hope there is!
REPORT THIS FIREBALL
If you have seen this meteor fireball we encourage you to contact us with your story. Report The Fireball Here please include your exact location, the direction your looking when you saw the fireball blink out, disappear or explode.
A large fireball was sighted over Pennsylvania last night on July 6th around 1am. The fireball was seen from Maryland, New York, and New Jersey. Reports say that this fireball was extremely bright and very large. People are reporting loud bangs and sonic booms. Some people have reported the sky “…lit up blue from horizon to horizon…” for about 3 second.
One witness says they saw “… a large flash that lit up the entire sky, followed by a loud, booming explosion…” about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes after the flash. This is a good sign that there might be meteorites on the ground. MeteoriteCentral.com’s Meteorite List has a good thread on this new fireball and possible meteorite fall.
We have no word on any meteorites being found as of yet. However I do believe there might be a good chance that this might be a meteorite dropping fireball.
“…A number of viewers throughout the Susquehanna Valley have contacted News 8 about a bright light they saw in the night sky, and an explosion they heard and felt early Monday morning.DISCUSSION: Did you see or feel anything?News 8 has been looking into the reports and contacted a member of the American Meteor Society, Robert Lunsford, who said it was likely a “fireball,” a brighter than normal meteor. Lunsford also said it was likely larger than a normal meteor. SOURCE: News 8 WGAL …”
The sky lit up blue!
“…As we stopped at an stop sign the entire sky lit up blue from horizon to horizon for like 3 seconds and I got out real quick to see what it was. I thought it might be a firework but when I saw what it was it couldn’t have been. It was a firey looking thing that was going straight across the sky and broke up into smaller pieces and burnt out…”
Reports from another tell of the brightness and the long duration of the fireball.
“…It has a bright white ball of a head and blue/white tail behind it. It looked like it was burning out of control. It disappeared after about 5-7 seconds of seeing it right around Lebanon county court house in the sky. (Maybe 500′ – 600′ above the ground) Like it blew up or just vanished…”
We just got news that there’s been yet another LARGE meteorite found from the new meteorite fall in Arizona. A fireball was spotted from Tucson Arizona on June 23rd, and 9 Days ago, ~45 hours after the fireball was witnessed the first stone of 155.6 grams was found by Jack Schrader of Sierra Vista Arizona.
Today it was just announced that Robert Ward has done it again, and found another even larger stone weighing in at a whopping 327 grams! Way to go Robert. Congratulations! Got some coordinates?
“…Robert Ward finds another one! A beautiful and pristine 327 gram stone in situ as found by Robert Ward prior to any rainfall in the area. This stone shows the high velocity still retained by the meteorite on impact by the evident compressed clay and grass embedded in the fusion crust. This is typical of the stones we have recovered so far. Good going Robert!…”
New Arizona Meteorite Photo # 1 – Robert Ward & his new friend! A gorgeous 327 gram stone meteorite. Notice the water bottle. It’s Arizona in July guys, it’s scorching there right now. New Arizona Meteorite Photo # 2 – In situ photo showing the scratched surface of the stone caused by the impact. The impact was so forceful there is clay and grass embedded in the fusion crust of this stone.
We await word on the classification of this stone. Given that this is a new fall, classification will most likely take place rather quickly so there will probably be something announced very soon. Speculation has it that this is an H type stone chondrite but this is NOT official, only guesses by experienced hunters and meteorite researchers. It’s unknown if any labs or universities already are testing samples.
We will continue to update you with more information on this new meteorite fall as it continues to unfold. If you’d like to stay updated please subscribe to our blog.
This image of Mars' moon Phobos was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express. The HRSC camera is operated by the German Aerospace Center and the Mars Express mission is operated by the European Space Agency. The HRSC took this image using the nadir channel on March 7, 2010, on HRSC Orbit 7915. The image has been enhanced to bring out the features in the less illuminated areas. Visit the German Aerospace Center page for 3-D and other imagery of Phobos. Image Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) Read More
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July 13th, 2009 
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The PA Fireball seen over northern Maryland and souther Pennsylvania last Monday morning has caused quite a stir in the rural communities around York, PA and other surrounding cities and townships.
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