Fireball in Tasmania: Possible CubeSat re-entry sparks alien panic A small satellite burning up in the atmosphere has led to big excitement. As the skies lit up over Tasmania on the morning of February 28, so did Facebook with speculation that included - sigh - alien interventions. The reality looks far more prosaic: a Lemur-2 CubeSat owned by Spire Global came to Earth. Between September …
This post has been deleted by its author
Genuine question: Would something so small be able to create such a fireball as shown in the picture or is that a screenshot from some sci-fi film?
Having a quick look on the NASA website "Space rocks smaller than about 25 meters (about 82 feet) will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere and cause little or no damage." I'm sure materials have a lot do with effect and that is part of why the website is so generic.
Excellent question.
This stuff is moving far more slowly (7.8 km/s) than interplanetary rocks normally do (Near-Earth Asteroids between 20 and 40 km/s, not at all normally distributed according to this paper). This is likely to result in a longer, yellower event.
While walking the dog a few years ago, I saw an interesting flamey thing in the sky. I know stuff in the sky fairly well, and it didn't really fit into the categories of stuff I've seen many times before (satellites, meteors, space alien craft from beyond the moon etc). Thought it might have been a fireball, which interested me enough to go to some fireball forum on line. Posted my experience. Turns out what I saw was a Proton Rocket body burning up. Which would have been much larger than a cubesat naturally. It did produce a much longer event than any meteor, and I assume due to the relative closeness, it's apparent speed in the sky was faster than, say the ISS. Anyway, even a rocket body didn't look anything like that plane, let alone a tiny cube.
I have seen this type of contrail before over the Nevada desert early dawn, late evening, with the right atmospheric conditions you don't get condensation, but the exhaust trail reflects the sun's light in the vapor from the jet exhaust.
A cube sat would not create a fireball that large or prolonged.
A similar effect can be seen in Yosemite Horsetail Falls..
No rocket science to be seen here.. move along
If you watch the video of the event, you can see that it is in fact a jet contrail, being under-lit from a very low angle by the dawn sun.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/alien-conspiracy-theorists-abuzz-over-fireball-spotted-in-tasmania/news-story/fbee4118f189b3c80e02030d0f5cdd20
And yes, there was a confirmed Emirates A380 flying over Hobart at the time the video was taken. (But of course, the government WOULD say that, wouldn't they, if they wanted to keep the truth under wraps.)
"So why doesn't this happen every other day?"
It does - I suggest you do a Google search for "contrail fireball", and check out some of the linked videos and images.
(Of course, all this "evidence" that these fireballs are really just jet planes is EXACTLY what the global governments want us to believe - when in fact, they are in direct communication with the aliens.)
(Of course, all this "evidence" that these fireballs are really just jet planes is EXACTLY what the global governments want us to believe - when in fact, they are in direct communication with the aliens.
I heard the aliens won't talk to us because of some stupidity among government leaders... or at least the memes says that.
This post has been deleted by its author
I was here in Sorell near Hobart and saw it vas it passed over head. I heard the plane while out on a walk look up SAW THE PLANE overhead and then checked flight radar to find out where it was going, an Emirates A380 headed for Auckland from Dubai. The conditions were unusually clear with no clouds in the sky at all and the rising sun over the horizon was illuminating it beautifully. The people took the video filmed it minutes later after it had passed so the plane is hidden by the contrail. I mean, what satellite is going to take nearly half an hour to cross the sky!!
Many years ago (a little over 40?) I was cycling home one night about midnight from, if I remember rightly, a Mayor's Charity Function.
I was stone cold sober - I don't drink. The road (and the entire area) was well lit in low pressure orange sodium light.
Getting on for a mile to the north was a block of flats in the middle of a small low rise council housing estate, farmland behind that.
Above and I think possibly behind the block of flats, some way above it, I saw a neon red evenly illuminated circular disk, falling slowly.
There was no sound. The disk could have been spherical, but all I could see was a disk. At the time I guessed that, if it was as far away as the flats it would be some 30 - 40 feet in diameter. At the time I got the impression that it was further away. It certainly wasn't nearer. As I approached northwards (remember I was getting on for a mile away) I had a clear view. I watched for getting on for a minute or so and then deliberately looked down for a good few seconds. (was I seeing things?) When I looked up again the thing was still there, it appeared to be on the same trajectory. It suddenly disappeared, and reappeared a couple of seconds later as two smaller circular disks / spheres, still on the same trajectory. A few seconds later both disappeared, just as suddenly, and did not reappear. They had not fallen behind any obstruction. That was it.
My original impression was of spheres, but when I thought about what I had seen I realised that that was assumption - 2d object(s) just seemed implausible.
Now I mention the lp sodium street lighting because these things were clearly a neon red, so it could not have been reflected light. The illumination was very even.
My route took me to the left out of sight of scene, to traffic lights over the A12. I backtracked to a road skirting the farmland on the far side of the flats and estate. All calm, horses in field calm etc. Went home to bed and sleep.
I was not that tired, was cycling, so wide awake. I am not prone to seeing things. My first thought was some kind of balloon, but why so evenly illuminated, and how could a balloon disappear and then reappear as 2 balloons?
Weather was good.
No other reports in the news etc. But it was late.
I've never forgotten the event and I'd dearly like to know what I saw. I'm not a "UFO freak".
Anyone any ideas?
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
