"UFO Burns Up Over Christchurch & Wellington NZ" - 'We have NO idea what it is!'

bright light seen moving over the sky in Wellington and Christchurch.

seems most eyewitnesses thought they saw a craft/helicopter, not a meteor.

however, national weather svc are saying its a meteor

hmmm.

are these all meteors?

Originally posted by BiggerPicture
however, national weather svc are saying its a meteor

No reason why it cant be a big meteor.
They brighter ones do leave trails, seen it myself.
And like anything in the atmosphere, the trail afterwards starts to blow about just like as seen in the video.


The second video just shows time lapse shots of aircraft passing by.

reply to post by BiggerPicture


The ones in the second video look like satellites played back at high speed. I see them all the time. they move strait and don't change speed. not saying they cant change speed, just never seen one do it.

I've seen many a weird thing (in my opinion, legitimate ufos) in the skies in NZ, but nothing like this... I think the lack of light pollution compared to other major centres worldwide allows a clearer view of 'shooting stars' and the like. This certainly has the characteristics of something falling from space through the atmosphere, inevitably burning up and leaving a trail, which has then been blown by the winds to form the squiggly shaped contrail (I'm surprised at how many people have failed to grasp this concept).

I think it's just a meteor or space junk. I've seen video of it breaking up as it flew past and bits sparking off. If it landed anywhere near people we would've heard about it by now so it probably completely burnt up.

With all the missiles, satellites, drones and all this other crap different countries are playing with these days who knows what goes up and down in the sky's.....

Reports are all over the world from Texas to NZ to Austria, of fireballs going across the sky...There is somwething going on. Everyday is more and more posts on these fire balls. I have not seen this many reports at one time in my short history. All have the same story a fireball steaking across the sky.

Originally posted by hanyak69
Reports are all over the world from Texas to NZ to Austria, of fireballs going across the sky...There is somwething going on.

Yes, It's called nature.

As for the second video the OP posted, it's obviously a compilation of timelapse footage, meaning the objects that we see crossing the screen are moving much slower than they would in real life. The objects are too slow to be meteors. They behave more like planes would be expected to behave in a timelapse.

The planet is starting to move through a debris cloud of some sort in space: it's called the Lyrids meteor shower which is due to peak in the next 24 hours. Don't know if it's as visible in the both the northern and southern hemispheres.

reply to post by BiggerPicture


If that's not a chemtrail/contrail emission from a plane, does that mean this object is releasing something since it left a remaining trail after it faded.. interesting find OP

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
The planet is starting to move through a debris cloud of some sort in space: it's called the Lyrids meteor shower which is due to peak in the next 24 hours.

That is very true, but, as I pointed out in another thread, annual meteor showers like the Lyrids are not connected with fireballs in general:

The frequency at which fireballs appear varies in several ways. First of all there is a distinct increase of brighter meteors within some showers (see below). Then, there is a seasonal variation: around the time of the vernal equinox, fireball rates are about three times the rates seen around the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere. This ratio was derived by Halliday and Griffin (1982) for meteorite falls; it was proven by Rendtel and Knöfel (1989) for visual and photographic fireballs.

Source: Annual and diurnal variations in fireball rates

There are basically two sources of fireballs - cometary meteor showers (but these are short-lived, and the fireballs don't penetrate deep into our atmosphere because cometary material is fragile), and asteroids, which is the source of much harder material, that does penetrate deeply into our atmosphere. producing fireballs that get noticed because they do penetrate deep into the atmosphere.

That is not to say that annual meteor showers like the Lyrids don't produce fireballs - they do, but the Lyrids are not know for their fireballs, and in my experience (nearly 15 years investigating the subject) they are not connected with big fireballs like the one that appears to have been observed here.

Read up on fireball composition here.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
Don't know if it's as visible in the both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Lyrids can be observed from the southern hemisphere, but since the Lyrid radiant does not rise as high in the sky as it does in the northern hemisphere, Lyrid meteor rates will never be as high as they are in the northern hemisphere.

reply to post by FireballStorm


Good info - Thanks for the links.

Is the Lyrids a result of moving through a comet tail? As such, the material would be delicate and most likely incapable of producing large fireballs?

What's your take on it: Simply asteroids whose path we've crossed and no relation to the shower? Do you see any increased occurrence or simply increased observation and reporting?

Sorry for all the questions, but I am honestly curious what your experience has taught you.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
Good info - Thanks for the links.

You're welcome.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
Is the Lyrids a result of moving through a comet tail?

Yes, basically, although strictly speaking what earth is passing through is a "dust trail" left behind the comet, which is continuous for as long as the comet was ejecting dust/meteoroids. The "tail" is only visible/present when the comet is close by.

In this case, the trail is from Comet Thatcher.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
As such, the material would be delicate and most likely incapable of producing large fireballs?

Delicate, yes, but big chunks of it can cause big fireballs.

However, because of the fragility of the material, and also because cometary meteoroids tend to hit the atmosphere significantly faster than asteroidal material, big cometary meteoroids tend to disintegrate very quickly after they become visible, usually in a bright "terminal flash".

In other words, they don't last as long or penetrate as deep as their asteroidal counterparts, so they don't get noticed so much as the big asteroidal fireballs that make the news.

We do get some medium sized (and the occasional reasonably large) fireballs of cometary origin during annual meteor showers, but usually most shower members are small, so with showers like the Lyrids, which don't usually produce very high rates, and are not known for producing fireballs on a regular basis, fireballs are rare, at least in comparison to other showers like the Perseids, Taurids, and Leonids for example.

That last paragraph in particular is a generalization. There are exceptions, and meteor showers can produce "surprises" from time to time, but the physics of cometary meteoroids will not change (a great deal at least)

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
What's your take on it: Simply asteroids whose path we've crossed and no relation to the shower?

Yes, precisely.

I have to admit I was not sure at first when I saw the dust trail footage, but this footage of the event which I posted on the other thread confirmed it for me:


That and the dust train footage suggests that it was relatively slow moving, and quite hard, managing to penetrate some distance into the atmosphere, which in turn suggests asteroidal material.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
Do you see any increased occurrence or simply increased observation and reporting?

Almost certainly increased observation and reporting. Also due in part to the ever increasing cheapness/availability of cameras in general, and since a story with footage/pictures is more likely to make the news.

I'd also say places like this, which collect stories that would otherwise go unnoticed outside of an individual's locality would also contribute to the perception that there are more fireball type events than normal.

What is "normal" anyway? I'd say, like most things in nature, we would expect to see fluctuations and blips in the fireball rate. Researchers are still trying to establish a "baseline" to make comparisons with, and there are still unknowns out there, but I don't think what we are seeing here is the prelude to something bigger. At least I have not seen any evidence that suggests that and stands up to scrutiny.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
Sorry for all the questions

No apology needed. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have on this subject.

Originally posted by Virgil Cain
but I am honestly curious what your experience has taught you.

Apart from the above, probably the most valuable lessons I have learned, when it comes to meteors, are - #1 you can't trust even your own eyes when it comes to meteors (also applies to many other objects seen in the sky in one way or another. See the thread I started here: How good are we at estimating the distance and altitude of UFOs?), so strange sounding reports and missidentifications with meteors, and especially bright meteors is the norm rather than the exception.

#2 a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing - it's easy to jump to the wrong conclusion if you can't see the "whole picture", as I have seen plenty of times on this forum in the past, and I suppose all of us (including myself) are guilty of to one degree or another since no one could possibly see the "whole picture".

#3 patience is a virtue, and it is often rewarded if you spend time observing meteors/meteor showers

What I was referring to is the semingly uptick all over the globe......and is everyone mistaking airplanes for ufo's all of the sudden?

This is reminding me of 1973 showers, I remember my dad getting me from the baby sitters and there were lights all over falling from the sky. This was north Texas.

Originally posted by hanyak69
What I was referring to is the semingly uptick all over the globe

As I explained to Virgil Cain above, you are bound to hear about more of these kinds of events for various reasons, especially just being here on ATS.

Hearing more reports of fireballs does not necessarily mean there is an increase in fireballs, just that you are hearing more reports.

Originally posted by hanyak69
and is everyone mistaking airplanes for ufo's all of the sudden?

That's nothing new. People have always done this, but I think we are seeing more reports/footage due to the growth of youtube and ever dropping prices for ever more capable cameras. I think there might also be a "self-feeding" element to it as well - people see interesting footage of "UFOs" on the net, do a little "investigating", become interested in UFOs, and decide to buy cameras and get more footage, without having much idea what they may be filming.

Originally posted by hanyak69
This is reminding me of 1973 showers, I remember my dad getting me from the baby sitters and there were lights all over falling from the sky. This was north Texas.

Care to be a bit more specific? How often were you seeing meteors? Can you recall the time of year/the night?

It's certainly not unusual to see quite a few meteors in a short space of time (perhaps even an outburst) from one of the annual meteor showers, if you happen to be looking at the right time. Most people are not usually looking at the right time, so in that respect it is unusual to see an outburst.