What is Going on with All These Meteors?

A definition of a meteor from Wikipedia: "A meteor is a space rock that enters the Earth's atmosphere, and then either burns up, explodes (bolides), or hits the surface on land or at sea. Meteors can have several different compositions, containing various stony, glassy, or metallic materials." Also,"Large meteors striking land surfaces create impact craters, which are also visible on the Moon, solid planets (Pluto, Mars, Venus, and Mercury) and larger planetoids. " So why are we getting bombarded now? The latest one, from Foxnews.com. Sunday Feb 15th.In Texas, there was a huge daylight fireball that scared a bunch of residents into calling the authorities. This one came with a sonic boom. Even during the day it appeared to be brighter than Venus. The guesses ranged from the size of a basketball up to a full size pick-up truck. Now it looks like some meteor chasers have found a few small fragments on the ground.

Kentucky.com (Andy Mead and Steve Lannen) also had an interesting article on the Friday prior to the Texas sighting. Whitley County Kentucky, Friday Feb 13th: Residents reported a loud boom and flashes in the night sky, and experts attributed this to a meteor. Once again, a lot of scared callers notified the authorities. Most people reported blue-green streaks in the sky accompanied by loud thunder sounding noise. The noises were loud enough to shake houses. The FAA at first thought this stuff was satellite debris, but then changed their minds to meteors. Spaceweather.com. reported that Italy saw the same thing a few hours prior to the event in Kentucky. The Italian one was reported to be 10 times brighter than a full moon. (spaceweather.com)

A Laura Drake Calgary Herald article reported back on Nov 21, 2008 that a large fireball was reported over Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. This one had about the same description as the more recent ones in the United States. A large multi-colored fireball in the sky accompanied by very loud noise.coming in at 5:27PM, and witnessed by hundreds of people. It was said to light up the sky as bright as midday.

After getting fascinated by all these fresh spectacular fireballs, I decided to do some research just a bit into the recent past. These large events are not all that common and usually occur several years apart. Examples include the El Paso fireball of 1997 that the El Paso Times reported, and the Slovenian Superbolide of 2007 reported by Discover Magazine.com. There are also reports of a very large recent one in Saudi Arabia witnessed by millions of people. This one is hard to confirm so I will skip the details. If you are interested in this stuff at all, do yourself a favor and search google. Fireballs, meteors, meteorites, bolides, etc. You will find a long list of various reported sightings of large fireballs reported around the world over the years. Enjoy your search, and your reading.