Fireball over North Yorkshire may have been ‘space junk’

9:20am Monday 24th September 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Mike Laycock, Chief reporter

WORRIED people across York and North Yorkshire dialled 999 after witnessing a fireball shooting across the night sky.

Some of the 14 callers to North Yorkshire Police feared there had been a mid-air explosion or that a jet plane was on fire, said a force spokesman. Some officers also called in to report the fireball.

In fact, experts say the phenomenon on Friday evening was caused either by a meteor – a space rock which burns and lights up on contact with the Earth’s atmosphere – or more likely by “space junk,” such as pieces of a satellite, burning up.

Numerous readers contacted The Press to describe what they had seen.

Julie Sharp, from the Beckfield Lane area, said she went outside to her utility room and as she was walking back to the house, she saw what she initially thought was a firework going up into the sky above the house.

She said: “I stopped to watch it and quickly realised it wasn’t going up but was going across the sky. I was waiting for the bang you would expect from a firework but it never came.

“It was a lot bigger than a firework and bits that came out of the tail were separate things that followed the path of the larger one.

“I am still completely dumb struck, as I have never seen anything like it before.”

David Price, of Melbourne, near Pocklington, said at 10.56pm, he saw a huge fireball in the sky heading from east to west over the village.

“I dialled 101 and police responded saying they had many calls of a meteor coming down,” he said.

Helen Gardner said she was “amazed and lucky to witness the astounding sight of the meteor shooting across the night sky” when she let her dog out into the back garden at Clifton Moor . “It was heading towards Harrogate,” she said. “I was unsure at to what it was but it was a beautiful clear sight which looked like fire in the sky and moved very quickly. I shall never forget it.”

Peter Walker, a councillor from Norton , said he saw a large fireball light up the sky, with another four smaller fireballs in its wake.

“To be honest I was waiting for a large bang as the object collided with the earth. I’ve seen many shooting stars in the past, but nothing like this. It was quite an experience and one I’ll not forget.”

Comments(25)

clairemw says...
3:17pm Sat 22 Sep 12

OMG some people have got to start learning more about astronomy and what goes on in the universe then you would know what it was..get yourself a telescope or a good pair of binoculars and just look at the sky on a clear dark night,you will be amazed at what you see.

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Digeorge says...
3:50pm Sat 22 Sep 12

There are some fourteen silly people calling 999 (wasting public money) for meteors in the sky.

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clairemw says...
4:13pm Sat 22 Sep 12

Digeorge wrote:
There are some fourteen silly people calling 999 (wasting public money) for meteors in the sky.
AGREE.

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Digeorge says...
5:29pm Sat 22 Sep 12

Must have been some spectacular show, wished I'd seen it and wouldn't have been on the telephone dialling 999!

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Blimp says...
5:48pm Sat 22 Sep 12

Blazing light is meteor passing?

Brilliant, love it! More please.

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bob the builder says...
6:57pm Sat 22 Sep 12

There be dragons - have we gone back 400 years - or do these people just want their 15 minutes?

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Peterwalker says...
7:52pm Sat 22 Sep 12

I saw it and was impressed by it. However not for one second did I consider contacting the Police. What on earth makes these people tick?

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pedalling paul says...
8:25pm Sat 22 Sep 12

Nah..it was ET and lots of his mates on their bikes.....

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Omega Point says...
10:06pm Sat 22 Sep 12

pedalling paul wrote:
Nah..it was ET and lots of his mates on their bikes.....
Wrong because ET does not ride a bike, he sits in a basket on the front while a small boy does all the hard work. All he does is make it fly.

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heworth.28 says...
12:11pm Sun 23 Sep 12

Peterwalker wrote:
I saw it and was impressed by it. However not for one second did I consider contacting the Police. What on earth makes these people tick?
Presumably the same people who call the nearest RAF base in a panic becuase they've seen a civilian helicopter flying overhead?

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Gary Gilmores Eyes says...
8:22am Mon 24 Sep 12

The levels of intellect of people that ring 999 for meteors are also the sort of people that during daylight hours point at aeroplanes and wonder how it can be so!

I think James Alexander should resign over this.

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Woody G Mellor says...
9:30am Mon 24 Sep 12

Pathetic comments above.

1. Obviously the people who called 999 didn't realise it was a meteor or space junk.

2. How on earth is someone calling 999 a waste of public money?!

Idiots.

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YorkPatrol says...
11:00am Mon 24 Sep 12

Woody G Mellor wrote:
Pathetic comments above. 1. Obviously the people who called 999 didn't realise it was a meteor or space junk. 2. How on earth is someone calling 999 a waste of public money?! Idiots.
I think the commments were mearly pointing out how thick some people are

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Capt. Dobie says...
11:43am Mon 24 Sep 12

Gary Gilmores Eyes wrote:
The levels of intellect of people that ring 999 for meteors are also the sort of people that during daylight hours point at aeroplanes and wonder how it can be so! I think James Alexander should resign over this.
Now THAT is funny...

(The Jimmy Alexander thing I mean...)

I can't help think claremw's point at the top is a little, err, assumptive and pious.

You could say the same for every other hobby or past-time then...'what kind of bird/ train/ plane/ car/ bicycle/ motorbike/ boat/ flower/ animal/ etc is that? People should get themselves a guide book to find out what that bird/ train/ plane/ car/ bicycle/ motorbike/ boat/ flower/ animal/ etc is...

...lots of judging here today on this topic. Shame.

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Gary Gilmores Eyes says...
12:02pm Mon 24 Sep 12

‘Capt. Dobie says... 11:43am Mon 24 Sep 12
Now THAT is funny...

(The Jimmy Alexander thing I mean...)’

I was hoping to start a comment that went viral where every comment raised on any story finished with the line ‘ I think James Alexander should resign over this’ purely as a joke and so eventually he would realize through his thick skin that nobody wants him in York (not even his own party – just a Patsy!) and he would maybe do just that!

Anyway the space junk and/or meteors in the night sky are obviously being controlled by the council so I think James Alexander should resign over this.

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YorkShrimper says...
12:04pm Mon 24 Sep 12

Blimp wrote:
Blazing light is meteor passing? Brilliant, love it! More please.
Bright Lights, I May Panic, But Love Interstellar Mass Pyrotechnics!!!

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TheColdTruth says...
12:33pm Mon 24 Sep 12

I saw this when I was at the beer festival on Friday night. I couldn't quite decide if it was a firework (which usually go up), but this was shooting across the sky. It was at that point when I couldnt quite decide if I was still upright or whether I had fallen sideways in my stupor. Glad this is clarified, it gives me hope that I actually made it home that night without 'help'.

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alfie says...
1:46pm Mon 24 Sep 12

It was tesco!

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Firedrake says...
2:22pm Mon 24 Sep 12

I suppose, if someone genuinely believes they've seen plane on fire, then calling the emergency services is not an unreasonable response. Except - of course - by the time a plane is actually on fire and falling out of the sky, there isn't much anyone could do about it!

Then again: the accurate recording of bearing and course (extremely difficult to estimate in the heat of the moment and without equipment!) might - in a few isolated cases - be of use to rescue teams looking for wreckage.

Most people live in towns and rarely see meteors etc thanks to local light pollution: the exceptional brightness of this particular shower seems to have overcome this and caused the speculation.

I'm sorry I missed it!

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Blimp says...
4:29pm Mon 24 Sep 12

YorkShrimper wrote:
Blimp wrote: Blazing light is meteor passing? Brilliant, love it! More please.
Bright Lights, I May Panic, But Love Interstellar Mass Pyrotechnics!!!
GENIUS!

We SO wish we'd thought of it.

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Harshbutfair says...
4:57pm Mon 24 Sep 12

You people are mean. I phoned 999 because it was frightening. I'm not stupid....OMG ! Got to go, just seen moving pictures from a box in the corner - must be magic

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Seadog says...
7:24pm Mon 24 Sep 12

Go to a remote place, such as the middle of the North York Moors, on a really clear night, and I can almost promise you will see a dozen or more shooting stars if you watch for long enough. I once sat up for hours in the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee and there were moments when there seemed to be more shooting stars than static ones, but nothing quite as bright as those which were reported this weekend. As has already been noted, it was this exceptional brightness which caused some people to think they were witnessing an aerial disaster of some sort.

Of course, if this were indeed "space junk", there's a sense in which they were right. It's only a matter of time before a really big bit does some actual damage! In fact I think there are some recorded cases already. I vaguely recall something punching through a house-roof in the midlands a few years ago and ending up in a toilet bowl. (Lucky no-one was on it!)

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Capt. Dobie says...
9:08pm Mon 24 Sep 12

Gary Gilmores Eyes wrote:
‘Capt. Dobie says... 11:43am Mon 24 Sep 12
Now THAT is funny...

(The Jimmy Alexander thing I mean...)’

I was hoping to start a comment that went viral where every comment raised on any story finished with the line ‘ I think James Alexander should resign over this’ purely as a joke and so eventually he would realize through his thick skin that nobody wants him in York (not even his own party – just a Patsy!) and he would maybe do just that!

Anyway the space junk and/or meteors in the night sky are obviously being controlled by the council so I think James Alexander should resign over this.
A-Ha!

Yes, I see.

I'm in.

I think James Alexander should resign over this.

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Tim Cronin says...
2:53pm Tue 25 Sep 12

I was in the war, and i remember something similar happening over York. Turned out to be nothing but flares.

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Trevor34 says...
5:01pm Tue 25 Sep 12

I saw a piece of space debris falling back to earth over Yorkshire back in the late 60's. It was easy to see that it was part of a rocket and glowing brightly as it went silently overhead.... It was moving west to east not tumbling end over end, nor rotating in any way either Fragments of it had hit the ground somewhere in France. Had there been a collision of any kind there would have been some loud noise. Don't folk have any common sense left in this namby-pamby wrapped-in- cotton-wool nanny state these days......... ?

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