Irish Astronomers Investigate Sky Explosion

puroresu writes "Astronomers in Ireland have appealed to the public to contact them with eyewitness accounts of a massive explosion in the sky over the country. From the BBC: 'Astronomy Ireland chairman David Moore said: "So far, reports have been registered by residents in west Cork, Kerry, Cavan and as far north as Donegal, thus suggesting that this spectacular event may have been witnessed by people all over the country. In the past two decades there have been two major explosions in the skies over Ireland. When we investigated these, we were able to conclude that one was a Russian military satellite that exploded over the country, and the other was a rock from space."'"

To whoever tagged story as uk

[andyh3930]

Learn geography. Ireland in not in the UK, Northern Ireland is, but the Republic of Ireland isn't.

Re:no telescope

[Anonymous Coward]

Duh when quoting a wikipedia article you could at least read the entire piece . . . "It has since been reassembled as a tourist attraction"

Re:To whoever tagged story as uk

[wrook]

Reminds me of a time I was working in London. When I first started one of the guys asked me, "Are you American". I replied, "No Canadian". He just said, "Same thing."

So, I asked him: "Are you English" and he said, "No I'm Irish." I said, "Same thing".

I still marvel at the fact that I'm still alive... ;-)

Re:To whoever tagged story as uk

[Atrox666]

The Wind that Shakes the Barley is a good movie on the whole thing. Somewhat historically accurate for the most part.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460989/ [imdb.com]
The English have a long tradition of being oppressive cunts..the current situation is just the latest bout.

Re:Idiocracy

[digitig]

It started out with "star" status -- in classical terms it was specifically a wandering star (mods, please mod any Lee Marvin references down!)

Re:Robin Williams

[Hognoxious]

I don't think it's that. University covers quite a broad range of quality - some of them are a very long way from Harvard or MIT.

[cue argument about whether Yale and Berkely are better...]

There's a slightly better article

[Vexar]

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/278826 [digitaljournal.com] I think what happened here was that the BBC found the Digital Journal article, got famously sloppy, and reprinted a dumbed down version. I think the Slashdot community needs to do what it can for the astronomy groups in Ireland (North or otherwise). There's been more debate over whether a skit from decades ago was about an Irishman or a Scotsman than discussion of the actual article. Granted, neither article has anything more than several people reporting seeing an explosion in the night sky (apparently while watching Jupiter), but is there any follow-up?

Well, yes there is: http://www.mail-archive.com/[e-mail]/msg77530.html [mail-archive.com] So, a meteorite, or if you read the BBC papers, a "space rock." Let's at least pretend we care about the news, not being our usual, fitful selves.

Fireball forensics

[clyde_cadiddlehopper]

Two good observations are sufficient for triangulation. CCD equipped all-sky cameras [cloudbait.com] and run-of-the-mill security cameras are watching about everywhere. Without multiple images, here's [phys.uvic.ca] a trajectory analysis based on sound (sonic booms?) at seismic stations.

Re:To whoever tagged story as uk

[Fieryphoenix]

The inhabitants of a country are the authority on how to they are "properly" addressed. Americans are properly Americans because that is how they identify themselves. It is a name, not a geographical description, and hence ultimately determined by the named, even though names are normally bestowed.

And yes, it is common for other languages to use terms other than what natives call themselves, and are still being proper in their speech. This does not, however, make the natives wrong in their usage.

Re:To whoever tagged story as uk

[Anonymous Coward]

and the British Isles is in the Irish sea!!

Re:To whoever tagged story as uk

[Anonymous Coward]

Ireland is not in the British Isles, The term British Isles is not acceptable within the Republic of Ireland and increasingly with Britain itself.