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Irish Astronomers Investigate Sky Explosion

Posted by timothy on from the stopping-snake-attacks-since-400-AD dept.

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."'"

11 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. To whoever tagged story as uk by andyh3930 · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    1. Re:To whoever tagged story as uk by wrook · · Score: 5, Informative

      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... ;-)

    2. Re:To whoever tagged story as uk by Atrox666 · · Score: 1, Informative

      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/
      The English have a long tradition of being oppressive cunts..the current situation is just the latest bout.

    3. Re:To whoever tagged story as uk by Fieryphoenix · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

    4. Re:To whoever tagged story as uk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      and the British Isles is in the Irish sea!!

    5. Re:To whoever tagged story as uk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

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

  2. Re:no telescope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

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

  3. Re:Idiocracy by digitig · · Score: 2, Informative

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

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  4. Re:Robin Williams by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Informative

    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...]

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. There's a slightly better article by Vexar · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/278826 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/meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com/msg77530.html 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.

  6. Fireball forensics by clyde_cadiddlehopper · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    --
    Obi-Wan: "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were sudden