Aurora Trip Membership DVD Shop 1. Fireball Blazes Across Ireland and UK By far the most impressive fireball of the last several decades was seen on Friday night (September 21st) at 10:55pm, and now the hunt is on for any meteorites (rocks) that have landed on Ireland. Skywatchers in Ireland, the UK, and mainland Europe observed an extremely bright object break up into several smaller fragments as they glided across the sky heading towards Ireland, glowing as the friction of the air caused them to heat up. Due to the brightness of the fireball, there is reason to believe that the fragments were large enough to survive the fall to the ground, as happened in 1969 and 1999 in Northern Ireland and Co. Carlow. We are appealing for people to report their sighting of the breathtaking fireball to the organisation on our website at www.astronomy.ie/fireball. With detailed reports, we will conduct an analysis to determine where the object may have dropped debris on Irish soil, and we will announce results on this email newsletter. RTE reported on the fireball both online HERE and on the RTE News, which you can watch HERE. For more information and a photo of the fireball taken by a Star-B-Q attendee, please click HERE. 2. Public Lecture: The Higgs Boson: What It Is and What It Means In July of this year a team of scientists at CERN - led by Professor Rolf Heuer who gave Astronomy Ireland's Public Lecture the same month - announced the discovery of a new particle, which was widely believed to be the long-sought Higgs Boson. In light of the immense public interest in the Higgs Boson in Ireland at that time, our October Public Lecture will be delivered by Dr Cormac O'Raifeartaigh who will explain what the Large Hadron Collider is, how the Higgs Boson was discovered, and what it means for our understanding of the Universe. With the start of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, particle physics entered a new era. The LHC will provide a deeper understanding of the universe and the insights gained could change our view of the world. The LHC is expected to yield insights into the nature of dark matter and the existence of hidden extra dimensions. The lecture, The Higgs Boson will take place on Monday, October 8th, at 8pm in Trinity College Dublin, and people are invited to bring friends and family. Tickets and DVDs of this lecture can be booked online at www.astronomy.ie or by calling (01) 890 11 11. Astronomy Ireland The world's most popular Astronomy Club www.astronomy.ie ( subscribe / unsubscribe )