The ones you are talking about are adjusted to properly expose an object that is brighter than the stars, which means the stars will usually be too dim to notice. If you look at some pictures of dim objects, like the Earth at night from the ISS (https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Videos/CrewEarthObservationsVideos/) you can definitely see the stars.

It's the same thing, just a difference of timing. I suspect that having them hit Mars has a higher chance of success though, because I think Mars would be moving sideways slower than they'd be accelerating towards the inner solar system. Think trying to time walking fowards into a perpendicularly thrown ball, rather than having the thrower lead it and bean you in the side.

CERN isn't a nuclear weapon.

Report it and see if others have already reported the event stuff their own sightings: https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo/report_intro

Or Apollo 13 without the drama.