Hundreds Spot Fireballs In Colorado, Nearby States

pingpong writes "Hundreds of people in Colorado and 7 surrounding states have reported seeing "fireballs" in the night sky. They are described as being 10 to 15 times larger than a normal shooting star and bluish in color. Two people even claimed to see one land, but it has yet to be found. The Daily Camera is reporting it online here." Field reports invited.

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DO NOT LOOK AT THE PRETTY LIGHTS!

[cmeans]

It's the first stage of the invasion...first you watch the pretty lights...then you go blind...then the triffids eat you.

Keep salt water handy...it's your only defense! It melts them.

All we need now...

[Drakker]

All we need now are signs in random fields and we can start to panic.

Arm those water guns!

Re:All we need now...

[gl4ss]

1. buy a 20 meters long rope
2. buy a 2x4 plank(piece of wood)
3. plot some nice forms on paper with harp
4. do some nightshift work at fields
5. ?????
6. go looting after mob breaks downtown after going into panic(==PROFIT).

(all the comments i saw for this very marked funny or trying to be one, i thought not to be different)

weatherballoons

[ComaVN]

It's gotta be weather balloons. It's always weatherballoons. Big, fiery, exploding weatherballoons

Re:weatherballoons

[Tablizer]

It's gotta be weather balloons. It's always weatherballoons. Big, fiery, exploding weatherballoons

I hate that weather-balloon that keeps ubducting Aunt Laura and poking her in the brain.

Re:weatherballoons

[Loligo]

>I hate that weather-balloon that keeps ubducting
>Aunt Laura and poking her in the brain

Her brain?

Aren't they taking kind of the long way around to get to it?

-l

Re:weatherballoons

[VivianC]

>I hate that weather-balloon that keeps ubducting
>Aunt Laura and poking her in the brain

Her brain?

Aren't they taking kind of the long way around to get to it?

Obviously, you don't know Aunt Laura.....

must be

[doubtless]

one of those ships from Quaoar ..

Could it be?

[oldmacdonald]

Could it have anything to do with the three and a half pounds of sodium in the other story I just saw?

Re:Could it be?

[echosilex]

Sodium results in a yellow color upon burning. For a blue color, you'd burn copper compounds.

Here's an interesting thing to try--
Stick a couple of old forks in a pickle with the handles pointing away from each other. Split a power cord down the middle and attach some alligator clips to the cut off part. Attach the clips to the forks and put the plug in the wall. After a few seconds, you'll see the pickel glow yellow between where the forks are stuck in the pickle. It's pretty neat to watch.

Re:Could it be?

[echosilex]

Cu by itself burns blue/green, but CuCl2 is used to make the blue color seen in fireworks. Other copper compounds would work, too, but copper(II) chloride is the most common.

Re:Could it be?

[Loligo]

A quick Google for electric pickle turns up some pictures and even movies here.

Along the same lines as the eletric pickle (but totally irrelevant to the rest of the topic), there's always the sparking grape trick.

-l

Better story

[jasoncart]

Over at the Denver Post

Re:Better story

[Afrosheen]

Considering the distance away the meteor had to be to appear 1-2 inches in diameter, that's pretty damn big and significant. I'd say the usual meteor diameter is a few millimeters at best.

The weird thing is, I work with a guy that takes the bus every morning. He waits for the bus pretty early when the sun is just about to rise. He told me all about some super beautiful fireball he saw streaking across the sky about 2 weeks ago. I calmly explained that it was just a meteor but he kept insisting that it was different, he'd never seen one like this before. He went on and on about it, how it was a bright blue streak, etc. At the time, I wrote it off, but now it seems to be a phenomenon.

Guess there was relevance in his story after all. He'll love to hear about this story :)

Re:Better story

[SEWilco]

The usual meteor is a few millimeters, but its plasma plume is much larger. You can see an aircraft strobe at 30,000 feet (that's only 6 miles) but a meteor is much further and has to be brighter than that.

The AMS has a FAQ on the subject which includes brightness info. It also points out that nickel tends to produce the green color.

Also, there probably is a correlation between your bus-waiting guy and these other sightings. If you're in the northern hemisphere...there is more darkness right now than a few weeks ago. Easier to see meteors.

Witness

[dargaud]

As a mountain climber I often sleep out and high up, so have an excellent view of shooting stars. But the weirdest of all looks like that report. It was 54 years ago in central Italy, driving at night on a desert mountain road. I saw a fiery fireball in the sky, moving slowly from left to right.

I had the time to: understand (maybe) what it was, wake up my wife, stop the car, get out an look. Total time maybe 20 seconds. The 'object' was moving slowly, spewing green flames and eaving a long lasting orange trail behind. Trajectory was more or less horizontal. It disapeared in a flash. I tried to listen but there wasn't any noise besides the cooling car engine.

Re:Witness

[AnotherShep]

"I saw a fiery fireball in the sky..."

That's nothing bad. It's those icy fireballs you have to watch out for...

Re:Witness

[sniggly]

with an almost horizontal trajectory that can happen, the object would be streaking through the medium layers of the atmosphere, all the while evaporating its layers until it expires in a puff or blows up because of too much heat. There's no sound because the explosion could happen quite far away in what is a relatively thin medium so there isn't much sound. I've seen one explode too and waited for what in my mind would be a big booming sound, but nothing came.

Re:Witness

[Afrosheen]

I saw something unbelievable one time, true story. About 5 friends and I and an old girlfriend were hiking one night at Turner Falls. We sat on top of this cave and watched the stars since it was such a clear night and we were accustomed to seeing just a few stars in the city. One person noticed a darker star that was moving. We got excited and everyone looked for it, and saw it. It was probably a satellite because it was moving in a straight line.

Here's where the craziness comes in. The more we looked at the sky, the more people started to see more satellites. In all there were probably 8 we could watch moving, all in vector paths from the horizon to some point in the sky. That point ended up being nearly directly overhead from us.

Once the dark stars reached a central point, they formed a slowly rotating circle. None of us could believe what we were seeing and we were all scared shitless. None of us could look away either because it was so unreal.

After less than ten minutes, we saw clouds blowing in hard from the south. The wind probably hit 20mph in a matter of minutes and we decided it was probably a good idea to leave. The dark stars were still circling overhead when the clouds fully obscured our view of the sky.

We drove fast and hard all the way home and nobody said much of anything. We beat the storm home and it was fairly clear outside except for the clouds coming up from the south where we had been. I don't know if anyone else besides myself has told the story but I don't blame them if they haven't. It sounds like bullshit to anyone who hears it, and it still freaks me out to this day.

Re:Witness

[mosch]

Yah, same sort of thing happened to me and my friends in November 2001, during the Leonids.

We had found a mirror-flat lake in the country and we were stumbling around watching the shooting stars, when suddenly we appeared to be on an ancient spacecraft. I looked up and saw the stars reorganizing themselves into various patterns, the constellations drawing themselves out to create realistic images.

We continued this strange, and very cold, journey throughout the evening, until my socks turned into meat.

Very few people believe me when I tell this story. Until I mention the presence of some extremely potent LSD.

Re:Witness

[Gerry Gleason]

It's interesting how different people react to a story like this. Some have to find or at least suggest what it is, others assume it must be something way out of the ordinary. Always more of a map of your own mind than anything 'out there'.

You have to keep an open mind, or you are going to miss important phenomena. The brain/mind always tries to put perceptions into a category, and it is even hard to make accurate observations when you don't know what to expect, but expectation shape the observation. Just one of those strange loops that can't be eliminated completely.

Poor sarge.

[blowhole]

On the "astronomical" chance of anything being discovered, Sgt. Byfield said, police would have contacted officials from the University of Colorado to determine what to do.

Dude, I'd be mad as hell if some whack journalist put my name in the same goddamn PARAGRAPH as that pun.

Say what? [funny]

[djupedal]

"None of the fireballs appear to have anything in common with each other."

Other than:

• When they arrived
• Where they were seen
• Why they were in this vicinity
• Color
• Speed
• Size
• Origin
• Composition [Class III Fireball - Do not handle without proper training and protection. Consult your handbook.]

Reach for the sky, hombre!

Re:Say what? [funny]

[Malcontent]

What I found interesting was that there was no attempt made to try and explain this phenomena. All then talk about is how rare it is and how they are unrelated. You'd think a scientist would exhibit at least some curiosity about the subject.

Re:Say what? [funny]

[mbadolato]

[Class III Fireball - Do not handle without proper training and protection. Consult your handbook.]

Do not taunt Happy Fireball

Re:Say what? [funny]

[cebe]

lol

If I remember correctly.... :)

Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing green substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.

Re:Say what? [funny]

[kfg]

There is a difference between rare and unheard off. I'd also point out that stating the events were apparently unrelated indicates not only some curiosity, but that some investigation due to that curiosity had occured.

Being dealt a Royal Flush is rare, it is notable, it happens. Why, and why on *that* hand?

Because shit like that happens. By chance.

What were the odds of being dealt that last hand you got that wasn't a Royal Flush?

Ah! If you knew the anwer to that you'ld know a lot more about "coincidence" than you apparently do now.

By the way, why do you suppose they call it "astronomical" odds?

KFG

Re:Say what? [funny]

[Lumpy]

Actually I observed one of these 3 weeks ago at arounf 9:30pm on the west coast of lake michigan. although I think the size's reported are way off in regards to what I saw.

They are just larger meteors.. I have seen about 6 in my lifetime like this... but then I spend lots of time looking at the sky at night (3-4 nights a week in the hottub for 30-45 minutes staring at the open night sky)

the interesting thing is their approach direction is wrong.. for the time of the night it should have been from the west and more vertical as the planet was travelling in the direction at that time.. this one reentered as if it had been orbiting the planet from an odd direction (from the north) and was very flat(travelled across the sky with no visible angle toward the ground)

I highly doubt that these are special at all.. Meteorites happen... get over it people.

Re:Say what? [funny]

[DustMagnet]

The article quotes:

"It's quite astounding that we've seen two in two nights," said John Bally, an astrophysics professor at CU. "Sporadic fireballs are quite rare. Unless we're in a meteor storm, it's very uncommon."

I guess the reporter figured that mentioning that it was the peak of Draconids would take some of the fun out of the story. The last paragraph left me thinking it was very uncommon, not that it was actually slightly unusual.

Here is my first hand report.

[teamhasnoi]

Well, I was on the International Space Station playing cribbage with one of the Russian guys when he decided to get a snack.

"LUNCH, NOT LAUNCH!" I yelled as he absent-mindedly pushed the button that freed the living quarters from the rest of the station.

....um, right now I'm falling. Yup. Falling fast. It's pretty warm in here. Whew. Better put on a t-shirt.

Ok. I'm looking out the window. Hey! I see clouds! Cool. That looks like mountains over there... I wonder if 3pojjaet8rj['[545$YW#$#..
sw245ll.///
./#%.

Ok. I seem to have crashed. I can't move my legs. Could someone please get me an asprin? I'll try to walk. Oh God! The pain... it's excruciating! Ow. I think my leg just snapped. Ow. Ow. Ow.

Re:UFO's?

[Anonymous Coward]

"And I was really really looking forward to being probed."

So you are that goatse guy. Quit promoting your site here!

I saw a bunch one night, 40 years ago

[mesocyclone]

Many years ago, my family was driving from El Paso, TX to Albuquerque, NM, when we saw a number of fireballs. The first occurred just after sunset, was visually a large, bright green glowing object leaving a smoke trail. It traveled east to west and lasted about 10 seconds, then broke up into two pieces and disappeared. We were just north of El Paso, and were listening to KOMA in Oklahoma, City - there were many reports called in to them from many states.

As the drive continued, we saw about 6 more fireballs, all red, all running east to west, through the rest of the evening.

Quite a show. The clear and thin high altitude air of the rockies, along with the lack of city lights, makes these sitings a lot more common in those areas.

We didn't see any LGM, however.

Re:I saw a bunch one night, 40 years ago

[evilpenguin]

Okay, I know spelling/grammar flaming isn't right, and this isn't anything personal (I make flagrant errors due to fast typing an no proofreading myself), but I am really beginning to be bugged by people mixing up "site" and "sight." A "site" is a place, a location. A "sight" is something to see, something seen or worth seeing. So you have a web "site" and a "sight" to see. This is not to mention the word "cite," which is a verb meaning "to refer to" or "to quote."

Cite, site, sight.

Sorry about that. Phew. Now, on topic:

No LGMs? Any BEMs?

Planet X

[Jin Wicked]

There are many people that believe in the year 2003, another planet is going to enter our solar system from either outside the solar system or another dimension. It's known either as Planet X, or a name that starts with N, which escapes me at the moment... I do find it an interesting coincidence that a story was just posted about the discovery of a new planet, and now to hear of these bizarre fireballs. I'm sure they're having a field day with this on the Art Bell show tonight. I'm a skeptic on all things "extraterrestrial" and paranormal, but it's still really interesting to listen to. :)

Re:Planet X

[Nedmud]

I read about something called the "Nemesis Theory", by Richard Muller, which proposes that Sol is actually a binary star system (in which Sol B is called Nemesis or the Death Star ;-). Every 26 million years Nemesis passes through the Oort cloud and collects comets, some of which hit us.

The evidence for this is the periodic drops in biodiversity (i.e. mass extinctions) that seem to occur every 26 million years (according to some paleontolists). However, we are between extinctions, and should be relatively trouble free for more than 10 million years.

From other posts in the vicinity it looks like Nemesis wasn't what you were talking about, but I guess it's in the same category. Personally, I think we would know if there was another star--even a small dark one--that close to us.

(Source: Michio Kaku, _Hyperspace_, pp. 296-298. Recommended for people like me who can't get past first-year university but like scientific things anyhow.)

Re:It's all so damn 'Merican

[grumpygrodyguy]

My favourite quote: "in the Gunbarrel area...". Americans! You're so damn steeped in gun culture you name neighbourhoods after weapons' parts.

True true, but as a previous resident of Colorado I can tell you that these names are at least 120 years old. They were so-named during the frontier era when the only thing that kept you alive was your gun. Mountain men relied on thier weapon for food and for protection. That's just the way it was in the West during the 1800s, and that's why they named stuff the way they did.

It just makes a canajen boy shake his head and celebrate the difference.

Maybe you should study your countries' history a bit more.

Nibiru

[Jin Wicked]

is the planet's name, for anyone who wants to do a Google search or look on Art's site about it. I should also mention that they expect highly evolved alien races to accompany this giant planet/spaceship. :)

Re:Nibiru

[susano_otter]

Perhaps you'd feel better if you knew about the Origins and Use of the Winged Sun-Disk. Apparently, it's also mentioned in Maurice's Indian Antiquities . You can get an idea of how widespread this symbol was in this discussion about the migration of symbols. Google provides links to many more such sites, if you'd like to conduct further impromptu research.

It's a pity you didn't see any when you were in Egypt. You appear to have missed out on a significant core element of Egyptian iconography.

Burning, itchy...

[hansroy]

"rash of fireballs" Reading that line made me snort milk.

Robin Williams?

[leviramsey]

I note that the reports are of the fireballs landing near Boulder. Does this mean that Mork from Ork has arrived?

Nanoo Nanoo!

[For those young whippersnappers who don't watch TV land, the popular TV show Mork and Mindy, starring Robin Williams, was set in Boulder]

Slashdot Readers Report Rise In One-Liners

[thedbp]

Several /. readers e-mailed their concerns over a sharp increase in one-liners today, fueling speculation that these one-liners are not just a random occurance, but perhaps the first ungodly signs of the oncoming apocolypse.

"usually we'll see a few, maybe even a bunch, of one-liners for certain stories we've posted," said CmdrTaco, languishing in a drunken hallucinagenic stupor on the steps of his villa in the south of france. "but christ, its like henny youngman possessed the populace on a scale rivaling that of ..." Taco then gurgled and sputtered and dropped to a heap on the patio.

"certainly one-liners are a common, almost obligatory, form of logical reponse," said one reader, "but this many makes me want to get in a white van and shoot people at random. do these people think they're funny? its really just in bad taste."

one-liner watchers are unconcerned however. "we've seen this before - like the article about the giant Bart Simpson doll copulating with a penguin - and no substantial harm was done on the long term." some, however, are still reliving the nightmare.

with no end in sight to this barrage, Micro$oft engineers have released a worm to tack on at least 3 sentences promoting WindowsS.Ux, Ballmer Edition to each post to space out the green bars just a little further.

Re:Slashdot Readers Report Rise In One-Liners

[valmont]

heh heh. if only i had mod points. u should sell this to The Onion ;]

Oh gawd, i can't wait 'till the onion gets a field day out of those stories.

Re:Explanation needed

[Stormie]

That guy? I reckon this guy owes us an explanation!

The logical explanation

[Nathdot]

The first conlusion we should all jump to is that this is unequivocable evidence of an extra-terrestrial encounter.

All those who say otherwise are cynical naysayers.

By the time they are convinced it could well be too late. The time for action is now.

I for one support the military action that George W. Bush is planning for these alien enemies of state. So grab a gun and head for Colorado! Time is a-wasting.

Re:It's all so damn 'Merican

[Kymermosst]

Yeah, well I was hanging out in the Sears on Bolt Street, when I heard about this party happening down on Breach Avenue. I got into my Colt and hammered my way down the street, with my hair-trigger reflexes in my fingers. I scoped out the target and got a grip on the situation. I squeezed my way into the crowd and set my sights on this girl. I locked and loaded my line, and came up to her and told her I could clean her bore. Needless to say, she slapped me with a magazine, and clipped my fun for the evening. Fortunately, I had the caliber to move on to the next range the day after, and soon I was rifling my way through the lanes. The alley was pretty cool, but I wasn't cocked until I saw the one of my dreams! The hunt was over, all I needed to do was hit the bullseye here. I saw her go into the powder room, and strategically positioned myself for her return. When she came out, I got a grip on my nervousness, and asked her to join me for some evening shooting. We played all night, then went back to my place. She asked me to show her the double-barrel. She chambered my round just fine, and I shot a load. I now knew the meaning of what it was like to be a sex pistol.

Picture of the Fireballs

[Grip3n]

If you're like me, you *want* to see some pictures.

http://www.cloudbait.com/science/fireballs.html

Quite a bit of extra information is on this site as well.

Goodness gracious ...

[Mind Socket]

... great balls of fire!

What a concept! It simply shakes my nerves and it rattles my brains.

Re:It's all so damn 'Merican

[Dalcius]

"My knowledge of guns started at the age of four when my first .22 calibre single shot rifle was purchased for me."

You got a .22 when you were four?

I live in Texas and I never shot anything but a BB gun until I was 12.

How can you even make a comment about Americans and guns? =P

This seems to be some cloud

[Ektanoor]

I read a few days ago that near Irkutsk, Russia a big meteorite seem to have fallen in a remote location. The thing seemed to be huge and it seems to have landed as there was a small quake after getting out of view.

Besides, if I don't miss things it looks like that there is one more account about a similar phenomena out of the USA. Unfortunately I don't remember the place.

So, it seems that we are inside some fresh new cloud of cosmical debris. The events we see are probably the result of Earth crossing the trajectory of Kuiper belt newcomer. Usually, when this happens, we get some spectacular phenomena on the skies, usually presented as meteorite showers. However this fireball show is surely less usual to see. The fact that this lasts for a few days is probably the result that the newcomer crumbled to pieces while approaching the Sun.

Re:probability

[foobar104]

Never tell me the odds.

There were a bunch of these in the UK this week

[Varitek]

BBC News story (scroll down a little)

Re:It's Not Like They Didn't Warn Us

[SQL Error]

Into acid? Boy are they in for a surprise!

Different directions?

[Captain_Chaos]

It's very odd that the CNN article said the second fireball was going the other way from the first one. If they were both from a debris cloud and occurred at the same time in the same place they should have been going in exaclty the same direction since they would be travelling in more or less the same direction and the orientation of the Earth in relation to their path would be more or less the same...

If the article is correct, one or both of the fireballs must have been something else, such as a sattelite reentering the atmosphere, despite all the quotes from experts saying that they were meteorites...

Re:Different directions?

[ColaMan]

Actually there is a term called the 'radiant' when discussing meteor showers - all the meteors in a particular stream will appear to come from the same patch of sky, radiating outwards.

It's similar to bugs heading towards your windscreen - they all appear to originate from one point (ahead on the highway) but as they get closer they radiate out and hit different parts of the windscreen from your perspective.

I presume that at this time the radiant was close to 90 degrees overhead - then they would appear to be heading in different directions.

Re:It's all so damn 'Merican

[bwhaley]

Well I'm about 7 miles away from Gunbarrel in Lafayette. It's just a few miles to the east of Boulder. Gunbarrel is a nothing town between Boulder and Longmont. Nothing happens there.

To stay on topic, however, these "fireballs" are causing the most brilliant members of the Denver area to make their opinions known. Several people, went interviewed on 9 News, were convinced that an airplane had flown into a building...

Riiighht.

I actually think I saw one of these

[Keyan]

It wasn't one of the most recent fireballs, but the one on September 6th.

It was probably around 8 at night and I was walking back to my dorm room (Univ of Colorado at Colorado Springs) from work. I was almost back to the campus when I saw a bright but small fireball in the northeast sky. Mostly white with a bluish tinge it moved pretty slowly (for a metor/shooting star) across the sky, parallel to the ground, and leaving behind little particles that glowed briefly before fading away. After about 30 seconds, the fireball itself faded away.

Since there was a plane in the sky near where I saw it first, I thought it was a firework or something shot from the plane. Maybe the military testing something (who doesn't like a good mystery?). For some reason, a metor never occured to me.

I've always wanted to see one of these, cool.

Astronomy courses, and other WEB PAGES

[saskboy]

Canadian Fireballs ... and other Astronomy information can be had from this website. It is part of my Astronomy professor's site, and he specializes in fireballs.

No Photos?

[altinsel]

Was I the only one that was expecting some photos at the daily *camera*?

Anyway, for those of you jealous of Colorado residents, take out your geeked out keychain and stare into the bright blue light. Now step outside and look at the sky. Yeah... it was a lot like that...

And don't worry, they should go away in a few hours.

aTek

Seek shelter and cover head

[djupedal]

Happy Fun Ball on the web.

Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs:

• Itching
• Vertigo
• Dizziness
• Tingling in extremities
• Loss of balance or coordination
• Slurred speech
• Temporary blindness
• Profuse sweating
• Heart palpitations

If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head. Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.

Re:INVASION DAY

[Walt Dismal]

Some guy with a Linux laptop just ran by me, claiming he could jam the mothership's electronics. I haven't the faintest idea what he meant.

The famous honorable "another witness".

[Qbertino]

Another witness reported seeing a bluish object about 10 to 15 times the size of a typical shooting star streak across the southwestern sky Monday night south of Boulder.

Wasn't that the guy who asked Kevin Kostner to call him "Mr. X" in the JFK movie?
From what I understand this is the same guy that also saw that indestructable "tin-foil" laying around in Maricopa by Roswell after that big bang one night. And he once had a Job on Area 51 and had this bumb-in with a small greyish green bug-eyed humanoid in a silver spandex jumpsuit.
I know that guy. He's absolutely trustworthy.
Really.

On the scene

[pizza_milkshake]

Field reports invited.

I'm here at the crash scene... there is a glow and a deep hum and a glow coming from the crater... a door is opening... oh my god... they're coming towards me... this is the most incredible thing i've ever trererewwerw

Grooann... Another &#^@! MSDS to find!

[Interrobang]

Composition [Class III Fireball - Do not handle without proper training and protection. Consult your handbook.]

Oh no! Fireballs have HMIS information?! I already have to find the rest of those 10 000 Material Safety Data Sheets for work; where oh where am I going to find contact information for "Fireball Manufacturers"?

As if my job weren't tough enough...

Interrobang, Conscript MSDS Updater

And in other news...

[bmalia]

Millions of slashdot'ers have electrocuted themselves today...

Here's an interesting thing to try-- Stick a couple of old forks in a pickle with the handles pointing away from each other. Split a power cord down the middle and attach some alligator clips to the cut off part. Attach the clips to the forks and put the plug in the wall. After a few seconds, you'll see the pickel glow yellow between where the forks are stuck in the pickle. It's pretty neat to watch.