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Residents Report Bright Streak Over Bay Area Friday Evening

The Chabot Space and Science Center has received numerous reports of a bright object flying through the sky in over northern California Friday night, as noted by The Washington Post, NBC, and others. According to NBC's version of the story "Chabot astronomers in Oakland said the meteor was not related to the asteroid passing near Earth. Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, said he did not see it, but based on accounts he thinks it was a 'sporadic meteor.' Sporadic meteors bring as much as 15,000 tons of space debris to Earth each year, according to McKeegan. He said it was likely smaller than another meteor that landed in the Bay Area in October, which caused a loud sonic boom as it fell." The eyewitness accounts make it sound pretty spectacular, though; too bad we don't have quite as many dashcams going as there are in Russia.

25 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:how cares about meteorites? by nschubach · · Score: 5, Informative

    In Russia, they are used as evidence collectors because of all the shady folks trying to game the system. Here in the US, anyone with a dash cam is laughed at by a majority of people. I have a dash cam and people at work assume I have it to catch accidents and think it's a gruesome reason. Also, since people don't throw themselves in front of buses as much as Russians apparently do, the dashcams are not as widely used here.

    --
    Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
  2. Re:how cares about meteorites? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Russian dashcams are largely encouraged by insurance companies for that very reason. The problem is, if that were done in the US, the insurance companies would mandate a single very specific, very faulty model of dash camera (per insurance company) that doesn't fit in most cars, can be disabled via remote by any law enforcement official or Homeland Security member, is illegal for the end-user to even touch, is ungodly expensive for its functionality, encrypts and DRMs all its recorded video, and is designed to resist any form of accessing the video on it unless you're an employee of the insurance company. Otherwise, they can't trust it and won't believe any evidence gathered from it.

  3. Re:how cares about meteorites? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    Basically you want a GoPro with the wireless controller. Don't know about the Linux stuff, but it puts out a pretty standard codec.

    Would not be as 'hands off' as the purpose built dash cams but you would get the better image quality.

    --
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  4. Re:Just the beginning... by peragrin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    no no no you got it all wrong. this is the lead fragments of a super massive sized meteor heading our way. You see when it passed through the asteroid belt it pushed a few rocks out in front of it. those are the rocks that are near missing us right now. And since we can't actually see that far into space we can't get together a group of drilling roughnecks and wannabe actors to save us all.

    --
    i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
  5. Russian dashcams by stevegee58 · · Score: 2

    What's with the Russian dashcams anyway? I saw that spectacular Russian plane crash last month on some driver's camera in addition to the more recent recent meteorite.

    1. Re:Russian dashcams by houghi · · Score: 2

      They have them for insurance reasons. And if something happens, they will put it online. If there would be as many dashcams in the rest of the world, you would see a lot more of them from the rest of the world.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:Russian dashcams by History's+Coming+To · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup. In the UK some insurance companies will offer a discount if you carry an (insurance company installed) dash cam and/or black box recording accelerations etc. In many cases people don't do this because of privacy concerns, but fit their own so they can collect their own evidence in the case of a crash - many insurance claims result in a knock-for-knock judgement where each company pays the other driver's claim because fault can't be determined, resulting in higher premiums/loss of NCD for both parties, but installing your own dash cam can provide enough evidence to save you hundreds or thousands of pounds in the long run.

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    3. Re:Russian dashcams by sootman · · Score: 3

      AFAIK it's to generate awesome videos like this.

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  6. Global Warming and meteorites by prakslash · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually, global warming is to blame behind increased meteor activity:

    (1) CO2 is a heavier gas than Oxygen and Nitrogen. Because of molecular forces, the increased number of CO2 molecules in the atmosphere are pulling down the whole atmosphere closer to earth's surface. Therefore, meteors that would normally have burnt up higher in the atmosphere are coming closer and closer to earth's surface before they burn up. Sometimes, though, they make it all the way because of the reduced distance over which to burn up.

    (2) Increased CO2 is also leading to holes in the Ozone layer. This layer acts as a defensive shield. With more holes that are getting bigger in size, meteors are slipping through and reaching us.

    (3) Scientists have postulated that increased planetary warmth and high concentration of CO2 on an earth-like planet may indicate the presence of an advanced civilization. They are actually using this theory to conduct SETI. It is possible that advanced aliens are doing the same. They have detected global warming on earth and are hurling meteors at earth and using it as a sounding board for their own SETI projects.

    1. Re:Global Warming and meteorites by Brett+Buck · · Score: 3

      They know their audience well. Both of them thought this was a good question.

  7. Re:how cares about meteorites? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmm, the new pope coming to claim his throne...?

  8. Re:how cares about meteorites? by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Makes sense. First one overshot and hit Russia, second undershot and hit US. They're going to calibrate for somewhere in the middle and fire for effect soon.

  9. Re:how cares about meteorites? by Ja'Achan · · Score: 3

    Actually, yes, a few. Like here, at 1m11s. Not the first one I've seen, just the first one that popped up on Google.

  10. Re:how cares about meteorites? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Before you make stupid remarks have you heard the word "search"?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_miRPJgwDM

  11. Re:Terrible Software by sa1lnr · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From what I've been reading, it doesn't play all that well on windows either. :)

  12. It's like 1950's all over again... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

    Russians have demonstrated their mighty R-7 type bolide, demonstrating the advances of Soviet astronomy, and all the Americas had as an answer was a pitiful Vanguard type meteor that didn't even explode properly.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  13. Video footage by choprboy · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... too bad we don't have quite as many dashcams going as there are in Russia.

    But there are more than enough.... This showed up on Youtube late last night, I believe this is the original poster:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpTOc1i8_8

    And then a short time later this showed up:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkF4sloZmBI

  14. In unrelated news by Njovich · · Score: 4, Funny

    In unrelated news, intelligence monitoring has picked up Kim Jong Un stating 'second test successful too!' followed by manaical laughter from his Starcraft-2 themed war-room.

  15. Re:how cares about meteorites? by D'Sphitz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you even seen A SINGLE ONE video showing a person throwing itself in front of a passing car in any of the million of russian dashcam videos?

    Just a single one? Here's about 2 dozen.

  16. Re:"Bay Area?" by sabri · · Score: 2

    And which "bay" are we talking about, O summary?

    Usually that is the San Francisco Bay Area. Also known as Silicon Valley.

    --
    I'm not a complete idiot... Some parts are missing.
  17. Well two reasons by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 4, Informative

    One is fraud/insurance issues. Accidents happen and in Russia there are major corruption issues with the authorities and such. Having video evidence is fairly necessary in many cases.

    The other? All the crazy shit that happens. When there's stuff like tanks driving across highways randomly and so on, might be a reason to record all of the goings on.

  18. Re:Just the beginning... by icebike · · Score: 2

    no no no you got it all wrong. this is the lead fragments of a super massive sized meteor heading our way. You see when it passed through the asteroid belt it pushed a few rocks out in front of it. those are the rocks that are near missing us right now. And since we can't actually see that far into space we can't get together a group of drilling roughnecks and wannabe actors to save us all.

    Although you are clearly trying a humor, you are probably more correct than you know.

    Not about the Massive sized meteor bit, but about the prevalence of smaller "fellow travelers" following (or preceding) the Asteroid that missed earth on Feb 15. In addition to debris from impacts the asteroid may have suffered in the past, you can add possible small moonlets that might accompany the asteroid, or other random rocks that might have been influenced by the Asteroid over decades.

    Much as some astronomers have rushed to say these are not related, (having never actually seen these meteors themselves) the likelihood is there that they accompanied or preceded the asteroid, or had a related origin. None of these meteors were even detected on radar in advance, and no-one knows their orbits. It may be possible to extract their orbits from pre-recorded observations from the past several weeks, but I doubt its anyone's priority.

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  19. iWitness report by Anna+Merikin · · Score: 3, Informative

    I saw it through my car windshield while stopped at a traffic light at 18th and Valencia Streets in San Fran City; I have seen other meteors before and this was just like the rest, except for its bright, cobalt-blue trail.

    It dropped out of sight behind Twin Peaks; there was no boom that I heard, which makes sense to me as it seemed to be traveling fairly slowly across the sky about 45 degrees above the horizon -- or it was at very high altitude.

  20. Re:how cares about meteorites? by slashmydots · · Score: 2

    Before you make stupid remarks have you heard the word "search"?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_miRPJgwDM

    Yes, we've all heard of the word search. They're usually in the paper and on the placemats in family restaurants.