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Meteor Streaks Over American East Coast
California doesn't get all the action; The Washington Post is one of many news outlets reporting that the east coast of North America got a good view of a meteor, with more than 300 sightings from Canada to Florida. Did you see it? If so, did you have your dashcam on? Update: 03/23 13:43 GMT by T : The meteor was captured at least by some security cameras, as reported by The Guardian.
russia got more action than california. just sayin'.
sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
But really now.. I have seen many fall this year driving home from work. One even lasted 5 seconds before burning out, and was brilliant white. (Saw it sometime in February.)
Do people on the coasts just have so much light pollution that anything other than a jumbojet or helicopter with running lights on causes excitement? Seriously, meteors happen all the time. The one that fell over russia was especially large, and had a lot of energy. That's why it was news. This one over the east coast just sounds like your garden variety to me.
What's all the buzz about?
Unless it made a sound, it's no big deal. I've been lucky enough to witness one meteor that made a sound. It was during a Perseid shower 20 years ago. A particularly bright one lit us up enough to cast a shadow. I turned just in time to see the tail end of it, then I heard a sound. It was as if the show put on a finale for us. After that, they were all just tiny streaks and then the shower was over for us.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a fireball meteor in the earlghty 90's. I was 13 or so and night fishing. Saw light on the trees across the lake. Thought it was headlights at first, then realized it wasnt. It streaked overhead, then it was gonee behind the trees. Then there was a flash. After came the sound. Scared me a bit at first. Gave me my love of astronmy though.
Silence is a state of mime.
If a meteor strikes a big city, then USA could start the War on Space. Will still be madness, but at least this time won't be thousands of civil casualties because of it.
It's a well orchestrated conspiracy by astrophysicists to vastly increase their government funding. These fat-cat scientists must be stopped now!
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
...for common sense meteor control?
We cannot stand by and let these senseless meteors fall upon our great world... no! We must pass laws to require all meteor's that wish to pass within a parsec of us undergo a background check.
More so, we must declare the surface of the earth a "meteor free zone" and let it be known far and wide... that we do not allow meteor violence here!
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
That'd actually be a good thing, really. I mean, it's short-term terrible about civilian casualties and the destruction of a city and all, but long-term, the investments in space technology and meteor detection would be vastly more positive for everyone in general than any of these other wars have been.
The Titanic had to sink before the fools listened to people saying "ships should have enough lifeboats for everyone, and the radio should always be on."
Hundreds of people had to burn to death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire before the fools listened to progressives saying "locking the doors is bullshit."
So yes, I fully expect that we're going to have to see a large city or small nation vaporized before the threat is taken seriously.
No huge explosion?
No shattered windows?
No collateral damage?
No pieces on eBay yet?
Lame.
You can't handle the truth.
KENT BROCKMAN: "Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?"
PROFESSOR FRINK: "Yes I would, Kent."
Not even a cluster - a meteor this size occurs several times a day naturally. The Russian one was more notable as it only occurs a few times a year. That being spotted was, in itself, fairly rare as most of the planet is unpopulated.
:)
If this had occurred during daylight (when, approximately half do) it wouldn't have been spotted. As bright as the moon is not, generally, bright enough to see in sunlight, unless you happen to be looking at the right spot (that's not to say you can't see it during the day sometimes, but when the moon is in full light, that means the sun is at a fairly low angle - it's not that 'bright' yet). For it to happen at night, in a populated area, makes it uncommon, but as these occur several times a day, not that amazing. The fact that it occurred over the East Coast of America simply means ZOMG MEDIA FRENZY.
I've been lucky enough to see 6 or 7 large fireballs in my lifetime, most recently including this one over Sydney (not my video - at least I believe that's the one I saw, it was around that time of the year, had some minimal media coverage) and this one over New Zealand which (again, presuming thats the same one I'm thinking of) exploded into several pieces and was accompanied by a great series of sonic booms. I'll usually see at least one regular meteor (ie, shooting star) a night just gazing at the sky. (Smoking ciggies leads to a lot of time spent outside in evenings.)
Don't worry - not a cluster. An everyday occurrence for planet earth. Just not an everyday occurrence for each of us.
"The true measure of a person is how they act when they know they won't get caught." - DSRilk
I noticed a lot of the comments saying that the tail was blue/green with a white/ yellow explosion. Is there anyone in the know who can comment if this gives an indication of the meteorites' composition. Green maybe indicating copper content, yellow maybe Sulfur? If so can you use the colour of tail upon entry to identify meteorites that have the same colour as being of the same origin? Just thinkin'
Wikipedia: Most meteors glow for about a second. A relatively small percentage of meteoroids hit the Earth's atmosphere and then pass out again: these are termed Earth-grazing fireballs (for example The Great Daylight 1972 Fireball). The visible light produced by a meteor may take on various hues, depending on the chemical composition of the meteoroid, and the speed of its movement through the atmosphere. As layers of the meteoroid abrade and ionize, the color of the light emitted may change according to the layering of minerals. Possible colors (and elements producing them) include:
Orange/yellow (sodium)
Yellow (iron)
Blue/green (copper)
Purple (potassium)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid
Yes, and how many people need to die from lightning before we build an iron dome to protect us from the weather?
Meteor impacts are very low probability events. Just because after thousands of years of human history we now are approaching the technology level to deal with meteors doesn't mean that the risk of meteors has changed. And if you are worried about extinction events, 99.999% of your attention should be focused on the ones that humans would cause (nuclear war, bioweapons release, etc.).
I was out walking my dog (about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Baltimore, MD) and happened to be facing the right way (north). I saw a large, very bright light green meteor with a yellow tail streak across the sky, moving east. It lasted about four or 5 seconds and didn't make a sound. It was beautiful . . . I've never seen anything like it!
Some low-probability events that did cause big changes in public policy: dying in a terrorist attack, having a kid get shot at school, dying in a plane crash.
You have Springter in Scotland?
Oh that sounds so nice. All we got here in Oregon is Second Winter.
I googled 'springter' and it's in the urban dictionary...
1. Springter
(noun) 1. when winter just won't let go and spring should be here but you're experiencing multiple blizzards and making more snowmen in one week than you did all winter 2. when you see green grass peeking through the snowpiles 3. when your windows are open to let in a fresh spring breeze but you are still wearing mittens and scraping your windshield.
On March 31st we had another blizzard, Springter is finally here!
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Springter