Possible Meteor Event over Michigan Bright Lights Loud Booms

a reply to: EchoesInTime

NASA Meteor Watch issued an update on the eye-catching event, saying the space rock was very slow and moved at about 28,000 mph (45,000 kph). The agency expects it was also fairly big and pieces of it may have reached the ground intact. This will likely spur meteorite hunters to seek out bits of the material where it may have landed near Detroit.

Source: cnet.com

Seems it was a bit slower than I suspected, but no doubt now that this was in fact a small asteroid.

As somebody with absolutely no knowledge of meteorite impacts..
Are these pictures of a normal strike?? Giant space lasers?? Orbital rail gun?? (half joking) I googled a little but couldn't find anything like them...





These are photos from FB and Twitter of the strike.

a reply to: wlasp

I question the authenticity of those images (especially the first one).

When a meteor breaks up in the atmosphere, the pieces that make it to the ground almost always have slowed down considerably due to the the friction of the atmosphere. The air Resistance slows them down to terminal velocity (which is usually about 150 mph) and they stop glowing.

This happens while the object is still pretty high up, so by the time it reaches the ground, it would no longer be leaving a glowing trail, and with would not be moving fast enough to create a fireball on impact.

Admittedly, very large meteors can in fact have so much mass and momentum that they will not be appreciably slowed by the atmosphere, and would create a fireball and large crater on impact, but those events are exceptionally rare. This would be the top story on the news if the meteor did what your first image seems to allege.

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: SkeptiSchism
a reply to: carewemust

Well they happen too fast.

Let's hope (and pray) that mankind is never able to fly a missile that fast in the atmosphere.

Look up OWL and tungsten projectiles launched from orbit.

a reply to: Box of Rain

Well said. Pretty much exactly my thoughts on the subject.

By the way, I've also seen credible reports on Twitter that meteorites from this event have been recovered. So it's certainly not the hyper-velocity ground impact event that some are trying to make it out to be. The numerous videos that have now emerged also confirm that the luminous phase of this fireball ended at significant altitude. When an object is no longer luminous, it means the object (if it still exists) is no longer traveling at hyper-sonic speeds (1-2 Km/s and above).

originally posted by: Box of Rain
a reply to: wlasp

I question the authenticity of those images (especially the first one).

When a meteor breaks up in the atmosphere, the pieces that make it to the ground almost always have slowed down considerably due to the the friction of the atmosphere. The air Resistance slows them down to terminal velocity (which is usually about 150 mph) and they stop glowing.

This happens while the object is still pretty high up, so by the time it reaches the ground, it would no longer be leaving a glowing trail, and with would not be moving fast enough to create a fireball on impact.

Admittedly, very large meteors can in fact have so much mass and momentum that they will not be appreciably slowed by the atmosphere, and would create a fireball and large crater on impact, but those events are exceptionally rare. This would be the top story on the news if the meteor did what your first image seems to allege.

Strongly agree. These, especially the first, are not related to this event, and are probably CGI.

a reply to: FireballStorm

You could be right, it may well have been the 1998 Leonids now you say it because this was at around 8-10pm, but I know I did get the day completely wrong so I might have got the times wrong as well haha. Those days and years all melt into one anyway. But like you say for anyone watching the skies, just get out on the days before and after or at least when the cloud cover is minimal.
It’s dark here at night but nothing like the outback - that must be pretty special to witness.

I love that the event led you to your future, in a way it really was written in the stars.

originally posted by: firesnake
a reply to: FireballStorm

You could be right, it may well have been the 1998 Leonids now you say it because this was at around 8-10pm, but I know I did get the day completely wrong so I might have got the times wrong as well haha. Those days and years all melt into one anyway.

It's easily done! I'm the same.. If it wasn't for the fact that I became obsessed with meteors after that, I would have trouble pinning down when it was too. Everything else from that far back in time is a jumbled mess as far as recalling timing, unless I took the time to make notes!

Do you still take the time to observe meteor showers? If so, I highly recommend planning ahead for this year's Perseid meteor shower. Whilst it's unlikely to be anywhere near as good as the Leonid storms/outbursts between 1998-2002, it's looking like it will be an above average year, and the Moon will be out of the way. If you go away for summer, consider going somewhere a bit further South if possible (The Canary Islands for example) where the nights will be longer/darker at that time of year. Observing meteors from a truly dark sky site is worlds apart form observing from the light polluted UK. You see many more meteors, and those that you do see appear to be more impressive when observed from a dark sky site since there is more contrast between meteors and sky.

a reply to: wlasp
Funny this matches more to his experience then what we were shown on the news he claims orange and on the news it shows a green flash, somethings off...
a reply to: ValleyofAshes

originally posted by: Illiberation
a reply to: wlasp
Funny this matches more to his experience then what we were shown on the news he claims orange and on the news it shows a green flash, somethings off...
a reply to: ValleyofAshes

It's actually very common with bright meteors and fireballs that people report different colours. I have been fortunate on a number of occasions to be near someone while we both observed bright events, and when comparing accounts immediately after the event, our perception of the colour of the object almost never matches.

If you check witness reports of such events, you'll find countless examples of the same: The International Meteor Organization Fireball Report Database

It really is just another example of why we can't always trust our very own eyes under some circumstances. Try to find one or two widely seen events in that database, and you will find examples of people who thought they saw an aircraft in the process of crashing, or a UFO, etc. It's not unusual for people to even call the emergency services to report aircraft crashes etc. They will also often say that it "landed near by" when we can show conclusively that it did not.

So meteors can help us understand our own failings, and give us clues as to what is actually going on when people see UFOs.

Getting back to the original subject of meteor colours though, if you check back a page or two, I went into some detail about the colours. Since colour can be very subjective, the only way to get an accurate measure of the colour of meteors is to photograph them and record the spectrum using what is called a "diffraction grating". This gives us a series of peaks and troughs, with the peaks corresponding to certain elements that are ionized during the course of the event, each of which has it's own "fingerprint" that also corresponds with a certain wavelength/colour. That tells us not only about the composition of the meteoroid itself, but also the atmosphere.

For example, a very fast meteor like a Leonid ionizes atmospheric oxygen, which emits predominantly green light at the 557.7 nm wavelength when it first becomes visible high up, which is usually well over 100km for faster meteors like Leonids. However, as the meteoroid descends lower through the atmosphere, the composition of the atmosphere changes, and instead of oxygen, nitrogen becomes more prevalent. Unlike oxygen, nitrogen, when excited/ionized emits red light, so someone observing at the start of that meteor would see a green meteor, and someone catching the end would only see red!

Here are some Leonids:


The Perseids also know the same trick as they are also fast.

Having said all that, this was a very slow fireball (no where near the energy needed to strongly ionize O and N), so the colours it would show would probably be much more influenced by the composition, which can be quite varied, and each element with it's own colour/wavelength. So as with many other events similar to this one, take your pick which colour any individual will perceive!