High altitude explosion this AM. (meteor?)

Originally posted by runetang
but THEN .. i started to imagine the truth, which is, that a near earth object, of which there are tens of thousands, could land directly on top of the exact space that i am inhabiting on this planet Earth. so I began imagining what it is like to have a meteor or -something- fall from the sky directly on top of you, how it would look as it is coming into the atmosphere and landing on you, etc. the more i thought about it, and told myself repeatedly, "think about it .. no seriously, a space rock can squash you like you are meaningless snot at any fraction of any second that goes by. one .. two .. three..". Which is nothing but true ..

so my first thought reaction to that feeling of impending doom was strangely enough to crawl under something. not literally .. i mean i didnt get up and crawl under something nor did i want to but my thought was in that circumstance to hide under the Earth, cover me up! sort of thing, which wouldn't help you in a direct impact, nothing would. so its kind of funny how much fear that really can inspire in an individual .. just wanted to share.

Don't panic! There is no record of anyone ever being hit by a meteorite, let alone an asteroid! (The dinosaurs didn't keep records).

Meteors like the one in this thread are quite rare, especially as nearly two thirds of the globe is sea, consequently most go unnoticed. You stand much more chance of winning the lottery jackpot several times over than ever being hit by a meteorite.

Siberia (Tunguska) was hit by what was probably a comet (as it exploded in the air) in the early 20th century, so statistically that shouldn't happen again for a long, long time.

The last asteroid impact was a long time ago though...

Being from Oregon... i think it was the aliens

Originally posted by observe50
Fox new said earlier that this thing landed (???) in Idaho. As I see it if this came through then Norad should know all about it, they track everything and how did they know it went down in Idaho???

For about the 50-millionth time - Norad can't/don't track everything... objects like this are just too numerous in our solar system, and too small to bother tracking.

As far as how they knew where it came down, that's just a matter of looking at the whiteness reports and vids and using them to triangulate the starting and finishing points of the path of the meteor. It's easy to do when there are so many vids and reports as there are in this case.

I heard from a man that was in Elgin at the time say all of the towns street lights went off for 2-3 seconds when the meteor went over.Not trying to start anything,just wondering how a meteor does this.

I have not been able to read the thread yet, was outside hoping the moon would show through cover for the eclipse.

Last night around 9-10PM-ish we had a very unusual very loud boom different than a thunder acoustic. It was uneven, sustained with structure and was not preceded but by a smallish flash at distance I did not see as bright.

We had no lightning at all before or after. We are in the South San Francisco Bay area.

I have seen meteor impacts in upper atmosphere before over Los Angeles 15 years ago that left a ring cloud in the stratosphere that dissipated. Many flashes at night, but this blast was not regular lightning.

Here is a shot from a news item on a camera recording before and after light from the impact. Sorry for any redundancy.



Oh nuts, I can see the moon glowing behind the weather that came in an hour or so ago. So much for astronomy tonight. It's 6:54 or 7 min to totality.



ZG

Originally posted by factor352
I heard from a man that was in Elgin at the time say all of the towns street lights went off for 2-3 seconds when the meteor went over.Not trying to start anything,just wondering how a meteor does this.

Sensors on the streetlights are dawn to dusk switches. Those nubbs sticking out the top. A sufficient flash could cause them to temporarily switch the lights off.

We used to go into the panel on those street lights to unplug them for street astronomy. Others used BB guns. Not cool that. There are two poll plugs on some and you take off the panel, unplug and just plug it back in after.

ZG

reply to post by serg3smurf


The reason I started looking for this thread are these articles:
www.usatoday.com...

. A private pilot reported seeing the meteorite hit the Earth in a burst of light near State Route 26 and the Lind-Hatton Road in Adams County about 5:45 a.m., said an employee who refused to identify himself at the Federal Aviation Administration regional operations center in Seattle.

Then later in the same article:

said an FAA duty officer who declined to give his name.

Why would an FAA employee refuse to give their name If it was only a meteor? This article also mentions a veiwer who

felt a shock wave not long after seeing the streaking meteor.

Then today I find this: news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=AsXuFXKE6Xw9I_nLB_SuI80iANEA
Which states,

Scientists: Meteor likely disintegrated

Some witnesses reported seeing Tuesday's meteor hit the ground southwest of Ritzville in central Washington, sending local officials on a fruitless hunt for the crater.

and then:

Stephen Malone, professor emeritus of space sciences and former director of the seismic network, worked with colleagues at the UW and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland to determine the fate of the space visitor.

Interesting choice of words.

They triangulated the location of the disintegration using readings from seismometers, the UW said in a news release. Malone noted that the readings might be a bit off because the seismometer closest to the disintegration point has been out of commission since January.

Is it normal for FAA employees to refuse to give their name?
Would people feel the earth shake if it didn't land?
Convenient the equipment that could pinpoint it is "out of commission".
Is anyone here close to "ground zero" as it were?
Anyone else find this kind of info.
Just Curious

Originally posted by Curiosityrising
Why would an FAA employee refuse to give their name If it was only a meteor?

Perhaps like some here, the employee thought it might have been a UFO, and we all know how people treat UFO sightings in that particular industry... They are often reluctant to be associated with anything that might risk them being ridiculed/loosing their jobs.

Originally posted by Curiosityrising

Stephen Malone, professor emeritus of space sciences and former director of the seismic network, worked with colleagues at the UW and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland to determine the fate of the space visitor.

Interesting choice of words.

Interesting, yes - but significant, I don't think so... let's face it, rocks from space are constantly visiting us.

Originally posted by Curiosityrising
Would people feel the earth shake if it didn't land?

Yes - sonic-booms from meteors are more than capable of making the ground shake. This has been documented on numerous occasions!

reply to post by C.H.U.D.

Thank you for your reply. Still hope to hear from someone close to "ground zero"

reply to post by Curiosityrising


You're welcome Curiosityrising.

BTW, just to clarify my last point, sonic-booms are caused by the meteor's passage through the atmosphere at either hypersonic or supersonic speed, just as a jet breaking the sound barrier would do. No impact is necessary for a boom to occur.

Originally posted by Curiosityrising
reply to post by C.H.U.D.

 

Thank you for your reply. Still hope to hear from someone close to "ground zero"

What do you want to know?? I live in George, which is in the area within 50-60 miles.

After seeing the Highway 26 and Lind Road, I drove down to the site. I don't think I've ever seen that many white suits and such except in a mental ward. Forget getting close, as they had state police down the road aways from whatever they were looking at.

That's what I saw, and I wasn't real interested in crawling through the road block and trying to see what else was there.

Obviously, there must be something that tripped them out, because they had a whole bunch of vehicles and things with equipment and people were carrying what looked to be Geiger counters.

Anyways, thats what I saw.

reply to post by NwestJagsfan



That's sounds pretty neat Nwest. Let us know if you hear anymore about it. Maybe something DID land after all?

Seriously, i truly beleive that we are

already at war with ET's. You're not seeing space junk. :shk:

Its prohibited to break the sound barrier, with some exceptions: War with space. Sonic Booms are becoming very prevalent now.

Originally posted by dgtempe
Seriously, i truly beleive that we are

already at war with ET's. You're not seeing space junk. :shk:

Its prohibited to break the sound barrier, with some exceptions: War with space. Sonic Booms are becoming very prevalent now.

Where DID those black balls that landed in Australia and Brazil come from anyway?