Strange object seen by my wife.

My wife just casually told me that she had seen something "that you would find interesting".

She then went on to tell me that while she was outside having a cigarette, she saw a large 'light' shoot over the house - in the blink of an eye.

I suggested that it was a meteor but she said it was like a block of light, the size of a house that shot overhead at about cloud level leaving a short tail - more of a blur like you get when you move a light very quickly at night.

She insists it was like a block of light if that makes sense - like the Northern Lights but moving very fast - very strange I thought.

I'm thinking of starting smoking so I can spot these things as she seems to see an awful lot of stuff - floating balls of light etc.

It was in York in the UK 2 days ago - 17th October at about 10.00pm

Was their any sound? are their any reports from locals seeing something similar?

It left a short trail? like a contrail?


[edit on 19-10-2008 by fill0000]

reply to post by NeoSocialist


Yeah, one time my mom went to lay down and she said three multicolored lights came in the room, then she blacked out.

I think it was just because she'd been really sick lately and the medication had adverse effects of her.

Has your wife been sick or on medication?

-Lahara

Thanks for the interest - Ruth has had no skickness recently.

I havent really mentioned it to anyone yet so I don't know about any other sightings.

The thing is it was so quicke, my wife said you would have missed it in the blink of an eye - so I doubt anyone else would have seen it.

It had a trail, not a contrail more like a blurred trail like an effect in Smallville or something , but with a big block of light!

reply to post by TheRandom1


yeah.. and one time.. when I stood up really fast.. I started seeing these little blue dots all over the place.. I think it was another dimension in time.. or space.. or somthing.. I must of stepped into it by mistake.. because I was kinda dizzy for just a bit.. and then it faded away .. and I felt better.. yeah..

not sure about that reply ??????

[edit on 19-10-2008 by NeoSocialist]

Can you clarify "block"? Was this referring to the shape being square like?

Other than that, this sounds just like a meteor - of course, meteors would appear to be round, or tear-drop shaped. The trail/wake would also suggest a meteor.

reply to post by philjwolf



That was the blood rushing from your head.

Were you being sarcastic?

Any way, NeoSocialist, one night I was driving behind the Air Force base I used to live by and a blue light shot past me, I had an hour of missing time, it was a very strange experience, has your wife had any moments of missing time?

-Lahara

I got it wrong - it was like a large flat stripe of light that went overhead - but not like a shooting star which would be a thin line.

Ruth btells me that there seemed to be no physical entity it was just a stripe of light (she is sat here explaining it now!)


She has had no periods of missing time apart from when drunk. (she was not drunk on this occasion!)

reply to post by NeoSocialist


Well other than the death star trying to fire at and missing earth, I'm afriad I am of no help to ya.

Think it could be a hick-up in Project Blue Beam?

-Lahara

Originally posted by NeoSocialist
I got it wrong - it was like a large flat stripe of light that went overhead - but not like a shooting star which would be a thin line.

Meteors can do what you describe, if I'm understanding your description correctly. How thin, or thick their trails appear to be can vary widely!

It's quite common for people to unfamiliar with all the forms of behavior a meteor can display, and this often leads to meteors being misidentified as UFOs. This forum is littered with them.

Perhaps you are right, we have both seen meteors but not so low maybe.

I never suggested it was a spaceship or secret aircraft project ..... just very odd.

Cheers!

How large ?
Can you provide with average value ?
How long did it goes thru the sky ?

And - more description please.

Ruths doing some work right now, I will ask her to write a response ASAP.

Ruths doing some work right now, I will ask her to write a response ASAP.

Originally posted by NeoSocialist
Perhaps you are right, we have both seen meteors but not so low maybe.

Well the speed is a dead give away. Meteors are the fastest objects in the night sky by a long way (ignoring the possibility of ET/black OPS craft).

It's likely the meteor your wife saw originated from outside this solar system, where as most meteors originate from bodies within our own solar system. Intergalactic particles as they are known would have velocities about one whole magnitude higher than their solar system counterparts. Here's a link to a paper on the subject: Detection of an intergalactic meteor particle with the 6-m telescope

Regarding the apparent altitude above the horizon, basically, meteors can be seen all the way down to the horizon (providing it's unobstructed of course) - remember, that patch of sky just above the horizon for you, is a patch of sky directly overhead for someone else living some way over the horizon.

By the same token, up and down have no relevance to a meteor - a meteor can appear to shoot directly upwards from the horizon to you - but to someone a few hundred miles away from you, that same meteor may appear to shoot down towards their horizon.

Very interesting, I think you maybe right.

Do you know of any links to pictures or videos of such objects?

If this phenomena had been a meteor I'd have expected lots of people around the UK to have seen it too. So far, there seems to be no report of a bright meteor for the nights of 18 or 19 October. To me, the visual description doesn't sound like a meteor of any kind, but I've no obvious explanation either.

EDIT: A possibility is it was from a searchlight projected downwards from a plane or helicopter above a low cloud/mist layer. The mist layer would isolate any noise from above, so the bright patch of light would zip silently over the house.

WG3

[edit on 19-10-2008 by waveguide3]

Sorry to say that I have discussed the event further with the other half and she now suggets it may have been something to do with her cigarette lighter.

I am very sorry to dissapoint.

Thread closed.

Originally posted by NeoSocialist
Very interesting, I think you maybe right.

Do you know of any links to pictures or videos of such objects?

Unfortunately, no.

Intergalactic meteors are fairly uncommon, and totally random. I've seen a handful, compared to perhaps 10'000 ordinary meteors in my nearly 10 years of observing the sky for meteors. When you do see them, they are usually quite dim, and this combined with their incredible velocity makes them virtually impossible to capture with any camera.

The only one I know of is the spectrum captured by the researchers which gave rise to the paper I linked to above. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some photographs out there of intergalactic particles that have been mistaken for ordinary meteors, as they could look quite similar in a photograph. Without actually having seen the event, or obtaining a spectrum of the event, it would be impossible to tell them apart.

For the same reasons, video footage would be pretty much impossible to come by IMO, but I've put together a .zip with some clips of fast and very fast ordinary meteors meteors, which will give you some kind of idea of the type of speeds we are talking about here. Ordinary meteors range from about 11km/s to perhaps 80-90km/s tops - I'm not exactly sure where the cut-off is, or even if there is a 'solid' cut-off. Then we have intergalactic particles which would enter our atmosphere at speeds ranging from ~100km/s to 300km/s. The meteors in the videos are probably around 60-70 km/s.

Here's the link:
www.sendspace.com...

-------------

Originally posted by waveguide3
If this phenomena had been a meteor I'd have expected lots of people around the UK to have seen it too. So far, there seems to be no report of a bright meteor for the nights of 18 or 19 October.

Actually, I've seen plenty of "bright" meteors, even multiple second fireballs that no one else has reported. "Bright" is a relative term anyway.

It happens all the time, and the UK is not the best place to spot meteors anyway due to the amount of cloud cover we get, and the cold climate... not many people out and about, and when they are they are usually more concerned with heading indoors as quickly as possible!

Unless it's a relatively long lived shadow-casting fireball, very few, if any, would ever see it.

Anyway, looks like the mystery was solved, but perhaps this thread will be useful to someone with a similar experience in the future...