Fireball and flash in the sky alarms Utahns

Fireball and flash in the sky alarms Utahns

www.ksl.com

A fast moving meteor lit up the night skies over most of Utah just after midnight Wednesday. KSL News has received hundreds of calls from people who saw it, from southern Utah to southern Idaho.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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www.ksl.com

[edit on 18-11-2009 by PapaKrok]

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[edit on 11/18/2009 by semperfortis]

Sad to say I missed this one, it must have been spectacular to see in person. There are some reports locally of tremors directly after the flash, though they are largely unsubstantiated.

I am curious to hear what happened, whether this particular meteor actually hit the ground or not. It was totally unexpected, I understand. Most of my friends and associates were dissapointed enough by the first night's display they elected to forgo the second. Who knew?

www.ksl.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 18-11-2009 by PapaKrok]

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[edit on 11/18/2009 by semperfortis]

The sonic boom wasn't felt till about 5 min. after the flash. Wow! I understand that makes it pretty far awy but to be that bright to shut off the photocells to streetlights, I think that would also make it very large.

www.spaceweather.com...

I remember when something similar happened here where I live. Remember the satellite collision a few months back? I heard it. Crashed about 20 miles from my house. Scared the bejesus out of me.

Thanks for getting this thread going. Last night's fireball could be seen from Idaho to California. A quick calculation reveals that the “meteor” was more like an asteroid, measuring at least 20 meters (if made of Iron), and detonated with the force of several megatons of TNT.

Impact calculator

Here are just a few of the news reports:

Witnesses-see-meteor

Meteor news

So …

Has anyone noticed the increase in large diameter meteors or “fireballs” recently? I’ve been watching the skies my whole life (over 50 years), and never heard of so many truly huge events world-wide. Every month or two people are reporting this kind of flash now.

Increase in fireball reports

Even historically there seems no precedence for this (although our population and technology certainly make observation more likely).

But, are we entering an area of space that is dirtier than what we’ve previously been in? At this rate, we might just get hit by something larger in the next few years ... (2012 anyone?)

Just a last week we missed another newly discovered asteroid that flew by 9,000 miles away … with only 15 hours warning.

Close call

reply to post by AirWitch

A quick calculation reveals that the “meteor” was more like an asteroid, measuring at least 20 meters (if made of Iron), and detonated with the force of several megatons of TNT.

Correct my ignorance, but how can an iron 'asteroid' detonate? Melt? yeah. Crash, sure- but blow up? The only way *I* can see it happening is if it had a material inside, like water or something else.

A lot of Asteroids arent compact as you'd like to think watching movies such as Armageddon, where the Astronaughts are walking happily around on a solid rock surface.

Infact the majority of Asteroids are merely gravel-like, only being held together by its own gravity. The more mass the more compact the Asteroid becomes therefore the longer it can survive the Kinetic Heat from Atmospheric Burning, when the heat gets transferred into energy, thats when you see the upper/mid-level Meteor/Bollide explosions.

I live in Central Utah and, I was in my front room, watching TV when it happened. I live out in the country so, it's kinda remote and really dark at night. It looked like somebody was shining a spotlight in the windows on the North side of my house for a few seconds. The light came in through the blinds and cast shadows everywhere, like in the movies. I thought somebody might be trying to rob my house or something. I didn't know what it was.

reply to post by wylekat


Simple, the object heats up to the temp of the sun ... and boom.

Physics for Future Presidents
(copyright 2001-2002, Richard A. Muller)
Chapter 1. Energy, Power, and Explosions

"Kinetic energy. Another astonishing fact found in the table is the fact that a meteor has 100 times as much energy as the same weight of TNT. Understanding this is one key to understanding why the impact of an asteroid caused a tremendous explosion. So let us spend a little time understanding the physics of kinetic energy, the energy of motion.

The basic equation of kinetic energy is that it is equal to some constant times the mass times the velocity squared. Written down, this becomes: E = k m v2"

Meteor physics

reply to post by AirWitch



I don't know how you arrived at that conclusion, but it's probably wrong!

Events like this are usually asteroidal material (not iron). An iron meteorite that is 20 meters in size would probably have caused quite alot of devastation on the ground.

Asteroids like this one don't usually make it to the ground since they are not that dense, and the atmosphere is good at stopping them. They usually explode high up (30-40 km), and anything remaining falls to the ground unseen, since it has lost most of the momentum/velocity that enables an object like this to produce light.

This is why (as 5 oClock mentions) there is a long delay between people on the ground seeing the event and hearing/feeling the shock wave.

Like recent events this one was probably somewhere between 1-10m.

Certainly not a close call. See this thread: Indonesian Super-Bolide Explosion ( why wasn't this on the news?)

The twisting, iridescent blue cloud which hung in the sky afterward bears a suspicious resemblance to the glowing trail left behind after a missile test.

I don't think it was a meteor, be it a Leonid or a rogue asteroid.

From Spaceweather.com, a reputable site:

Cloud visible after the event

Spaceweather.com says they cannot rule out a connection between the cloud and the "meteor".

The cloud is just upper atmospheric smoke left over from when the Asteroid exploded. High Level winds have just carried the trail around (much like you'd see with a contril, except the air is less denser up there so the smoke trail would still sustain itself without being blown around by oxygenated particles.)

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


I stand corrected, it was about a kiloton.

EXPLODING METEOR:

A remarkable midnight fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was not a Leonid. Infrasound measurements suggest a sporadic asteroid not associated with the Leonid debris stream. The space rock exploded in the atmosphere with an energy equivalent to 0.5 - 1 kilotons of TNT. Approximately 6 hours later, observers in Utah and Colorado witnessed a twisting iridescent-blue cloud in the dawn sky. Debris from the fireball should have disipated by that time, but the cloud remains unexplained; we cannot yet rule out a connection to the fireball event. Stay tuned for further analysis. (Spaceweather.Com)

reply to post by PapaKrok


Here is what looks like security camera footage of the `flash`.




Stunning .

That is quite the flash.. I seen one just like that in Alberta last winter.

Originally posted by ROBL240
The cloud is just upper atmospheric smoke left over from when the Asteroid exploded. High Level winds have just carried the trail around (much like you'd see with a contril, except the air is less denser up there so the smoke trail would still sustain itself without being blown around by oxygenated particles.)

This is possible, I suppose, though at the time of this posting the experts at Spaceweather.com have not stated that this is definite. I am really not an expert about meteors.

Question for consideration: experts estimate that the meteor was about 100km away, since the sonic boom came so long (five minutes) after the sighting. However, in order for this type of "contrail" to form, it had to be 70 to 80km or lower in altitude. A higher-altitude fireball "train" often looks unworldly and is composed of ionized gas. They don't last very long; a few seconds to a few minutes at best. It has to be lower to form a "contrail".

So, which is it?

What I wouldn't give to see something like that. To witness daylight in the night time. I am stuck in Ohio. The only time the sky lights up is when it is lightening out. Come to think of it we haven't had too many of those storms over the last few years. Man nothing happens here.

reply to post by OuttaHere


As Rob says, the reason it bears a resemblance is because similar physical processes are at play, even though the cause may be different: Our atmosphere is layered a bit like an onion, and each layer has its own wind direction. If you make a trail through those layers, it will soon be torn up and distorted by the high speed winds up there.

It does not matter what it is, be it a contrail from a rocket/missile or a debris/persistent train made by an asteroid, the effect is the same, and telling what produced it on a visual basis alone is not easy if the event which caused it is not seen. On the surface they look very similar. You should take the time to look at some examples of trains left by meteors before proclaiming that it can't be one.

It might very well be unrelated to the meteor (perhaps a coincidental launch/missile test at more or less the same time), but I think it's slightly more lightly to be connected to a fireball (it's near impossible that it was due to the same fireball though).

[edit on 18-11-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

Originally posted by OuttaHere
However, in order for this type of "contrail" to form, it had to be 70 to 80km or lower in altitude. A higher-altitude fireball "train" often looks unworldly and is composed of ionized gas. They don't last very long; a few seconds to a few minutes at best. It has to be lower to form a "contrail".

So, which is it?

"70 to 80km or lower in altitude" is consistent with an event of this type.

I was outside smoking when it happened, facing the other direction. Then, like NotTooHappy said, it was like a spotlight was shining directly at me, lighting up the entire area like day. Turned around and saw the rest of the flash.

Most amazing thing i've ever seen with my own eyes. Didn't have a clue what it was till I looked it up this morning.