Meteor over Montana caught on tape

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Meteorite Strikes: Doctor's Office Gets Unusual Guest

When working in a doctor's office, you would expect to encounter nothing but patients all day, plus the occasional inspections. But a doctor in Virginia got more than he signed up for, when a meteorite came crashing through the roof of the building. Fortunately, according to sources, no one got hit or injured during the accident. Such a space rock making its way through the atmosphere is relatively uncommon, but instances of this happening have been reported before. We were also telling you last year about the case of a German boy, who got hit in the hand by a small meteorite while walking down the street.
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Is it just me or is this becomming more and more frequent?

Also you have 2 commets hurteling into the Sun in 2 months time.

are comets supposed to travel horizontal? I always thought they traveled toward the earth. that one seems to be within our atmosphere. At least from the perspective on the video.

That german kid who got hit by that meteorite is complete BS. If you actually read the article it becomes apparent

reply to post by Sorcha Faal


I was thinking the same thing. I thought why isn't it falling down to earth?

It seemed from the view of the camera to be travel across the sky much the way you would expect an airplane to travel.

If if it was falling down at an angle it seems it would not travel across the sky the way it appeared.

Of course it could just be an illusion from a distorted perspective.

reply to post by Sorcha Faal



Well it is not a comet to start with it was a meteor.
And i believe you answered your question in part with the perspective of the video, but also there is no set rule on how a meteor enters the atmosphere, they enter from every angle.

Oh and nice name, hope its real.


[edit on 22-1-2010 by pazcat]

Is it just me or is this becomming more and more frequent?

Someone asks this question every time there is a big fireball/meteor. Go figure...

It's not just you - alot of other people who are generally ignorant of how often rocks hit Earth also jump to conclusions about the actual frequency. Here is an explanation.

Of course it could just be an illusion from a distorted perspective.

Very close!

Perspective and illusion are the key words here...

Most people forget we are living on a curved surface, and that up/down is relative.

For example, an observer in one location might see a meteor apparently moving downwards towards the horizon, whilst another observer in a different location might see the same meteor appear to travel upwards and away from the horizon.

My little diagram illustrates what is happening:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1d81f35c53d4.jpg[/atsimg]

Observer A sees the meteor apparently heading upwards and away from the horizon, while observer B sees the meteor apparently falling towards the horizon.

Of course, all angles in between are also valid.


Actual direction is very hard to determine in the case of meteors, since there are few visual cues in the sky. The only way is if you compare observations from observers separated by 10's or even hundreds of miles. The illusion comes in since the direction it appears to be traveling in could be completely different to the actual direction.


[edit on 22-1-2010 by C.H.U.D.]

I dont think its becoming anymore frequent, to be honest you need to watch the sky more.

If youve ever watched a meteor shower or just have seen many of them in different instances, they fall all different directions, ive seen ones that looked like they were going "up" just because of the angle I was on and their trajectory.

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Just a few weeks ago I witnessed my first "green" meteor and it fell for quite sometime it was beautiful (and rather close) so I could see the different colours, there was green flames / tail covering 75% of it and the rest was orange and yellow. Beautiful.

When I was younger I used to watch the sky all night, mostly when I was hanging out with certain friends wed just lay on the beach and stare up on clear nights, wed see about 5 - 6 meteors per night.

hell even now I still see them when it happens to be a clear night and im having a cigarette, to see one within a 5 minute period just happen to be looking up, id say they are frequent right now and always have been, people are just surrounded by light polution and are too ignorant to look up.

people should look up more, when you see a big shooting star, its awe inspiring. The best one ive ever seen lasted about 2-3 seconds, it broke into 3 peices which traveled for another 2 seconds, it was amazing. the green meteor rivals this because it was close and ive never seen a green one before. must have been alot of copper in it, thats my guess.

reply to post by epitaph.one


Good post epitaph.one. I agree, people need to look up more, and most do not know what they are missing!

the green meteor rivals this because it was close and ive never seen a green one before.

Common misconception... Meteors often seem much closer than they actually are!

must have been alot of copper in it, thats my guess.

Another frequent misconception... the green actually comes from the Auroral Green line 0I at 5577A or 557.7 nm. That is, when the meteoroid smashes into atmospheric oxygen, the gas is ionized and glows green. There is some reading here on the subject: adsabs.harvard.edu...