Did something just whiz past the earth? NEO?

I was just outside in northern Ohio, and saw what appeared to be a star, moving at a high rate of speed across the clear night sky. It was not a plane or a jet. Just a brightly lit, star-like object. I followed it for 5 or 10 seconds, then it was gone. Any astronomers on tonight? Anyone else see this?

Add: it was heading south. I'm in north central Ohio, 2 miles from Lake Erie.

reply to post by imawlinn


May have been a satellite. i see them from time to time.

reply to post by imawlinn


where in ohio are you?

reply to post by shortyboy


That's what I thought too, but most of them head east or west don't they?

Originally posted by Baldryck
reply to post by imawlinn

 

where in ohio are you?

20 miles west if Cleveland, near the lake.

lots of "objects" whiz past earth, everyday... might wanna check www.heavens-above.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">this for any satellites including the ISS or space planes...

or maybe www.spaceweather.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">this

without researching im guessing ISS..

reply to post by imawlinn


If you go here I used Lorain, Ohio's zip code, the only sat they show for the time frame is GOCE. It's relatively dim but can flare. That could be what you saw. Not sure if it's north to south trajectory though. I do know on some nights I see sats that fly in all different directions. Hope this helps.

reply to post by imawlinn


Swamp ass, i mean gas. Move along.

In all honesty it could be a million things. Altitude, light characteristics, physical characteristics of any visible craft, vectors of flight path, acceleration, etc etc. are all important pieces of the puzzle.

reply to post by imawlinn


This is a pretty good satellite tracking site:

URL
I believe there is a tab for tracking those that are above your location at the time..

I'm in NW Ohio, 30 minutes south of Toledo along I-75 and didn't see anything. I work outside, but if it was quick i guess i could of missed it.

ive seen a couple of these, its not a plane no flashing lights and its not a satellite because its far to low, had me stumped for a while im in the U.K btw

reply to post by Baldryck


Thanks, probably the GOCE, right time, right direction. Very cool though!

jerrygarrett.wordpress.com...

Hope this helps, lots of stuff going on.

Tonight is the peak of the Alpha-Centaurids meteor shower. Depending on your location and the cloud cover, you could see 6-8 per hour so not a big show, but that's what my money is on that you saw.

Originally posted by KILL_DOGG
Tonight is the peak of the Alpha-Centaurids meteor shower. Depending on your location and the cloud cover, you could see 6-8 per hour so not a big show, but that's what my money is on that you saw.

I wasn't sure if alpha-Centaurids could be seen at the time and location the OP indicated, so I checked the position of the alpha-Centaurid radiant on the International Meteor Organization web site using a calendar for a previous year, and marked it using a red "*". on a screenshot taken of my planetarium software set to simulate the positions of the stars at the time and location the OP saw the meteor. Here's the shot below.



As you can see, the radiant would have been perhaps 4 or 5 degrees below the horizon at the time (around 21:00 local time or 00:00 UT unless I'm mistaken).

To explain a little why the position of the radiant is important, the radiant is an area of sky from which meteors of the same shower appear to radiate from. If it isn't flying away from the radiant, then it can't be a member of that particular shower. Also, if the radiant is too far below the horizon, then no meteors from that particular shower can be observed at that location.

In this case, the radiant is well within that limit, which is around 10-15 degrees below the horizon. Any alpha-Centaurids observed at this time wold appear to fly up and away from the horizon since all alpha-Centaurids head away from the alpha-Centaurid radiant, flying south from the NNE.

Alpha-Centaurid meteors observed at this time would be "earthgrazers", which are meteors that graze the edge of the atmosphere (low entry angle) in comparison to "normal" meteors which plunge down at high angle of entry. Consequently, they tend to last longer and travel over/cover more sky before they "burn out", which fits the OP's description quite well.

It's not uncommon for earthgrazers to last 5+ seconds, and because the atmosphere is very thin towards the "edge", tails are often not present since they are made mostly of ionized atmospheric gas.

I posted the following quote just the other day on another thread. Robert Lunsford (Operations Manager and Journal Editor of the American Meteor Society) writes the following in reply to another observer who saw a meteor with no tail.

Jason and All,

It sounds as if you witnessed a Perseid "Earthgrazer". This occurs when the
radiant lies near the horizon. At this time of night a Perseid meteor enters
the Earth's atmosphere at a shallow angle, allowing it to last much longer
than usual. They often appear as just "dot's" with no visible tail or train.
As the night progresses, Perseids enter the atmosphere at a steeper angle
and then reach the thicker portions of the atmosphere. It is then that they
appear as "normal' meteors with sub-second durations.

I hope this helps!

Robert Lunsford

Source: METEOROBS (The Meteor Observing mailing list)

Lets also not forget that there are other meteor showers and random meteors also occurring at this time (and indeed throughout the year) that could also account for what imawlinn saw, although there is a good chance it was an earthgrazing alpha-Centaurid. So I think KILL_DOGG is probably right on the money.

I also saw this driving to work last night. I was in hudson ohio. It was bigger than a star though. I would have put the size between sirius and venus (I believe? maybe saturn, I'm no expert) which was out yesterday. It moved pretty quickly and had no tail. Also seemed to appear than disappear not just travel across the sky. Hope this helps. I was curious myself.

prolly a small meteor burning up in the atmosphere