Falling Rocks

Hi all.

Just a question...perhaps a stupid one, but just a question at the end of the day.

Recently (In the last 3 months) i have noticed a rather high amount of flying objects in the sky eg. Asteroids etc.

Let me put you in the picture.
I live in Sunny South Africa in a place called Johannesburg. Around here in the past few years you would be rather lucky if you saw a "falling star" in the night sky, cause it like just never happened. But now in the past few month once in every 3 times i go out at night i see something falling in the sky.

I use the term something as i dont know what it is and thats the reason for me posting to this site.

About a month ago was the strangestof all. Myself and a few friends were outside talking and chilling when all of a sudden their eyes and attention were focused on the sky behind me...i quickly turned and what i saw in the sky for me was something i might never see again.

I saw a rather large ball of greenish blue flames in the sky and went i say rather large i mean half the size of my hand in the sky very close to the ground........what looked like the distance that a traffic helicopter normal flies at. As it came closer to the ground the colour changed to a reddish orange flame and it seemed to have hit the ground...but get this there was no sound no nothing... we took a drive to where we thought it could have landed and nothing, zilch, nada.

The other evening i saw something similar but not as fantastic. Looked like a shooting start but much brighter, closer and larger then your normal...

I would just like peoples oppinions on whether or not these objects are getting closer to earth, or are they getting larger, or is it something with our atmosphere or what exactly is happening...

Edit: Sorry, I'm tired.

Sounds like it could be normal falling stars. A lot of witnesses to large falling stars will state that they saw it explode. I�ve seen such an event myself, so I know it happens. It traveled from west to south and was bright green.

We could be traveling through a belt of comet debris, or something similar. I might do a little research on it. This would explain the increase in activity.


[edit on 27-9-2004 by Seth76]

Here is a list of September meteor showers.
comets.amsmeteors.org...

Also, it should be noted that Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is flying past Earth this week. There's no danger of a collision, but the weirdly tumbling 2-by-5 km space rock will be close enough (4 times the Earth-Moon distance on Sept. 29th) and bright enough (9th magnitude) to see through backyard telescopes. It's been speculated that some larger asteroids will have smaller pieces around them. There is even an asteroid that orbits another asteroid.





[edit on 27-9-2004 by Seth76]

Sorry, but Toutatis still scares the crap outta me every time that I think about how close it's coming to Earth. Sends a chill down my spine to know that no one appears to be doing anything to try and stop it either.

There isnt really much anyone could do about it. Our most powerfull weapons (nukes) would probably only make the situation worse. They've been planning way for years for this problem, geuss we'll know when it happens if they have anything or not.

Why would we want to do anything about toutatis? It's going to be 4 LD's away (4 times as far as the moon). Many asteroids have come closer than that in the past with no harm done. I don't understand why so many people are getting worked up about this one.

I usually don't get nervous unless it passes with the Earth - Moon Distance. But, unfortunately, you never hear those till after the fact...

I dont really care about this one, i was just saying that even if it was headed straight for Earth there really isnt anything we could do about it. Aside from tuck away somewhere and hide after we launch nukes at it.

You probably don't wanna' think about the ones that have passed within the orbit of the moon, then do you?

Originally posted by Seth76
Edit: Sorry, I'm tired.

Sounds like it could be normal falling stars. A lot of witnesses to large falling stars will state that they saw it explode. I�ve seen such an event myself, so I know it happens. It traveled from west to south and was bright green.

We could be traveling through a belt of comet debris, or something similar. I might do a little research on it. This would explain the increase in activity.


[edit on 27-9-2004 by Seth76]

Here is a list of September meteor showers.
comets.amsmeteors.org...

Also, it should be noted that Asteroid 4179 Toutatis is flying past Earth this week. There's no danger of a collision, but the weirdly tumbling 2-by-5 km space rock will be close enough (4 times the Earth-Moon distance on Sept. 29th) and bright enough (9th magnitude) to see through backyard telescopes. It's been speculated that some larger asteroids will have smaller pieces around them. There is even an asteroid that orbits another asteroid.





[edit on 27-9-2004 by Seth76]

I have done some reading on Toutatis and it is quite scary. The reason people fear it is cause its so large and yet so close to the earth....i stand for correction but i think its the first time we know of such a large one hurtling past us.

Seth what you saying if i understand you is that you reckon that the stuff iv been seeing could be fragments of Toutatis that are flying into our orbit/atmosphere?

Originally posted by vierri112
I have done some reading on Toutatis and it is quite scary. The reason people fear it is cause its so large and yet so close to the earth....i stand for correction but i think its the first time we know of such a large one hurtling past us.

Seth what you saying if i understand you is that you reckon that the stuff iv been seeing could be fragments of Toutatis that are flying into our orbit/atmosphere?

Yes, that�s my theory. A particle of dust with no air to slow it down by friction can travel many times the speed of sound. An asteroid doesn�t have an atmosphere to protect from small impacts. Impacts from something even dust sized can cause fragments of the asteroid to fly off because of the speed involved. Once this material is ejected from the asteroid, it could stay relatively near the asteroid in orbit.

Toutatis is especially scary because they believe it to be a collection of smaller asteroids. This would make deflecting it if we needed to nearly impossible, and if it was to strike the Earth the damage would be spread over a wide area instead of just one spot.

It appears that some of the US government web servers are being upgraded or moved, so I have no idea how long these links will be down. There is an online asteroid tracker that will show more near earth asteroids:
neat.jpl.nasa.gov...

Also, meteoroids (and space junk) are a risk for spaceflights and satellites:
setas-www.larc.nasa.gov...
www.wstf.nasa.gov...

come on it's probably just a close up meteor