the METEORS ARE REAL!! i just saw 2 miami fl

Originally posted by homeslice
I would say that there is nothing out of the ordinary, just people are on the look out more than the usually would be and then whenever someone has seen something everyone will hear about it.

Maybe. Maybe not. I have watched the skies most of my life. I have noticed more "shooting stars" in the past few years than ever before. It could be my subjective view of it. But it isn't like I have a vested interest in it. It's just something I have observed.

reply to post by ooYODAoo


Yep, meteors are real and are constantly zooming through the skies. It's cool that you witnessed it, I've never been lucky enough.

Remember when everyone was seeing missiles? How about the dreaded Nibiru? I guess this will be the new ATS fad until zombies become fashionable again.

Keep looking up to the heavens, you might see more!

reply to post by ooYODAoo
I am trying to find pics at least one that was seen over south east Ohio on Friday the 15th. I know people were taking pictures, video or both. I was going to post on a different thread but don't have proof YET. When I saw this thread I wanted to post. I think it is strange so many are being seen. I wonder how many more have been seen and not been reported on? It makes me want to sit outside all night. : )

I believe these events have always happened and as other posters have mentioned it's merely a matter of the speed at which news travels and the fact that it's the current "hot topic" (no pun intended).

Does anyone recall a few years back when Shark Attacks were all the rage and the MSM was reporting every Shark Attack that was occurring. Although they are on the rise due to human population growth and more infringing on the Shark's habitat it is nothing extraordinarily out of the ordinary.

How many people are attacked each year by sharks?

Worldwide there is an average of 50-70 shark attacks every year. The number of attacks has been increasing over the decades as a result of increased human populations and the use of the oceans for recreational activity. As long as humans continue to enter the sharks' environment, there will be shark attacks.

Source: Florida Museum of Natural History

Now take an excerpt from this article as a similar example (emphasis added)...

Overview of the sizes and frequencies of meteorites hitting the earth's atmosphere

The rate of meteors by weight, coming in contact with with the Earth's atmosphere is termed meteor flux. The smallest particles, called micrometeorites, are a few microns in diameter and don't tend to burn or melt but slow and settle to the Earth's surface as dust. Meteors of a few centimeters or less tend to heat up and glow and appear as shooting stars but melt or evaporate before hitting the Earth's surface. Meteors of greater than a few centimeters are called meteoroids until impacting the Earth when they are termed meteorites.

...

Most of the mass of meteor flux is micrometeorites. Objects of 1 micron land on the Earth at a rate of over 2 million per minute. Meteorites of 1 mm reach the surface at about 2 per minute. An object of 1 meter in diameter impacts with the Earth about once a year. Larger meteorites, such as the Tunguska event in 1908 estimated at 20-60 meters in diameter, or Meteor Crater in Arizona estimated at 30 meters, occur about once in 5,000 to 10,000 years.

Catastrophic impacts of 1 kilometer diameter can occur about once in a million years. And a 10 kilometer object could impact every 100 million years. These are climate changing, mass extinction events like the Chicxulub impact event of 65 million years ago thought to be responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Full Article

Makes sense to me anyway, as long as the Earth flies through space, there will be meteors that hit it, and always have.

reply to post by kaidec

I think it is strange so many are being seen.

So do a lot of people. But it isn't.
377 in the US this year.
www.amsmeteors.org...

I follow this link to make sure things are pretty calm. Meteor Detection seems things arnt too calm.

Love and harmony
Whateva

Back around 88 I saw a fireball at about 2am that flew over my car lighting it up then continued ahead of me till it went over the hill ten miles or more away. I thought it hit somewhere near Atlantic Mine but I found out about three days later in the paper it landed up in Canada at least four hundred miles away. Of course hardly noone saw it, you would have to be awake and outside to see it. I didn't mention it to too many people because of fear of the crazy eye.

My wife and I saw the Russian Space station zigzagging through the sky also. I found a couple of days later that they rocketed it into the atmosphere to burn up upon reentry. That was neat also, something that not many people saw and we were just sitting by a campfire watching the stars. It went around a couple of times before not reappearing again. seems like about twenty five to thirty minutes to get around the world, that is impressive.

Congratulations on seeing a couple of nice meteors/fireballs OP

However, it was probably just a combination of luck and looking up a bit more since fireballs are the current topic of conversation as a previous poster suggested.

Remember, we are constantly (in our orbit) moving through new space and encountering objects. Sometimes the space we move through brings us into contact with more objects than usual, but there is nothing itself unusual in this.

There are not suddenly more meteors and fireballs now than there were ever before, but perhaps more are reaching the news than ever before, especially since everyone is looking out for them now.

I saw my first fireballs 15 years ago, and have been watching them, learning about them, reading reports, and trying to photograph them since then. I really don't think that there are any more now than there were then, taking into account that there are bound to be variations in fireball rates.

As for them "erroding the atmosphere", that is not the case. The atmosphere is still protecting us from impacts, and the Russian event is testimony to this. If the atmosphere was not doing it's job properly that 15 meter asteroid would have produced a 150 meter wide crater.

My advice: Don't worry about it - just keep looking up and enjoy the show

reply to post by ooYODAoo


I was just reading the initial post and our dog had been jumping off the couch and barking at the screen door off and on for the past 15 minutes or so; which is odd. I decided to roll a cig and go outside. I live a bit north of Birmingham, AL. I look up at the moon which is slightly south of where I am. Anyway, about 5 degrees south of the moon I saw what looked like a star moving at a slow but steady pace going directly east toward Georgia. It definitely wasn't a satellite. Just thought I would post this. Might be nothing...... Keep looking up!

reply to post by FireballStorm


Maybe you are correct. However, I can say that these fireballs have been seen by thousands in the NIGHT sky. You can't miss them. They have definitely been more frequent lately.

Originally posted by Phage

So do a lot of people. But it isn't.
377 in the US this year.
www.amsmeteors.org...

Interesting site. Going back to 2005, we have this progression in meteor sightings:

463 Events found in 2005
517 Events found in 2006
588 Events found in 2007
726 Events found in 2008
694 Events found in 2009
951 Events found in 2010
1628 Events found in 2011
2220 Events found in 2012

And 377 Events found in 2013, and 2865 by years end (we are 48 days into the year, with is 13.15% of the year. If this rate continues, it will reach about ~2865 meteors by the end of the year.)

I decided to put in a question to some Experts , I e-mailed the International Meteor Organization.
As soon as I hear back I will post the reply , assuming I get one.

Originally posted by Phage

So do a lot of people. But it isn't.
377 in the US this year.
www.amsmeteors.org...

If you go that site and go through the years there is an alarming jump in the number of meteorites that have fragmented over the last 3 years. 50 in 2010, 550 in 2011, 663 in 2012, and thus far 98 in 2013 which projects out to about 750-800. This compares to 0 or 1 in the previous 3-4 years. The overall numbers jump in the same manner going from 951 in 2010 to 2220 in 2012.

Before anyone gets all excited perhaps the increase in reports could be entirely to better tracking methods, more input locations, etc. What can you give us in regards to this Phage?

reply to post by sligtlyskeptical

Before anyone gets all excited perhaps the increase in reports could be entirely to better tracking methods, more input locations, etc.

That. Pretty much.
More people learn about the site so more sightings are reported.
"Hey did you see that fireball last night?"
"No, but you should report it!"
"Report it? To who?"
"I saw this AMS website."

reply to post by CaticusMaximus


The amount of eyes on the skys would have grown quite steadily since 2005 though right?

reply to post by Phage


Ok, I would normally agree with you but that makes me want to ask , are we certain the different organizations and societies and the Police stations and all the other agencies do not report to each other ?

reply to post by ujustneverknow

This is not an official agency.
It is a private organization and the reports come from individuals. The reports are compiled by the AMS.

We are an organization of amateur and professional meteor scientists and observers founded in 1911, with a common goal of studying meteors: – bright fireballs, the annual meteor showers, and the random sporadic meteors that appear every night. It’s an exciting field where amateurs equipped only with their eyes can make valuable scientific observations.

www.amsmeteors.org...

Originally posted by kaidec
It makes me want to sit outside all night. : )

Why don't you give it a go?

I can highly recommend it, and have been thankful many-a-time that I've done so. I have to admit though, I'll generally only do it if a major annual meteor shower is active. Lately I haven't really had the time though, or it's been cloudy.

If you do try it, make sure you have something comfortable to lay down on (sun-beds, camp-beds, and air-beds work well), and use a sleeping bag or two as the heat will soon drain away from you when you don't move around much under a clear sky. You want to be looking straight up, and have as unobstructed a view of the horizons as possible. You can see fireballs from even the most light polluted skies, but observing under dark skies that have little or no artificial light pollution is much more rewarding since you will at least see other fainter objects like dim meteors and satellites. In my experience the time goes by much quicker under a dark sky.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on if you do give it a try

www.breakingnews.com...

www.amsmeteors.org...

www.meteorscan.com...

www.nbcmiami.com... Brand

Another fireball seen over Arizona - www.amsmeteors.org...

Is something irregular occurring - perhaps. Not like anyone could do anything if it was. Sit back and enjoy the light show.