Saw a pretty interesting Meteor last night

I was heading home from a fun night of games at a friends house last night a little before 1 am EST. I was about 5 miles south of LCK (Rickenbacker) air port on the south end of Columbus, Ohio.

It was a fairly small meteor coming from the east heading west. I've seen countless of meteors in my life but this one was very different. Most all that I have seen were very high altitude and glowed a bright blue to greenish/blue color. This one last night however was super low and a yellowish/orange color. It didn't light up the sky or anything but was still an awesome sight to see one that low. This sucker seemed well within the 10 to 20 thousand foot altitude range.

I don't know much about meteors, is the yellowish color due to the low altitude? I assume it is, but I don't like to assume things I'm not sure about.

Eastern NC here. At 5:45 this morning, i went to the store to get coffee. When i looked up i saw an orange thing in the sky, about as big as a star,but it had a shockwave looking thing in front of it and down its sides. Very interesting to say the least. I assume the "skockwave" was due to the speed it was traveling, or entering our atmosphere. Maybe somebody can tell me what it was. a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

Depending on how long it was visible, it could be what folks in the aircraft projects forums are discussing lately... a new black project craft (or two of them, if I remember).

Or it could be burning space debris... there's been more than usual seen lately (note I said "seen" to allow for people just noticing more often and not actually having more debris up there... though I tend to think there's more debris for some reason).

*Add and the yellow color, if burning, means less energy/temp/speed... blue-white is a hotter burn. One of the secret aircraft getting tested has a yellowish glow, if memory serves... was there a residue trail...smoke visible in the sky after? How long was it visible? Did it flash out or go over the horizon?

Hi,

could this have been Comet Lovejoy??



Information

a reply to: Baddogma

There was a residue trail, quite long actually. It was slower than the higher altitude ones I've seen but not by much. I streaked across and flashed out. It was dark and I was driving so I didn't see or notice a smoke trail.

a reply to: Phatdamge

It was definitely not comet Lovejoy. Unless the comet was 20000 ft in our earths atmosphere lol. Probably wouldn't be posting this today if it was, we would all be dead in a fiery death.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

hahaha you are correct!

don't suppose.... stupid question.... any sort of picture??

a reply to: Phatdamage

No, no pics. I was driving and just like most meteors it was there and gone in a flash. Like 2 seconds max.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

if you ask me, thats just poor planning on your part, you should have been driving with your phone in your hand.......... Geeeezzzzz!!!

a reply to: Phatdamage

Pics or it didn't happen right? lol

I need a dash cam like all those folks in Russia.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

exactly.....

but now, if you did buy one your $300 dash cam will never catch this, as it wont happen again, all you will get is videos of road kill bouncing off your bumper.

just put this up,

SO it sounds more like a bolide that made it almost to the ground... and the colors have to do with energy/temp AND composition of the rock/metal.

Cool sighting... of course it could be something weirder, but likely one of the hundreds of meteors that come in daily.

a reply to: Baddogma

Yeah I'm almost positive that's what it was. Nothing out of the ordinary to make me think different. The altitude is what made me think it was so interesting. I've seen countless others, but it's my first time seeing one that freaking low. Had to be a fairly decent size meteor to make it as far as it did.

a reply to: SgtHamsandwich

Heh, "just a bolide meteor" is STILL way cool! Count yourself very lucky.

I once saw one burning red... part broke off overhead that burnt blue, in broad daylight... amazing sight.

ADD and if you're industrious, you can calculate the area where it fell and collect some very valuable rock... but without speed/altitude the area could be pretty large!