metal flakes falling after meteor

I had an experience as a kid with large metal flakes falling to earth after a meteor. Large number of people outside, warm summer night. Strange part besides the flakes was the fact that only a few of the kids were still moving as these fell, all adults and most kids froze. The next day nobody remembered it happening!! After many years I just chalked this up to a dream. Then, about 5-6 years ago now, I was on an elevator talking to a co-worker and mentioned where I grew up. A guy (about my same age) broke into the conversation and said he grew up in the same neighborhood. We didn't know each other but the next thing he said sent shivers down my spine. "Do you ever remember when you were a kid and metal flakes fell down from a shooting star?" I said yes calmly, and he said "you’re the only other person I have ever asked that remembered that night". Super freaked out and in a hurry to get to a meeting I didn't talk to the guy anymore or get his name even. LOL
Question I have searched for the answer to, "has anyone ever had an experience with falling metal flakes?" These would burn up before reaching us or the ground and some were 2-3" across. You could see the edges glowing red. All searches on meteorites and metal flakes talk about the metal flakes inside the meteor but not about them externally.

If anyone has a suggestion or help that would be great. The time freeze aside, I am more interested in the metal flakes since that is something strait forward.

bluehaze

reply to post by bluehaze


Guess I'll have to say that this is a dead memory that cannot be confirmed by others or anything similiar. :-(

reply to post by bluehaze


It's not uncommon for a meteor to appear to be much closer to the ground than it actually is. I have never seen this effect with a meteor giving off sparks (fragmentation), but I have seen a few meteors trailing sparks behind them which could easily look like you described, and I have also seen meteors that look as if you could reach out and touch them.

We know that meteoroids witch are large enough to make it close to the ground, are often the result of the meteor breaking up at high altitude (30-50 km), and fragmenting. Any pieces large enough to survive this, would likely spend a couple of minutes falling through freezing cold air. The relatively dense atmosphere at around 50 km altitude is very effective at slowing down even quite large objects, to the point at which they are no longer luminous.

We also know from reports of actual meteorite falls, that people who are close to the area in which meteorites were recovered later heard sonic booms/rumbling like thunder up to 50+ km away... often windows/buildings shaking at distances of around 10 km to "ground zero".

If there really was anything close to you, and still luminous, there is no way you could not have heard and/or felt it if that was the case.

I hope that answered some of your questions. I can imagine that it must have been a pretty amazing meteor that you were lucky enough to see.