Seeking info on comet june or juli 2006

Hi all ATS'ers,

This is a post about a comet I watched entering the atmoshpere in june or juli of 2006. It was a stunning thing to see and it never left my mind since I saw it.

Back than I was living in a squathouse, in Moodrecht a small town in the Netherlands. The exact location coordinates of the place are 51°59' NB 4°40' OL

The comet came in from the south and moved to the north.

So far the technical details, now my account of that evening:

The summer was very hot in 2006 and since our house was very old and we had no power (a typical squathouse...lol) and no airco we always stayed outside once the sun had gone down. One of my housemates had put a comfy old sofa in the frontyard and we used to sit on it for hours just chatting a bit and watching some traffic go by.

The house was on top of a dike, so we had a great view on virtually the entire town. Also we could see the airplanes make their turn to land on Rotterdam airport. Since the town was so little there was very little background pollution so we could do a lot of star and moon watching.

That one night we were sitting outside as usual. It was dark so it had to be past 22.30 hrs. We were just watching some airplanes and heard a loud boom sound. It sounded like a fighterjet going trough soundbarrier but than a little louder. We saw a huge fireball with an orange glow and a tail that was green, blue and yellow. It moved at an incredible speed and seemed to follow the earths curve. ( I don't know how to explain it any better.. sorry)It traveled from south to north and about 5 secs after first seeing it, it exploded into 3 pieces and quickly faded out.

It was the most beautifull thing I ever witnessed. I heard from a lot of people later on that they had seen it too.

Maybe it's not very special for a lot of people, and in some regions you get more comets than in others, so maybe some people are "used" to it. All I can say is that from where I live you get to be lucky if you witness one this size in your entire life.

However, the reason I'm posting is, is because I want to know more about it. Does it have a name? Are the remains of it found somewhere? Did anyone else see it? Or even better, does anyone have pictures of it? And does anyone know the size it was?

I hope that the expertise of the people on this board can help me with these questions.

Tons of thanks in advance,

Ambushrocks

It was almost certainly a larger than normal meteor that burned up as it entered Earth's atmosphere. If it had been a comet, we would ALL have been in trouble !

reply to post by ambushrocks


i think this is what you are looking for -

meteor explodes over norway

another link

As Mogget said, it could not have been a comet. If it was, the survivors would still be talking about it today...

Having said that, your sighting was very fortunate indeed. Very few people get to see what you did. There are probably less people in this world that have seen two events like this, than have been struck by lightning twice.

The reports seem to point to it being a small chunk of asteroid rather than part of a comet. Asteroidal material is much tougher, and likely to survive the journey through our atmosphere when it's in a large enough piece, unlike cometary material which is very fragile by comparison, and really if ever makes it to the ground.

I doubt anybody photographed it, but there was a photo posted on NASA's APOD website recently of a big Australian fireball which might resemble something like you saw, although by your description, the event was more "over-head" rather than on the horizon:
apod.nasa.gov...

Here's a vid of another fireball you might like to see... rare footage indeed: www.sendspace.com...

One thing that bothers me, is that you said it was in the evening, but in the reports, the event is said to have taken place at around 10 AM.


Don't forget, if you want to see more events like this, though perhaps not always quite as big (you never know though), the Perseids meteor shower will be peaking on the night/morning of Aug 11/12.

To get best effect, you should travel South as far as you can (without crossing the equator) so that the night sky remains dark as possible. You will have a longer time to observe them that way, where as if you stay at high latitudes, the night is very short, and it never really gets very dark, as I'm sure you are well aware of.

Keep an eye on this forum for further info soon!

It seems as though there was another event, just a few days later than the one mentioned above. Links:

www.aftenposten.no...

www.astro.uio.no...

Perhaps this was the one you saw?


Also, from the first event mentioned, there is this article with more info and a photo of the presumed impact site: www.aftenposten.no...

Thank you all very much for posting. Sorry for the late reply but I was somewhere else last night.

I don't know which one of the meteorites it was, but I'm very glad with the info. (and pretty sure it landed in Norway...lol)

I also loved the footage and pictures. It indeed looks the same as the thing I saw.

Thank you also for telling me the difference between a comet and a meteorite. I really didn't know that there even was a difference, I just tought it was two words for one and the same thing.

I'll defenitly watch that meteorite shower. (and hope that it won't be cloudy)

Thank you all again for your input. It is very much appreciated!!!

You're welcome ambushrocks.

There are some things you can do to minimize your chances of missing a meteor shower due to cloud, depending on how determined you are to catch a good show.

Firstly, choose a nice dark location as far from any man made lights as possible, and as far South as possible, preferably somewhere with an arid climate, and/or some altitude - if you can get above cloud cover, you are all set!

Secondly, plan to observe for a few nights in a row around the peak to increase your chances of a clear night. In many cases, meteor showers are active for many days before and after the peak, and there are often multiple peaks and sub-peaks. The Perseids are great in this respect, since rates build up over the course of a week, and the nights either side of peak can end up being better than the forecasted peak in some cases.

Thirdly, before the peak keep checking what the weather is doing and try to drive to a location where there is clear sky. You can get a good idea what the weather is doing by checking here.

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Just to clarify some of the terminology associated with the subject further:

A comet is what we refer to as the "parent body" when we talk about meteor showers. One example would be Hale-bopp, which remained visible in the sky to the naked eye for 569 days!

Meteoroids are the small particles of comet (or indeed an asteroid) that collectively form a "dust trail" associated with that parent body. Since comets, and all other objects in the solar system orbit the Sun (or another object that orbits the Sun), so do the meteoroids/dust-trails, and in the case of some parent bodies who's orbits cross that of the Earth we get meteor showers associated with that parent body, for example the upcoming Perseids which are associated with comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.

When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere, it's going so fast that it creates a compression wave in front of it. Air molecules encountering this compression wave or "bow-shock" as it's known are ripped apart or ionized giving off light in the process. The luminous phenomena we see is known as a meteor or fireball if it's above a certain brightness. In your case, the qualifier "very bright" would also be appropriate.

Any rocks surviving the luminous stage, and which make it to the ground are refferred to as meteorites.

Here is a web page with a basic overview and some examples.

[edit on 1-7-2008 by C.H.U.D.]

@ C.H.U.D. Thank you so much for all the information. Getting to a place of some altitude will be difficult (netherlands is mainly flat) but travelling south and stuff I can do.

I'm so happy you shared this info. If I was a mod I'd give you applaus for it, but since I'm not you'll have to do with kuddo's from me!

Any time ambushrocks. Glad I could help a little.

Keep your eyes on the skies, and good luck for the Perseids.