Possible UFO crash in Saudi Arabia - Millions Of Witnesses!!

That's a meteor for sure, a big one at that! I myself saw a big meteor fall in the Las Vegas sky on Sunday night. I've seen plenty of meteor's burn up in the atmosphere, but this sighting of the meteor wasn't like any that I've ever saw. It pretty large size, same blueish-greenish color, and it was pretty low in the atmosphere. Didn't light up the sky or anything, but it was very bright and left a small trail behind it. Don't know, how many people saw it, but it was pretty big size meteor!

This is what the meteor looked like that I saw in the South Part of Las Vegas at around 8-9PM on January 18th, 2009.

www.youtube.com...

BTW, wasn't there a big meteor recorded somewhere in Sweden just a few days ago? I believe this is the footage recorded, looks a lot like the Saudi Arabian meteor.

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by C.H.U.D.


Here is the google translation of that page.
Source: /8kt3p3

Shortly after a local (00:02:40 GMT) the second camera of Baldo Meteor Hunter (BMH2) has taken an extremely bright fireball.
At 00:02:40 Universal Time (the local one), an exceptionally bright fireball lit up the skies of northern Italy. From the location of Mount Baldo the subject has appeared nell'Orsa Maggiore, above Dubh and then moved to the east, gradually increasing in brightness until Canes Venatici.
The camera BMH2 Baldo (Meteor Hunter) of the Center, pointing toward the North, has monitored the whole event into two separate IPRES. The image shows the first part of the traietoria car.


In the second phase the increase in brightness was such as to saturate the area of detection. The software has taken the movomento reflection of the car on the eaves of the Center. This serves to establish the point of explosion, which occurred when the car was found to impact with increasingly dense layers of the earth.
The entire event lasted 3 seconds. Difficult to calculate the magnitude, although it was certainly more than the full Moon. An estimate may be between -13 and -14.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by tarifa37]

so this is the crisis that colin powell warned us of?

I've found reports from saudi arabia on the 9th, sweden and germany on the 17th, Vegas and California on the 18th, and Norway on the 19th. They are becoming daily occurrences right about the time that Powell estimated. Someone please tell me meteors of this size are daily occurrences anyway and this isn't something special.

It's now the 20th. Anyone wanna make any predictions of where the next one will land?

reply to post by defcon5


Fascinating, thanks for that. I'll be listening closely if I ever get to see a large meteor again

This case is more interesting than many of debunkers are giving it credit for.
Firstly some points:
Initial reaction-the story never happened. This has been shown to be false, I posted above the Al-Riyadh article-pretty conclusive stuff.
The debunkers commented that 'so many witnesses, so few cameras'...indeed this was the case-another debunker fib demolished-most people dont run for cameras when they see something strange-the Al Riyadh article says large segements of the population were frightened and thats from Saudis govt atronomer!
The photo was of the the sun 'lol' : the chief astronomer would beg to differ.
The object was conclusively a metoer......that is now emerging that it showed up later that day in Indonesia-mmmmm funny.
Oh it couldnt have happened the Western Media didnt report it-wwell it did happen and the western media didnt report it-go figure!

Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
Someone please tell me meteors of this size are daily occurrences anyway and this isn't something special.

It's now the 20th. Anyone wanna make any predictions of where the next one will land?

Yes - meteors like this are a daily occurrence. Clusters happen from time to time, so this is nothing *that* unusual, although it's rare to get this many in a fairly short space of time that are reported. See the excellent post Phage made above!

The next ones have already arrived! There were 4 significant fireballs reported/recorded over S. California on the 20th. Source: METEOROBS

I think it's safe to say we will see more reports over the next few days/weeks.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

Originally posted by liquidsmoke206
so this is the crisis that colin powell warned us of?
I've found reports from saudi arabia on the 9th, sweden and germany on the 17th, Vegas and California on the 18th, and Norway on the 19th.

predictions of meteors in Jan? AMAZING...

I predict... we will see this again next January


Meteors from a Shattered Comet:
the Quadrantids

The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of the year's best, producing more than 100 meteors per hour from a radiant near the North Star. This year the shower peaks on Jan. 3rd. The timing favors observers in western North America and Across the Pacific Ocean. The best time to look: during the dark hours before sunrise on Saturday morning.

Although the Quadrantids are a major shower, they are seldom observed. One reason is weather. The shower peaks in early January when northern winter is in full swing. Storms and cold tend to keep observers inside. Last year, NASA scientists went to extremes to gain a good view; they flew an airplane above the clouds and over the Arctic Circle where they saw many Quadrantids:

100 meteor PER HOUR so errrrr we only have one a day spotted?






www.spaceweather.com...

Originally posted by C.H.U.D. Clusters happen from time to time, so this is nothing *that* unusual, although it's rare to get this many in a fairly short space of time that are reported.

Well I would say its unusual to see this many LARGE fireballs so many days AFTER the peak of the Quadrantids.. The reports may be due to clearer weather over the viewing area this year but it is certainly unusual to see so many huge ones so late in the 'season'

Originally posted by antar
Did anyone notice at the very end of the video it has a luminous quality, kind of transparent and you can actually see the shape of a triangular shaped craft? Just watching made my heart open and I felt to send light and protection to the occupant. I am sick to death of the military getting their hands on crashed UFO's. Of their capture and subsequent detainment to death of our astral visitors. I suppose if you have never seen one you may not even be able to catch what I saw at the end of the video, you have to first have certain centers in the brain acclimated to the different dimensional wave. They want to shoot down the benevolent ones.

Your kidding right? The OP video was one of a Boloid in Australia in 2005

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
Don't they have one of these things in a shrine at Mecca?

Quite true..

The Black Stone of Mecca...

The Black Stone's Origin

There are also various opinions as to what the Black Stone actually is. Muslims say that the Stone was found by Abraham (Ibrahim) and his son Ishmael (Ismail) when they were searching for stones with which to build the Kaaba. They recognized its worth and made it one of the building's cornerstones.

Secular historians point to the history of stone worship, and especially meteorite worship, in pre-Islamic Arabia, and say that it is likely that the Stone is a meteorite. There is no way to test this hypothesis without removing and examining the Stone, which would not be permitted by its guardians.

There is no indication as to where this stone originated, but since it pre-dates the revelation of the Holy Qur'an and Muhammad's prophethood, and even kissed, it must stem from the time of Abraham since the Hajj traditions are traceable to the patriarch of monotheism.

The Ka'bah at Mecca describes the shape of the black stone structure on a marble base which stands in the centre court of the Great Mosque, Masjidul Haram, at the centre of Mecca. It stands about 50 feet high by about 35 feet wide. Set into the eastern corner is the sacred stone. This Ka'ba is a cubed shaped temple rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael. Reverently draped in black cloth throughout the year, it beckons to every Muslim of the world to come to its sacred ground.

www.crystalinks.com...

So the most Holy artifact of Muslim worship is a meteorite

Originally posted by zorgon
Well I would say its unusual to see this many LARGE fireballs so many days AFTER the peak of the Quadrantids.. The reports may be due to clearer weather over the viewing area this year but it is certainly unusual to see so many huge ones so late in the 'season'

I think you're getting a little confused here Zorgon...

We basically have 2 sources of incoming natural meteors:
1.There are comets and the small meteors they produce eg. Quadrantids, Leonids, Perseids etc.
2.Then there are the asteroids, which are larger, harder and penetrate deeper.

The last is what is producing the large late afternoon/early evening fireballs that we have been seeing. The former source, comets, do produce some large fireballs, but not on the same scale as asteroidal material does, and as you said, the majority of this activity is confined to the few days around the peak of a cometary meteor shower. The orbits are also very different, and cometary meteoroids tend to be more frequent in the early AM hours.

Try not to confuse the two sources, as they have completely different characteristics.

Heres the quoue I posted before, again:

3. Meteorites do not result from cometary parent meteor showers such as the Orionids, Perseids, Leonids, Taurids, etc. It is felt that these objects do not have the required strength to survive atmospheric flight, and, in any case, the geocentric velocities are too high. Often the date and apparent direction can be use to establish a shower link to a fireball (although it appears that extremely bright fireballs are not produced by meteor showers).

Source: MIAC

reply to post by C.H.U.D.


OK, cool, it's just business as usual. In that case, I hope the next one cruises over seattle, would be a helluva thing to see.

Vivid colors are more often reported by fireball observers because the brightness is great enough to fall well within the range of human color vision. These must be treated with some caution, however, because of well-known effects associated with the persistence of vision. Reported colors range across the spectrum, from red to bright blue, and (rarely) violet. The dominant composition of a meteoroid can play an important part in the observed colors of a fireball, with certain elements displaying signature colors when vaporized. For example, sodium produces a bright yellow color, nickel shows as green, and magnesium as blue-white. The velocity of the meteor also plays an important role, since a higher level of kinetic energy will intensify certain colors compared to others. Among fainter objects, it seems to be reported that slow meteors are red or orange, while fast meteors frequently have a blue color, but for fireballs the situation seems more complex than that, but perhaps only because of the curiousities of color vision as mentioned above.

www.amsmeteors.org...

reply to post by ANNED


Just to clarify, with another quote from the same source that you posted above, The majority of light produced by a meteor comes from the excitation of air molecules - the composition (of the meteoroid) only contributes a small part of the light (and therefore color).

The majority of light from a fireball radiates from a compact cloud of material immediately surrounding the meteoroid or closely trailing it. 95% of this cloud consists of atoms from the surrounding atmosphere; the balance consists of atoms of vaporized elements from the meteoroid itself. These excited particles will emit light at wavelengths characteristic for each element.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

hmmm it could be anything could even be a signal? for an alien invasion? like on War of the Worlds the aliens were already buried beneath the earth and the lightning strikes activated them this could be similar and Obama said earlier today in his speech "the ground has shifted" hmm something to think about?

Another misleading title. This thread should be renamed "another impossible UFO crash."

reply to post by iron_shiek


you mean like this
www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by C.H.U.D.

the balance consists of atoms of vaporized elements from the meteoroid itself. These excited particles will emit light at wavelengths characteristic for each element.

While the intensity might be from air molecules the color is still mostly from the elements of the meteor. It does not take very much material to color tint the whole flare... I believe you are misinterpreting the data...

But then so do the conflicting scientific reports...

As to the Asteroids that are currently producing this unusual frequency of huge fireballs... can you show us the data that supports this? Where is this current 'swarm' of asteroids coming from?

Though many people may not witness meteors on a regular basis, they certainly would notice something that is so bright as to light up the night sky in eerie colors... So the reports of the sky 'flashing' IMO should be included in this... I would imagine that even a cloud covered day would produce an event in the sky that would be hard NOT to notice...

I do not believe this to be a 'normal' set of events

Some people in Poland thought that was Russian nuke the blast was so bright. I heard the relation of witnesses. They saw something falling, then big explosion. They wait for end of the world and nuclear winter so it must look really impressive.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by odyseusz]

Originally posted by zorgon

Originally posted by C.H.U.D.

the balance consists of atoms of vaporized elements from the meteoroid itself. These excited particles will emit light at wavelengths characteristic for each element.

While the intensity might be from air molecules the color is still mostly from the elements of the meteor. It does not take very much material to color tint the whole flare... I believe you are misinterpreting the data...

You managed to remove the most important part of that quote zorgon!

"The balance" is only 5%. The other 95% of the cloud that is emitting most of the light from the meteor is made up of air molecules.

Lets try again, taking this one step at a time...

You said "flare" which implies burning/fire. Forget about this concept and think of fluorescent tube lights instead. There is no fire involved! You can't "color a flame" when it comes to a meteor, because there is none. It's basically a cloud of glowing gas, and the overall color depends on the various proportions of gases emitting light, as well as velocity, and a host of other factors.

Do you remember, back in school when the physics teacher spoke about "fluorescence" and "electrons in higher orbits" etc?

A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light.

Source: Wikipedia

A similar process goes on in a meteor, except that instead of electricity, in a meteor, the atoms are excited by the kinetic energy of the meteoroid slamming into them.

It's also similar to the aurora, where charged particles from the sun interact with molecules in our atmosphere making them glow, just like meteors, green is due to oxygen, and red comes from the nitrogen molecules.


Source: RASC Calgary Centre

Here's a Leonid meteor, notice any similarity?


More Leonids:

The various mechanisms occurring in a meteoric plasma which might yield excited oxygen atoms in the O(1S) state leading to the emission of the forbidden O I 5577-A line are examined. The various contributions are assessed quantitatively and it is shown that dissociative recombination of O2(+) ions will be the major source with a possible contribution from energy transfer from excited molecular nitrogen.

Source: The excitation of the oxygen metastable O I/1S/ state in meteors

The dominant composition of a meteoroid can play an important part in the observed colors of a fireball, with certain elements displaying signature colors when vaporized.

Source: The American Meteor Society

Note my highlighting of the words "can play" which implies that more often than not the elements that make up the composition of a meteoroid do not play a significant part.

Of course, in some cases the composition is bound to play a bigger role...

Originally posted by zorgon
As to the Asteroids that are currently producing this unusual frequency of huge fireballs... can you show us the data that supports this? Where is this current 'swarm' of asteroids coming from?

Excerpts from the University of Calgary article about last November's fireball:

"It was a great experience to visit the Cascadia Meteorite Lab to see how they do things, and it has been fun to apply the things that we learned in class to a new meteorite fall,” said Milley, who is pursuing her MSc with Hildebrand in the U of C’s Department of Geoscience. “It feels good to be making a real research contribution. When we determine the orbit we will also know from where in the asteroid belt this rock originated."

The U of C researchers and their collaborators will now turn their attention back to determining the orbit for the space rock. The H4 classification matches the history of meteorite falls of this type that usually occur during the afternoon or evening. About 8 million years ago a large impact occurred on an asteroid of H composition and further studies will be done to see if Buzzard Coulee is another fragment from that impact. Although orbit evolution is chaotic, determining this rock’s orbit may help locate that impact.

Early evenings are surprisingly productive for fireballs, and most of the
casual ones are reported then because the majority of people are awake then. With asteroids and their fragments going the same direction as earth around the sun, the faster fragments can catch up with us from behind in the evening. In the morning hours we are on the advancing side of earth so we run into a lot more meteors then, but most asteroid matter is moving away from us. We can still run into a slower piece for a rear-end collision. Evenings in February to April seem to have a higher number of fireballs ; there may be some coming from a common source during that time. Otherwise they are pretty much random.

Source: Norman W. McLeod III, Asst Visual Program Coordinator, American Meteor Society

Here a few orbits of some of the ones we know:

Source: MIAC

Originally posted by zorgon
Though many people may not witness meteors on a regular basis, they certainly would notice something that is so bright as to light up the night sky in eerie colors...

Unless they occur over open ocean (2/3 of the surface of the planet is ocean), or in sparsely inhabited regions (most of the remaining 1/3 of above). Once again, see Phage's post a page or 2 back, to have an idea of some of the numbers involved.

Originally posted by zorgon
I would imagine that even a cloud covered day would produce an event in the sky that would be hard NOT to notice...

If the meteor was as bright as the sun (or close to it), then yes, I might be inclined to agree with you. In most cases however, meteors are not that bright. The recent events are more comparable to the brightness of a full moon, or perhaps a bit more. Have you ever seen what he moon looks like in the daytime sky... its brightness is almost completely overwhelmed by sun light!

Even without cloud cover, meteors could be quite difficult to see, unless you happen to be looking right at them. Flashes lighting up the sky/clouds would also obviously be much less noticeable than at night.

[edit on 20-1-2009 by C.H.U.D.]