Loud explosions in Hampton Roads area, page 2
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reply posted on 29-3-2009 @ 11:51 PM by C.H.U.D.
Originally posted by johnsky
I've seen a meteor come down in person... actually two, if you'll believe it.


Most meteors that make it to the ground are not luminous - they are slowed down to free fall speed fairly rapidly by the atmosphere and then fall to the ground unseen in a phase known as dark flight:

Meteorites
Another type of interaction between the meteoroid and the atmosphere takes place when the meteoroid is bigger than 20 cm in diameter (for a speed of 15 km/s). In this case the meteoroid doesn't have enough time to loose all its mass. The meteor will during the flight through the atmosphere slow down to a critical speed of about 3 km/s.
   The energy that normally would be transported to the surface of the meteor is not large enough anymore to keep the temperature above 2200K. Since the meteor still has some of its' mass left, the molten surface layer will cool and form a crust on the surface.
   When this happens, the meteor or the fireball (when it reaches magnitude -8 or brighter), will fade due to the low velocity. The velocity is not large enough to cause neither evaporation nor radiation. The remaining mass amounts to 10 grams or more.
   What's left of the meteor falls to the ground in dark flight, and the speed is reduced to that of a free falling body. The dark flight usually lasts for several minutes, in sharp contrast to the mere seconds' duration of the brilliant fireball.

Larger rocks
The third type of interaction between meteoroids and the atmosphere is a rare phenomenon. If the meteoroid is bigger than a few meters in diameter, the retardation through the atmosphere will be low. The body will disintegrate only slightly. It will hit the surface of the Earth with a velocity of several km/s, and make a meteorite crater. Evaporating substances will make the meteor shine until it hits the ground.

Source: Norwegian Astronomical Society

I've also seen meteors that appeared to be falling just a little distance away, and so have many others, but there are not too many craters about... Go figure...

This research also suggests that it's extremely unlikely:
Abstract

A fireball was photographed with a luminous trajectory below a height of 20 km. On Aug. 3, 1984, seven stations photographed this slow moving fireball, which traversed 94 km of luminous trajectory in 9.2 sec and terminated its visible flight at a height of 19.1 km. The computed dark flight trajectory intersected the surface close to Valec, a small village 40 km west of Brno. The Valec fireball was the lowest photographed fireball ever. The Valec fireball was photographed by fish eye cameras. The positional precision of all the records were within the range of 1 to 2 minutes of arc. All computations were done using the FIRBAL program, a set of almost 4000 Fortran statements run on EC 1040 computer. The average computed mass at the terminal point, i.e., the predicted mass of the biggest meteorite, was 16 kg. This number is based on the dynamical data at the terminal point solely. Visual data was also collected from occasional observers. This observed phenomenon is discussed.

Source: The Valec fireball and predicted meteorite fall

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of meteors have been photographed since meteor astronomy first emerged as a true branch of science in it's own right, and the lowest recorded luminous trajectory was only just under 20 km.

Just out of curiosity, roughly how many meteors would you say that you have seen?


Originally posted by johnsky
Only the two I saw didn't produce a loud noise... so the meteor they saw must have been either traveling incredibly faster, or was larger than mine.


Actually, the faster a meteoroid is traveling when it enters our atmosphere, the less chance it has of surviving, and making it to the ground. Sonic booms are a good sign that something made it down low enough to survive, and you are correct that this one was probably larger than the ones you saw.

Any meteoroid that's big enough to make sonic booms is probably a sizable chunk of rock, perhaps 2-4 m across to begin with. Something that big would also light up the ground like it was day time.

[edit on 29-3-2009 by C.H.U.D.]


reply posted on 30-3-2009 @ 12:22 AM by space cadet
reply to post by JacKatMtn


Under the pic it states 'a white light like this one'
second line



reply posted on 30-3-2009 @ 12:24 AM by JacKatMtn
reply to post by space cadet


Time for some sleep

Maybe something will surface in the morning, thanks for pointing out what should have been obvious to me


reply posted on 30-3-2009 @ 12:26 AM by C.H.U.D.
reply to post by JacKatMtn


I agree, there is a good chance someone captured this... stay tuned!

That "photo" is not it however. Looks a drawing from a whiteness or an artists impression lol... a meteor will look like a straight streak, with bursts of light along it in some cases.


reply posted on 30-3-2009 @ 12:40 AM by C.H.U.D.
Originally posted by ThirdJohnAdams
Me and my girlfriend were taking a walk in elizabeth city NC, it appeared very briefly, there is no way anyone could of caught a picture or have been ready to as fast as this thing flew over.


There's always a chance...


There are also fireball camera networks, all sky cameras of all descriptions, CCTV cameras, web cams, police dash cams...

Someone has probably caught it.

Originally posted by ThirdJohnAdams
It streaked light behind it, not like anything being burned off, but like actually light trailing behind it.


Yeah, they often do that. If it lasts less than a second, it's known as a wake, more, and it's known as a persistent train. I've seen self- luminous persistent trains that have lasted for a few minutes, and there are recorded cases where the train has remains visible for tens of minutes. Neat ain't they!


reply posted on 30-3-2009 @ 01:02 AM by TheAgentNineteen
Originally posted by way2slo


There was a really loud Boom in Hampton Roads area tonight that was felt over a 150 mile radius. Some say they seen a large ball or flame. The Police scanner has been blowing up non stop for the past hour. It will be on the news im sure. Almost all my neighbors came out of their houses to see what was going on.

hamptonroads.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


I am right up here in Washington, D.C., and I am also extremely familiar with the entire Hampton Roads area.

I never heard any explosions, and I was outside not too long before the given time of the incident in question. The entire time thereafter I have been sitting right where I am located currently in my house, which gives me a direct and clear FOV to the West, and the sky overhead as well. I witnessed no flashes either.

I know that I am about a 3-4 Hour drive away from the VA Beach, Norfolk, Newport News area, but I figured that I would still give you a STATREP from the National Capital Region.

BTW, Meteors can be extremely close, or seem that way due to their brilliancy, and contrary to what the one witness described, it would obviously need to be relatively low in ALT in order to produce such a "Sonic Boom". A few years ago a similar incident occurred right over my area, and a Meteor crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after being spotted in NC, VA, and MD.

I will also mention that over the years I have from time to time heard unknown booms where I reside, but living in a highly populated area, as I do, it is nearly impossible to determine the source without a visual observation behind the cause of such. It could be anything from MIL Aircraft, to Construction Work, to my Nutty Neighbor up the street who has a VERY questionable Mental State.

Anyways, keep us informed

Check out the current status of the story here: WAVY-TV10-Loud Boom Heard

[edit on 3-30-2009 by TheAgentNineteen]


reply posted on 30-3-2009 @ 01:42 AM by symmetricAvenger
reply to post by ahnggk


hmm dont like the sound of that

btw this is the seventh so far

if you count all the others

to many for my liking neways and this one sounds spooky!! did the others all make sonic boom type noises??

sounds cool neways wonder if it hit the ground?
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