Meteor Crashes somewhere in Johannesburg!

Yesterday, a meteor crashed somewhere in Johannesburg and people are still trying to find it! I must say this is quite exiting for us who live in South Africa, as it is quite a rare occurrence. Yay for us!

Johannesburg and Pretoria residents have come forward, claiming they spotted a meteor in the skies on Saturday night. People in Gauteng saw the bright light at around 11pm on Saturday night, heading towards the north of Pretoria “We saw this big green ball of fire. it kind of came out of the sky, out of the blue,” one resident said.

“There was sudden flash. Like an orange stripe in the sky, followed by a very bright explosion where the sky lit up as if it was daytime,” another explained. Astronomers and scientists are still trying to find out where the meteor landed. Ronnie McKenzie collects meteorites and said something like this is very rare. “I would say it probably happens around two or three times a year around the world,” he said.

Allegedly the search is already on! Astronomers and Scientists are hoping to find he remains of what was likely a stray Meteorite from Leonid the Meteor Shower. Had one of the meteors hit our atmosphere it would light up in exactly the way eye witnesses describe. Coloured green and yellow light would also indicate a meteorite of interesting composition. The knowledge we could gain from any remains of the Meteorite would be invaluable.

www.nickhuntdavis.com...



[edit on 06/10/2009 by jinx880101]

Mod Edit - edited out headline tag and changed to correct tags to make the post more readable.


[edit on 26/11/09 by neformore]

Thats too cool. Thats practicaly in our back yard. I'm in Durban. How exciting, i really hope they find it for analysis. Reminds me of that one on you tube, cant remember if it was in canada or russia. Do you know were it was headed? I mean, if it landed in a desolate spot it could take a while to find, but jo'burg is quite populated. Surely it would be easy to locate?


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Says in the article this happens 2 or 3 times a year around the world? Hum, seems to me it's been happening 2 or 3 times a week lately around the world. There are lots of other meteor reports out there buried in the news, sometimes not even in the news and hard to find out about, especially when some of these things aren't even in the search data bases yet (you may not learn of them until weeks later).

reply to post by Jimjolnir


I'm not sure. I live in Cape Town so I can only check the news. Let's hope it didn't all burn up!

Hiya!

Nick Hunt-Davis here
Here's footage of the Meteor:

www.nickhuntdavis.com...

[edit on 24-11-2009 by Spec01]

If it landed, it's likely somewhere around Hartebeespoort. More likely though... it burned up completely on entry.

reply to post by Spec01


Hi!

That's great, thanks a lot for posting it here!

Wasn't there one of these in the US a week or two ago that also lit up the sky like daylight?
Do they really only happen 2 or 3 times a year?
Where's phage?

reply to post by Spec01


Omg! It was MASSIVE! How I wish I had seen it with my own eyes..When I heard about it I really didn't think it was that big not to mention colorful!

Again, thanks for posting the clip here, it is much appreciated!

reply to post by Nventual

Where's phage?

Apparently so, but seems the numbers are climbing steady lately.

I only saw a meteor once, and that was a couple of months ago, I'm sure it burnt out but it was nothing compared to the one on that clip. The one I saw was only Orange and red, & about as big as a pen in the sky.

Cool, I've seen two meteors. Both on the same street but a year apart. They were both blue flames and streaked across the sky - was really fascinating. You wouldn't have known unless you were looking up at the time though. I always wonder how lucky I was to see two in my whole life only a year apart and on the same stretch of road. Only the second one I saw got reported in the news.

[edit on 24/11/09 by Nventual]

reply to post by jinx880101


You're most welcome!
I'll update with info as it comes in.

This is indeed very exciting and even more so for those lucky people who actually saw it for real.

Is it far fetched to ask the question whether it really was a meteor?

Could it have been an UFO?

Are we just accepting that it was a meteor because we're told that it was one?

Bear in mind that nobody expected this one that came "out of the blue" and yet, there it was in its magnificent glory ... and they have yet to find where it fell ... if it fell at all.

I'm no astronomer but surely a meteor that could put on such a display would have been detected and expected?

Just thought I'd put that out there and see what others think of this notion.

[edit on 25/11/2009 by Psyagra]

now that was a lightshow!!! AMAZING video footage! that was an award winning recording man!!!
Notice how it detonatd and blew up, kinda like in hollywood! firey red and range ball!!! did ti blow up in the atmosphere or hit the ground? was thier any knda sonic boom or noise???

reply to post by ziggy1706


I have no idea, I wasn't there. I live in cape town, but luckily with the new traffic monitoring cameras, we were lucky enough to capture it!

Found an article with another vid of the meteor... It looked pretty spectacular!!!

Thanks for posting

www.news24.com...

reply to post by halfmanhalfamazing


Thanks!

I was wondering when you were gonna show up here..

I actually saw a green meteor(or whatever it was) last year, pretty coool.

Bolides like that usually drop rocks. You can see how it exploded, like most do while still at a very high altitude, probably from 10 to 40 miles up. Hitting the atmosphere at this speed, especially the dense atmosphere below 40 miles up is like hitting a brick wall. Pieces of the original mass will spread out eliptically parallel to the path, with the big pieces at the far end.

You can bet that there are at least 10 of the worlds best meteorite hunters on a plane right now to locate and examine the strewn field.

Very cool and interesting, I wonder if it has some form of "Barium" in it's composition? Would explain the chemical reaction being green due to it's rapid oxidization.

I watched that video, and if that is real and not faked, d a m n...


Now I really want to know the elemental composition of that.