Luminous like green/blue light streaks across london, uk!!!

This morning around 3am i was lying awake in bed before turning in for some sleep and i looked out of my window (no curtains btw) upto the sky...which is all i could see from that angel , laying in my bed.... and low and behold... i saw a streak come down to the earth in the space of maybe one or two seconds...

It could well have been a meteor or falling star although i have never seen one before in my life time so i wouldnt know what it would look like... It was an almost green/blue glowing color and shot toward the earth in a down but almost diagonal way...

Couple of question i would really like answered...

Can meteorites appear to be this glowing green/blueish color and is it likely that there were meteorites or falling stars over London UK this morning around 3am??

Please let me know if you saw something similiar...

PS i wasnt high or drunk (And i'm being totally serious here)

Thanks.

reply to post by nakiannunaki


Sounds like you caught sight of one of the last of the geminids for this year:


Geminids

Possibly if the comets had large contents of copper, but I'm guessing it was probably Aurora Borealis which you saw. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

Also magnetic north is currently shifting into Russia and this may cause the appearance of the phenomenon to become more frequent in regions where it was once rare.

Originally posted by Morgil
reply to post by nakiannunaki

 

Sounds like you caught sight of one of the last of the geminids for this year:


Geminids

Quite possibly, that would be awesome... my first Celestial encounter!

Originally posted by CthuluPrime
Possibly if the comets had large contents of copper, but I'm guessing it was probably Aurora Borealis which you saw. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

Also magnetic north is currently shifting into Russia and this may cause the appearance of the phenomenon to become more frequent in regions where it was once rare.

No i dont think it was... i have seen pictures of these, we never have them in london besides they are more lights that stay in the sky... this one just shot straight down and was only visible for a split second or two at the most.

I mean you could be right but i honestly dont think its was an Aurora Borealis.

With regard to the colour, blue-green is common. Here are a few examples, enjoy:

reply to post by Morgil


Awesome Thanks!

nakiannunaki - I agree with the other poster that you probably saw a late Geminid meteor. We saw quite a few Geminids with a greeny-blue tinge to them early on Tuesday morning when the Geminids were peaking.


To answer your questions - yes green is a very common color in meteors, and blue is slightly less so. Nothing to do with copper though (I wish people wold search before making erroneous assumptions!). The color comes from ionized oxygen molecules as they collide with the meteoroid, causing them to emit light at very specific wavelengths (green in this case). Between the ionized atmospheric gasses and ionized particles of the meteoroid, almost any color can be observed in meteors.

3AM would be an ideal time to see them due the radiant being high in the sky, and because Earth turns round to face the incoming meteoroids after midnight, which means they don't have to catch up with Earth as they did before midnight.

You might also like to know that in a little over two weeks time we have the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower. The Geminids and Quadrantids are the most consistently active meteor showers of the year, so if you want to see more, you have another chance in a couple of weeks time. It will also be the last chance to see a meteor shower when the moon is not interfering (moonlight or any light pollution cuts down the number of meteors that you can see), so you might want to make the most of this moon free shower, as it will be a while before there will be another moon free shower. Keep an eye on the Space Exploration forum for a thread on the subject in the next few days.

PS. It's only a meteorite if it makes it down to the ground. Meteor is the correct term for the luminous phenomena that we see as a meteoroid (as a small particle or "space rock" is known when it is in space) enters our atmosphere.