Apparent meteor strike at sunset Perth, W.A. - pic at link with very unusual flame-like tail

For what it's worth, as someone who has been studying and observing (some might say "obsessively") meteors and fireballs for nearly 15 years, I would say that it's a contrail.

As multiple posters have already pointed out, meteor trails/trains quickly become distorted due to high altitude winds, and plunging down through layers of atmosphere with different wind speeds/directions. Contrails on the other hand, since they tend to stay within layers of atmosphere tend to keep their basic shape for much longer than meteor trains.

Since there is no evidence of the former behavior, that suggests contrail rather than meteor.

As was also previously pointed out, there are many examples where contrails have been misidentified.


cloudbreak - regarding your reservations about the apparent "trajectory".

Bearing in mind that the earth/atmosphere is curved/spherical. try to imagine how the contrail from an aircraft that happened to be continuously producing a contrail would look if:

#1 the aircraft maintained a constant altitude/heading throughout the time you could see it.
#2 you first saw it as it came over the horizon, it passed directly overhead, and it disappeared over the horizon exactly opposite to where it initially appeared.

Got that mental picture of a long contrail, arcing over head from horizon to horizon?

Now, mentally "rub out" the middle section of contrail, leaving just a bit before you reach the horizons on each side.

Can you see how those remaining bits of contrail would appear very much like the bit of contrail we are discussing in this thread?

Actually the same problem telling which way a trail is going applies to meteors as well - people who are not knowledgeable about the subject often make the same or simillar basic errors.

In the first pic on the website you can barely see a dark trail behind the bright vapor... this is most likely exhaust from a jet engine.

Maybe someone shot down Santa Claus heading out on a dry run....you know Christmas in July and all that.

The contrail is made up of reindeer tinkle as they whizzed themselves on the way down........

What kind of missile would be used to take out Santa I wonder?

Honestly Phage is right on this one.

Thanks all for posting and for your info - and thanks alfa for that specific info, which I now think is about 99% the source of the vapour.

The paper that posted this still has its headline suggesting it is a meteor, but most (not all) commentors there seem to be calling contrail, as did phage first up.

If nothing else, an awesome photo or two surfaced anyhow, with this being the new one added at the source:



Someone mentioned the comment about the anomaly on the radar: it's still there, at www.bom.gov.au... - this cloud has been there 48 hours, though the guy at the source article commenting possibly was talking about another line (he mentioned one off exmouth), which may be the one seen at the national loop at www.bom.gov.au...

Cheers

I would say it can not be a meteor train, if it was, it would look like a giant zigzag soon after entering. Could be a contrail, or perhaps just a strange cloud formation over the horizon that is catching the light of the setting sun.

reply to post by cloudbreak


Looks like a contrail why do you even think its flames

reply to post by wmd_2008


No I didn't think it was flames per se. The pic above is more detailed than the first one available, and looks more like a contrail, but it hadn't surfaced as I posted this thread.

The original pic up front, though, looked more 'flame-like' (as I wrote in the headline) from a distance, but I didn't say it was flames as I didn't know. The source article though was claiming 'fire in the sky', and still hasn't changed its "Meteor plunges into ocean..." headline nor followed up with something to confirm that it was, as everyone has pointed out, a contrail.

reply to post by mainidh


Did anyone try to contact Canberra?

Some news from lunar meteorite hunters

They published a set of 5 news photos of the event taken at Warnbro Beach, Rockingham, WA with the following statement:

Australia Reported Meteor Over Ocean NOT! - Aircraft Contrail
(w/photo sequence) 30JUN2012
This event gathered much attention in the Australian press and claims were made in the press that this was a meteor crashing into the ocean.
Detailed examination of the photos indicates that the "meteor event" was a sunlit aircraft contrail and NOT a meteor.
Many thanks to Casey Vaughan for kindly providing a sequence of photographs for study.

reply to post by elevenaugust


Can't argue with that!

Would have been a beautiful sunset to kick back on a Perth beach and watch with a few beers. I wonder if the news outlets will all make retractions?

Nice series of evidence pics EA