Meteor Over the United Kingdom

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by majesticgent

 

Reasonably high.

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

www.amsmeteors.org...

From the same page...

Our best estimates of the total incoming meteoroid flux indicate that about 10 to 50 meteorite dropping events occur over the earth each day. It should be remembered, however, that 2/3 of these events will occur over ocean, while another 1/4 or so will occur over very uninhabited land areas, leaving only about 2 to 12 events each day with the potential for discovery by people. Half of these again occur on the night side of the earth, with even less chance of being noticed. Due to the combination of all of these factors, only a handful of witnessed meteorite falls occur Each year.

That changes the probablity somewhat in my view.

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by majesticgent

 

I don't see it being impossible for something which was originally one object breaking into two pieces and traveling through space together, and hitting the Earths atmosphere at the same time, in two slightly different locations.

edit on 21/9/12 by woogleuk because: (no reason given)

Can't rule it out, some of the databases report a few observations over recent days but the sites do not make quick analysis very easy and given its 3am here now, i can't be bothered to faff.

It could be as you described but it seems like a very rare circumstance if it is. The alternative possibilities are interesting though.

Originally posted by citizenx1

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by majesticgent

 

Reasonably high.

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

www.amsmeteors.org...

From the same page...

Our best estimates of the total incoming meteoroid flux indicate that about 10 to 50 meteorite dropping events occur over the earth each day. It should be remembered, however, that 2/3 of these events will occur over ocean, while another 1/4 or so will occur over very uninhabited land areas, leaving only about 2 to 12 events each day with the potential for discovery by people. Half of these again occur on the night side of the earth, with even less chance of being noticed. Due to the combination of all of these factors, only a handful of witnessed meteorite falls occur Each year.

That changes the probablity somewhat in my view.

So this isn't a sign of the apocalypse? :-( oh man...:-(.... JK... :-) :-)

Is it likely these are two separate incidents, or based off of the same incident that happened in the UK? If so, whatever that meteor or space junk is made of is very strong to withstand that type of beating from the atmosphere over that long of a distance.

If they are two separate events, then we are extremely fortunate that they happened over such populated areas with cameras to capture it.

Originally posted by majesticgent
Is it likely these are two separate incidents, or based off of the same incident that happened in the UK? If so, whatever that meteor or space junk is made of is very strong withstand that type of beating from the atmosphere over that long distance.

If two separate events then extremely fortunate that they happened over such populated areas with cameras to capture it.

These events appear to be hours apart, there is no chance they are the same fireball. They could potentially be from the same source but as we don't know what that was, it is impossible to draw any firm conclusion.

reply to post by citizenx1


The fact that they both happened at pretty much the same time says to me it was two objects traveling together, possibly originally one piece. They might have had a small gravitational pull on each other and as they approached Earth, one came down over the UK the other over Canada, it would have took much to alter their trajectories, and in that sense, Canada and the UK aren't really that far apart.

On the link that Phage posted earlier there are reports coming in from California now.

Wow. Let me see if I can verify this. (probably should have did that before posting )

reply to post by majesticgent


So we have several large meteors hitting the Earth across a very short space of time.......

Sorry Nibiru fans, looks like NASA has blown up your dreams......

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by citizenx1

 

The fact that they both happened at pretty much the same time says to me it was two objects traveling together, possibly originally one piece. They might have had a small gravitational pull on each other and as they approached Earth, one came down over the UK the other over Canada, it would have took much to alter their trajectories, and in that sense, Canada and the UK aren't really that far apart.

Granted it is possible, perhaps even the most likely scenario. I simply think that the number of factors which could affect the location, timing and visibility of such objects make it an unusual night in astronomical terms.

I have looked at some of the online reports databases and it seems there has been a general upturn in the number of reported observations recently. It could be said this is simply because we are more able to report these things than before but considering the estimates cited earlier, it still seems unusual.

My guess is that an object has broken up at some point and we're seeing some of that come through the atmosphere. Nothing untoward or significant, but fairly rare and worthy of note.

reply to post by woogleuk


Maybe whoever was reporting in Cali was a hoax, or prank because they are removed now.

reply to post by citizenx1


Oh I agree, very unusual, especially as more reports are coming in from different parts of the world.

Think about the asteroid belt, lots and lots of small to large objects just floating about, it isn't unreasonable to assume that we have just passed through a small pocket of rocks just floating in space. Let's just hope there isn't a trouser filling somewhat rather large one ready to spoil an otherwise pleasant evening.

reply to post by mad bloke


am in Manchester and was walking dogs stargazing saw nothing sorry.

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by majesticgent

 

So we have several large meteors hitting the Earth across a very short space of time.......

Sorry Nibiru fans, looks like NASA has blown up your dreams......

Stars and Flags for that one... LOL..

Well just stars. Can't flag a post...:-(

Originally posted by woogleuk
reply to post by citizenx1

 

Oh I agree, very unusual, especially as more reports are coming in from different parts of the world.

Think about the asteroid belt, lots and lots of small to large objects just floating about, it isn't unreasonable to assume that we have just passed through a small pocket of rocks just floating in space. Let's just hope there isn't a trouser filling somewhat rather large one ready to spoil an otherwise pleasant evening.

edit on 21/9/12 by woogleuk because: (no reason given)

Amen to that, mind you, i'd love to think, no matter how unlikely, that we'll be subject to an awe inspiring display if we go through a really dense pocket of them. That would be amazing although i think the end of world nuts in here would go crazy!

Originally posted by citizenx1
Amen to that, mind you, i'd love to think, no matter how unlikely, that we'll be subject to an awe inspiring display if we go through a really dense pocket of them. That would be amazing although i think the end of world nuts in here would go crazy!

Especially if it happened 12/21/2012. I imagine it would be madness on the streets. It would be pretty neat to have a bunch of fireballs happen like this over over more populated areas, just so long as they break up in the atmosphere.

Originally posted by majesticgent

Originally posted by citizenx1
Amen to that, mind you, i'd love to think, no matter how unlikely, that we'll be subject to an awe inspiring display if we go through a really dense pocket of them. That would be amazing although i think the end of world nuts in here would go crazy!

Especially if it happened 12/21/2012.

I imagine it would be madness on the streets. It would be pretty neat to have a bunch of fireballs happen like this over over more populated areas, just so long as they break up in the atmosphere.

I think many would howl at the moon!

Not one for sharing dreams etc on here as i don't accept them as a premonition but i do recall once having a very vivid dream about a lot of meteorites falling at the same time. It was an amazing sight...

...but they didn't all burn up in the atmosphere.

reply to post by citizenx1


In fairness, I have been into astronomy for a very long time, I know deep down that if I seen a fireball in the sky that was going to cause a bit of a headache globally, I would know it.

The one I seen earlier that crossed the UK would never have had a chance to become a meteorite, even if it did, no-one would have noticed.

However, when I seen it, it still scared the brown stuff out of me, albeit for a few seconds, the bodily dysfunction after that was due to sheer excitement of witnessing it.

The in fairness part though, not everyone knows how it works, I can imagine a few people who seen this tonight suddenly received a new found faith in religion for a short period.

Fear of the unknown, it's a bugger alright.

reply to post by citizenx1


Ah, now, there's a story, I have posted this before on ATS.

I had a dream once, I was standing outside St. Marys church in Westfield (sub-district of Workington, the town where I live), and I seen a fireball in the sky, it was actually traveling in the same direction as tonights meteor.

Next thing I know, I was standing on the slagbank ( a man made hill of slag waste from the steelworks, nothing derogatory of women) looking out over the Solway firth / Irish sea.

There was a flash, a bang, a mushroom cloud, as I watched in awe, ten minutes later, my skin started to burn, and even though this was a dream, I could feel the pain, the heat tear away at my flesh...then nothing, just darkness, and what felt like an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach.

Pretty screwed up dream.

Originally posted by majesticgent
What are the chances of two events like this occurring on the same night in two different locations?

Very good since we are constantly being bombarded by meteoroids.

Most of the time people don't see them since most of Earth's surface is sparsely inhabited (or ocean), or because they occur when it's daylight or cloudy, or because people are asleep/indoors.

Despite this, fireballs occur somewhere in the world every day/night, and occasionally they occur over just the right area and at just the right time for people to see them in large numbers.

In fact, there have been numerous reports of bright meteors/fireballs in the last week or so - just a few nights ago (on the 19th) 3 separate events were reported.

This is nothing new - we just have better reporting and access to numerous on-line report forms, twitter, sites like this one, all of which means people hear reports that they would not have come across a few years back.

I've been following reports like these since 1998, and there has been a steady but gradual increase in reports like this since then, which is generally agreed to be due to the factors mentioned above, and I would also say due to better and increasing availability of cameras used to study/capture these events. Meteors are rarely "news-worthy" unless there is footage - and in the case of tonight's events Versus those on the 19th when no footage was captured, you have a perfect example.

I literally just saw somthing else here in salford, a bright white light caught my eye, getting the camera ready and it just went from bright to nothing but this tiny little light, like a star i followed it for about a minute until i couldnt see it anymore, that was odd looked like somthing entering the atmosphere then nothing but a slow moving tiny light, strange hey lol i saw the biggest meteor ever then i see this also saw your normal shooting star, been a lucky night outside for me lol