Does anyone know of any shooting stars that happened this morning?

I had to wake up early this morning for a job interview, at 5 AM because it was a four hour drive. As I am driving, I look to my left at the sky. As I am just about to turn my eyes back on the road, I saw something, and was quick. I didn't think it was a meteorite because it didn't have fire or anything, it was just white. It seemed that it was falling out of the sky at amazing speeds, I only saw it for about a second and a half, and it was gone. I checked all the websites to see if could find any reports on meteorites, and I found nothing.

Can anyone give me a logical explanation for this?

Also, it fell straight down, judging by how fast it seemed to be "falling" it could have been something from the atmosphere, perhaps a sattelite? If it was a sattelite, why was it completely white? You'd think if it came from the atmosphere and was falling, it would be flaming.

Originally posted by SpaceBoyPluto
I had to wake up early this morning for a job interview, at 5 AM because it was a four hour drive. As I am driving, I look to my left at the sky. As I am just about to turn my eyes back on the road, I saw something, and was quick. I didn't think it was a meteorite because it didn't have fire or anything, it was just white. It seemed that it was falling out of the sky at amazing speeds, I only saw it for about a second and a half, and it was gone. I checked all the websites to see if could find any reports on meteorites, and I found nothing.

Can anyone give me a logical explanation for this?

Also, it fell straight down, judging by how fast it seemed to be "falling" it could have been something from the atmosphere, perhaps a sattelite? If it was a sattelite, why was it completely white? You'd think if it came from the atmosphere and was falling, it would be flaming.

Gotta give us more to go on. Like your location and direction you were looking...

reply to post by SpaceBoyPluto


# flys through space all the time, its completely possible that it just went unnoticed. my friend and i saw a huge meteor one night, i never look at the net for info on it but it was huge. It literally looked like a pingpong ball that just cut through our atmosphere for a brief second. where are u located and where were u looking? tht might help your search.

p.s. good luck with that job, hope your comute wont be a 4 hr drive tho haha

I'm in Florida and I was looking South, I believe. Sorry if it takes long for me to reply, on my Android.

Happened at about 5:50 AM.

So what ever it was landed in the ocean if it was south of you. I see shooting stars that sound like the one you described but I am usually looking up. Hope you made a wish!

Augh, I was trying to post this one little sentence but my internet was being slow.

I meant to say East, not South.

22 September 2012 Last updated at 08:49 ET

'Meteors' sighted in skies across UK

"I've seen shooting stars and meteor showers before, but this was much larger and much more colourful."

People across the country report their sightings Continue reading the main story Related Stories

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People from across the UK have reported seeing bright objects in the night sky, thought to be meteors or "space junk"

Coastguards in Northern Ireland took calls from people who saw the objects from Coleraine on the north coast, to Strangford Lough in the south east.

The lights were seen as far north as Caithness in Scotland as well as in Wales and Norfolk in East Anglia. Experts said the sightings could be satellite debris, burning up on entry to the atmosphere.

Read more:
www.bbc.co.uk...

That is in the UK, and I saw plenty of videos of it - it didn't look like what I saw at all.

Those meteorites are much more slower in flight - my sighting was very very brief and it seemed too fast to be a meteorite, as I said, it fell from about.. 500 feet..? That is all I could see - could've been from higher up.

I wish I could've gotten it on video so you guys could see what I saw, but it was all just too fast.

reply to post by SpaceBoyPluto


"Shooting Stars" happen quite frequently if you watch the sky enough.
Seeing them streak across the sky is nice even though they might not make it to the Earth.
Meteors and meteorites are witnessed on a nightly basis all across the globe.
It doesn't have to be a special event i.e., the Perseids or other named showers.
You can see more per hour during those different events, but still see a few every night.
All you have to do is watch the sky for about 20 minutes or more...with no light pollution...
Guarantee you can see at least one.
I can attest to seeing a few hundred in my lifetime.
One was so close, I swear I could hear it burning through the sky as it fell.

I've read that the Earth gets bombarded by so many meteorites that we can't see...
In the Winter you can actually take snow pack from a gutter and look under a microscope to see a bunch on tiny meteorites that have accumulated just off one roof! It's no joke.

So the one's you see are actually large enough to burn up in our atmosphere.
They can vary in size from a grain of salt to an actual golf ball size to even larger!

You probably just witnessed a nice size meteor, one large enough to put on a show!

If it was a meteor, it was hella big!

Originally posted by SpaceBoyPluto
Those meteorites are much more slower in flight - my sighting was very very brief and it seemed too fast to be a meteorite, as I said, it fell from about.. 500 feet..? That is all I could see - could've been from higher up.

Your basic meteor (the kinds you can see on any given night) appear to streak through the sky very, very quickly -- lasting less than a second. Some of the longer-lasting (basic) meteors can be visible for maybe a second or two, and streak across a longer swath of the sky.

Those average-everyday meteors can be bright and only leave a white line streak of a tail -- NOT a "fire" tail. They are also very high up and burn up high in the atmosphere (the are only the size of a grain of sand, or maybe the size of a pea).

You said the one you saw looked like it was heading toward the ground, but it could have really been very high in the sky, and only heading in the general direction of the horizon, which may have looked to you as if it was heading toward the ground.

The slow-moving "fireball" variety of meteor that you mentioned (the kind you said your object WASN'T) is more rare than the "basic everyday meteor", but is still not terribly uncommon. Those fireball types are bigger and may get lower in the atmosphere.

But like you said, that's NOT what you saw. What you are describing was the everyday variety of short lasting meteor that streaks through the sky and has a thin-line trail. There are many of these everywhere every night, so there would be no news report about them.

As I said, some meteors may look more impressive than others, and it sounds like you saw one of the better ones. However, it sounds like a meteor, all the same.

Okay. Thanks!

Originally posted by SpaceBoyPluto
Okay. Thanks!

Here is a video I found on YouTube that shows meteors. The video IS a time-lapse, but it is slowed down to real time (actual speed) when a meteor is visible. Ignore the big blob streaks at :04 and :12 (I think those are probably planes flying by), but you can see actual speed streaks of meteors at :15, :18, :40, :45. :59. 1:16, and 1:18.

Also, there are two good ones near the end of the video, at 1:29 and 1:34. Most of the other ones aren't as good.



Good luck with the job search

Good answers from havok and Soylent Green Is People

Basically meteors are very common., and you could easily have seen one Spend some time out observing under a dark sky as suggested, and you will probably see many more. Even perhaps a fireball-class meteor if you are lucky/spend enough time.

Originally posted by FireballStorm
Good answers from havok and Soylent Green Is People

Basically meteors are very common., and you could easily have seen one Spend some time out observing under a dark sky as suggested, and you will probably see many more. Even perhaps a fireball-class meteor if you are lucky/spend enough time.

On average, there is 40 tons of stuff falling on the Earth every day, some days more and some days less. I agree those are good answers by those posters and if you figure out how many grains of sand it takes to make up 40 tons, you get some idea of how many of these objects the size of a grain of sand hit Earth on a typical day....a lot!

Originally posted by SpaceBoyPluto
I didn't think it was a meteorite because it didn't have fire or anything, it was just white..........

.....I checked all the websites to see if could find any reports on meteorites, and I found nothing.

That's contradictory, make your mind up as to what you "think" you saw.