Ball of fire 'super big and bright,' possible meteor, seen falling out of sky over Seattle area

wow...arlington has the vlf, cool......that can't be good for the people....arlington is where the outdoor stuff starts north of seattle.....it gets to be nothing but forest there...atv's big time....hiking trails hunting....sparse area for a hundred miles east.

reply to post by doobydoll


Yeah, usually a meteor don' leave debris on the area. Only if they hit something on the ground.

FYI - significant (>10 reports) fireball sightings in 2012. Not sure how it compares to previous years. I know I've never seen one, but have been hearing more and more about them (at least here on ATS).

www.amsmeteors.org...


ETA - OK, so I looked at the last 5 years, and they've definitely gone up over the last few years, but that could just be a reporting anomaly, not a true trend in the sightings.

Hmm, When I was camping the other night, "Saturday" I saw 2 HUGE white balls of light fall out of the sky, Ive seen hundreds of meteor's, but never this bright or big These two looked as big as Jupiter or bigger, much brighter, No tails, and not very fast. Abolutely stunning. I was going to report them to a Meteor tracking website.

I personally think Earth is travelling through some dense debri out there in space, hope none are big enough to cause a Global Catastrophe

reply to post by Glassbender777


Actually, you might be on to something, but instead of the Earth passing through a dense debris field, I think it might be more along the lines of: the debris field that we carry with us.

Space debris in orbit, and there is a LOT of it. Many of them have been up there for 50 years now, and it might be that we are starting to see a increase in shooting stars or fire balls, because many of them might have orbits that are finally deteriorating enough for reentry into our atmosphere.

Here's a picture modeling the cloud of debris around us:



I've not done any research in this, and it's just an idea, but maybe that is why we it seems we are seeing a increase of these sightings. More and more junk that we left up there is starting to reenter.

Originally posted by eriktheawful
reply to post by Glassbender777

 

Actually, you might be on to something, but instead of the Earth passing through a dense debris field, I think it might be more along the lines of: the debris field that we carry with us.

Space debris in orbit, and there is a LOT of it. Many of them have been up there for 50 years now, and it might be that we are starting to see a increase in shooting stars or fire balls, because many of them might have orbits that are finally deteriorating enough for reentry into our atmosphere.

Here's a picture modeling the cloud of debris around us:

I've not done any research in this, and it's just an idea, but maybe that is why we it seems we are seeing a increase of these sightings. More and more junk that we left up there is starting to reenter.

Maybe its just me...but that little illustration seems so grossly over-exaggerated and blown out of proportion its just hard to take seriously...I simply cannot believe that diagram is anything close to the reality of the situation..you have any idea how much actual "space" all that junk appears to be taking up in that diagram??? A...freaking LOT...I just do not believe that diagram at all...were talking the circumference of the earth+ in thousands of miles miles of apparent "debris"....cluttering the space up there....

having said that...

I do find the reentry of objects into earth for light shows and booms or whatever to be pretty interesting. Its seems to be a more common occurrence...either that or more people are outside looking up at the sky more now than ever...especially with 2012 around the corner and all the speculations from that its a possibility that it seems more common because we are paying attention more...

want you to assume it is a meteor, unless you're told otherwise".

Here is what you will think.

And don't think otherwise!

reply to post by Sly1one


It might look exaggerated, but if anything, it's incomplete.

Did you read the link I posted? Here, part of the wiki article:

Space Debris Tracking And Measurment

The U.S. Strategic Command maintains a catalogue containing known orbital objects. The list was initially compiled in part to prevent misinterpretation as hostile missiles. The version compiled in 2009 listed about 19,000 objects. Observation data gathered by a number of ground-based radar facilities and telescopes as well as by a space-based telescope is used to maintain this catalogue.[115] Nevertheless, the majority of expected debris objects remain unobserved – there are more than 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm (0.4 in) in orbit (according to the ESA Meteoroid and Space Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference, the MASTER-2005 model).

So back in 2009 we had a list of about 19,000 objects, and that there are possibly up to 600,000 objects larger than 1 cm in orbit.

I'm not saying that this is what all the fireballs we have been seeing this year are. I'm just saying that it would make sense that an increase of sightings MIGHT be due to all that crap up there finally loosing orbital altitude and making reentry after all these decades.

Saw something very similar right at about 7:00 pm last night taking the kids out trick or treating in northern Wisconsin. Saw very bright falling star coming straight down to earth to the north and a little northwest and then just above the horizon it fell apart into several smaller pieces and burned out. Was also falling very slow compared to usual shooting stars. It was pretty cool to see!

reply to post by Sly1one

Of course the dots in the picture are not the actual size of debris, just representation of their number.

It's hard to imagine all of it just man made... could some of it be natural occurring space junk i. e. meteorites and comets caught in our gravitational pull??

reply to post by eriktheawful


WOW!!!!

So we are not only polluting the planet, but the space around us as well?

I had no idea it was that bad.

reply to post by eriktheawful


My luck, most of them will land in my yard. I'll be hauling junk out of the woods and hauling it to the scrapyard for years.

I was witness to this event www.amsmeteors.org...

The most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. Just walked outside, took a drag on a cig and yelled, "HOLY ####"

People really need to witness this type of event to appreciate it.

SEATTLE — A ball of fire, a possible meteor, was seen falling out of the sky over the Seattle area Wednesday night, authorities said. Residents north of Seattle, off Interstate 5's Exit 212 near Arlington, saw something coming apart in the sky, police and the Washington State Patrol said. No planes were reported missing, and nothing was found by police. "We are clearing the scene and assuming it is a meteor, unless we hear otherwise," the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet.

www.q13fox.com...

I'd be willing to bet that many of The End Of The World Fanatics are at thier wits end with all the recent Unusual Activity taking place.....

I'm sure someone will come along and say..."it's the same that we have always had, it's just that we live in a more connected time...I say BULL...Things ARE Changing..

SnF

Originally posted by Radec
I'm going to assume that this many occurrences is not normal. Can anyone please try to explain why so many meteors would be seen falling from the sky all over the country? I know that one in Arizona was caused by a meteor storm is what they said. (correction) It in fact was not the meteor storm they said this was a separate occurrence on fox and was confirmed by NASA.

edit on 1-11-2012 by Radec because: (no reason given)

At the time of the Arizona fire, I was witness to to monster sized meteors on the West coast, not the one that hit in Southern Ca.These were not your normal stuff they were tremendously bright, the first was completely white without a tail, the next night in the same spot was a green one with a tail very bright lime green both the ball of it and the tail. very close we thought to us.

Anyway things seem to be very weird here lately military dropped flairs over the house and around it for hours, we normally do not have military jets here.

Now the odd thing I don't want to say much about as it was told in confidence. My husbands family owns a restaurant. The other day my husband was working alone when he had a customer and they started talking, he was some kind of fireman or something, I can't remember what but my husband asked him if her knew what all these weird military things were that was going one.

He said he didn't know, but that him and another guy saw something a few days before and they decided not to tell anyone because who would believe them and it would ruin their reputations.

They saw a big triangle shaped craft and orange balls of like came out of it and went into the sea. This time of year and with storms there is not a lot of people around and the beaches are empty so I doubt many people saw what they did but i would think there would be some. Maybe I will see a report of it somewhere.

Originally posted by redtic
FYI - significant (>10 reports) fireball sightings in 2012. Not sure how it compares to previous years. I know I've never seen one, but have been hearing more and more about them (at least here on ATS).

www.amsmeteors.org...


ETA - OK, so I looked at the last 5 years, and they've definitely gone up over the last few years, but that could just be a reporting anomaly, not a true trend in the sightings.

Exactly

I wish more people would look at reports from previous years, as you have.

If I wanted to, I could post reports of bright fireballs on ATS every day - I don't because people on here immediately jump to conclusions.

Bob Lunsford of The American Meteor Society posted this a year or two back, and it's still relavent today:

The next logical question is what is causing the apparent increase in fireballs seen this month? The key word here is apparent. It could very well be that there is no increase at all, but rather a marked increase in the number of reported fireballs. Mr. Hankey has worked with the AMS in providing an easy way to report fireball sightings and the general public has responded with a record number of reports so far in January. If you look through the last five years that the AMS has available, you will see an increase in every year. The increase is certainly not as dramatic as January 10 vs. January 11, but that again can be attributed to the recent change in format. I am also confident that no matter the number of NEO's in January 2012, there were still be more fireball reports in January 12 vs. January 11.

Interesting subject and I appreciate the contributions of Dirk, Mike, Wayne, and Carl!

Source: Bob Lunsford on METEOROBS (The Meteor Observing mailing list)


I should remind members that:

It has been estimated that 100,000 tonnes of extraterrestrial material reach the Earth's surface every year. It can be anything from fine dust to metallic masses weighing many tonnes.
Extraterrestrial material that falls towards the Earth is classified by size. The majority of this material is in the form of tiny particles called micrometeorites. They fall continuously, and arrive unnoticed.
Meteors or 'shooting stars' are often seen in a clear night sky. They are larger dust particles and small rocky fragments, many no more than a gram in weight, which are burnt up by friction as they fall through the Earth's atmosphere.
Meteorites are larger pieces of rock that reach the Earth's surface without getting burnt up in the atmosphere. A meteorite whose arrival has been witnessed is called a fall. Meteorites discovered without a known time of fall are called finds. All meteorites, falls and finds, are named after the place where they were picked up. They are broadly classified according to their composition into stones, stony-irons and irons.

Source: Oxford University


Also, It does not take a large meteoroid to cause a fireball when it enters the atmosphere. A meteoroid a few cm across can cause a very impressive fireball.


Also, eriktheawful made a good point, that there is a lot of junk up there in orbit, and the amount is growing rapidly. That junk has to come down sometime!

That picture of the space debris is so depressing. Leave it to humans to stink up the place. Ugh. If I was an alien driving by I'd be like "Ew, who'd wanna hang out with those pigs?"

Originally posted by wutz4tom
I'm sure someone will come along and say..."it's the same that we have always had, it's just that we live in a more connected time.

So you don't think ignorance should be challenged here on ATS?

Originally posted by wutz4tom
I say BULL...Things ARE Changing..

Things are always changing, including the way events like this are monitored, and reported, but of course that would have nothing to do with it would it?

So, exactly how long have you been monitoring fireball reports to have such an expert opinion on the subject?

Care to post any evidence to back up your assumptions?

I'm guessing not...

No one would have believed in the last years of the Twentieth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twenty first century came the great disillusionment.


H.G. Wells War Of The Worlds.