earth collides with comet! did you notice?

apparently this tiny comet hit earth on jan 17 about 5-41am.
a head on collision over california/nevada.
it vaporised!

full story at

______beforeitsnews/space/2013/02/earth-collided-head-on-with-comet-in-january-2454254.html.

(apologies if this has a thread already but i did search for it)

what i am wondering is are we just more conscious of this sort of phenomena or are our technical advances enabling us to be aware of such "hits" more than we used to?

or are we literally getting more strikes as mans existence approaches its climax? at least according to the various prophecies we are near the "end" and maybe these small ones are precursors to the "big one" that may send us back to the dark ages. it should be an exciting year!

reply to post by orangutang


comet or meteor ? Big difference you know. Before its news??? Really? That site is banned from this one.

reply to post by orangutang


It's gone. The Acolytes strike again!

Just so you know.. it sounds like bunk. Doesn't sound like something that would happen according to the laws of physics.

"It vaporized"?

I know you're trying to bring worthy news.. But let's try to get sources that don't usually let us down. BIN always gets me hype and concerned, then it is a let down.

Well, your link isn't working, so I found it with a search. Some aren't fond of BIN, so I'll add SETI as well.

Night turned briefly into day over a wide area in California and Nevada at 5:21:44 a.m. PST on Thursday morning January 17th, creating hopes of another extraterrestrial surprise delivery of meteorites, but this bright fireball did not drop meteorites on the ground. This was a head-on collision with a small perhaps 1-meter sized comet, rather than the glancing blow of a stronger asteroid. The comet matter was almost instantly turned into dust and gas.

BIN

The fireball that lit up the predawn Northern California sky last week was a small comet that hit Earth head-on when it hit the Earth's atmosphere, a researcher said.

SETI

I'd say we're just much more conscious and aware of these things today, than we were even 10 years ago. Our Scientists have eyes looking to the skies 24/7. So it's no surprise with the availability of information on the internet we know almost every little thing that happens.You can also add amateurs the world over to that. It's very cool actually.

Admittedly though, I've noticed more "shooting stars" in the past few years than I've noticed in my whole life previously.

Originally posted by karen61560
reply to post by orangutang

 

comet or meteor ? Big difference you know. Before its news??? Really? That site is banned from this one.

Still a meteor, Comet or rock, or both combined as long as nowt' landed, but just burned up in the atmosphere.

Thanks Klas for the link! There sure has been a lot more action in the sky since I remember star gazing as a little one.
...On a side note, why does ats hate bin?

Larger meteors can create bright fireballs that can even be seen in daylight, and while not as common as a simple "shooting star" meteor, fireballs are still relatively common.

Here is a news story about this fireball:
California-Nevada Fireball January 17, 2013


Edit to add:
I see another source says this may have been a small comet. I'll have to do a little researching to see if I can find more sources.

The comet or meteorite didnt collide with Earth, it collided with Earth's atmosphere.
Then burned up.
Very common event.

I'm glad the little ones burn up on entry

Earth would be a mess if they didn't.

Reply to post by orangutang

"a head on collision over california/nevada.
it vaporised!"

Collision with what?


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Reply to post by strafgod

Nevermind, I see it didn't collide with anything.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by strafgod
Reply to post by strafgod

 

Nevermind, I see it didn't collide with anything.

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

It "collided" with the atmosphere. When something moving that fast (5 to 10 miles per SECOND), the atmosphere could be a very hard thing to hit.

Why are people skeptical that a relative snowball of ice and volatile organics slamming head first into the atmosphere would vaporize?

I guess I blame the schools

reply to post by Klassified


thanx for that confirmation Kl.
and if you have lived a long time your observations are even more impressive.

Originally posted by RooskiZombi
Thanks Klas for the link! There sure has been a lot more action in the sky since I remember star gazing as a little one.
...On a side note, why does ats hate bin?

They don't consider BIN a reliable source because BIN tends to be a bit sensationalist, and embellish occasionally. Or so I've read. IMO, BIN is no worse than any other media outlet. They should all be double checked for accuracy.
________________________________________________________________________________________
reply to post by orangutang

I'm fairly ancient. I originally thought I was just looking for it more, therefore I noticed it more. But I've always looked at the night sky and the stars. So I am seeing them more often. Not that it means that much, but it's interesting.

reply to post by orangutang


no - i didnt notice - as i have an alibi that puts me 6500 km away from the scene

but i did read about it on a reputable site

Originally posted by karen61560
reply to post by orangutang

 

comet or meteor ? Big difference you know. Before its news??? Really? That site is banned from this one.

comet or meteor... explain the difference please....

Originally posted by purplemer

Originally posted by karen61560
reply to post by orangutang

 

comet or meteor ? Big difference you know. Before its news??? Really? That site is banned from this one.

comet or meteor... explain the difference please....

Here you go:

Comet:

A comet is an icy small Solar System body (SSSB) that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. Comets have been observed since ancient times.

A "meteor" actually has several definitions depending on what is happening with it:

Meteoroid:

A meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the Solar System. The visible streak of light from a meteoroid, heated as it enters a planet's atmosphere, and the glowing particles that it sheds in its wake is called a meteor, or colloquially a "shooting star" or "falling star". Many meteors appearing seconds or minutes apart, and appearing to originate from the same fixed point in the sky, are called a meteor shower. The root word meteor comes from the Greek meteōros, meaning "high in the air". If a meteoroid reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a meteorite.

So it's a Meteoroid while in space, a Meteor while streaking through our atmosphere, and then is called a Meteorite once on the ground (if any part of it survives the trip through our atmosphere).

Larger rocks, that are not Comets or Meteoroids are called:

Asteroids:

Asteroids are small Solar System bodies that are not comets. The term asteroids historically referred to objects inside the orbit of Jupiter. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet, but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatile-based surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were often distinguished from traditional asteroids.[1] Thus the term asteroid has come increasingly to refer specifically to the small bodies of the inner Solar System within the orbit of Jupiter, which are usually rocky or metallic. They are grouped with the outer bodies—centaurs, Neptune trojans, and trans-Neptunian objects—as minor planets, which is the term preferred in astronomical circles.[2] This article uses the term "asteroid" to the minor planets of the inner Solar System.

reply to post by eriktheawful


That's from wiki commons, and is copied all over the place.

A meteor is anything that is [observed] succumbing to our atmosphere. A comet can eventually 'become' and asteroid if all vapour is lost and what is left is rock and dust. Any particles of what was a comet and is now an asteroid that get trapped by earth's gravity, can also succumb to the atmosphere, but will still be [observed] as a meteor.

Quite a misleading title. If every fragment of comet that hits our atmosphere was referred to as a "comet hit", then we are being hit by comets all the time!

We are indeed constantly under bombardment from fragments of comets as well as fragments of asteroids.

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

Fairly large fragments such as the one mentioned in this thread are not uncommon either. The vast majority are unseen though since most of the surface area of Earth is unpopulated or very sparsely populated, and also due to daylight or cloud.

As previous posters have mentioned, what hit the atmosphere is properly referred to as a "meteoroid" or "cometary fragment" is also acceptable.

Originally posted by FireballStorm
Quite a misleading title. If every fragment of comet that hits our atmosphere was referred to as a "comet hit", then we are being hit by comets all the time!

We are indeed constantly under bombardment from fragments of comets as well as fragments of asteroids.

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

Fairly large fragments such as the one mentioned in this thread are not uncommon either. The vast majority are unseen though since most of the surface area of Earth is unpopulated or very sparsely populated, and also due to daylight or cloud.

As previous posters have mentioned, what hit the atmosphere is properly referred to as a "meteoroid" or "cometary fragment" is also acceptable.

Any kind of unknown fragment is acceptable in the same context as meteoroid by default. However, a meteor is is the visual effect on an observer, best described in this way, "A meteor is the light created when a small object enters the atmosphere." so is definitive, it is a light effect. Technically Oxford didn't get that bit quite right. However, if someone captures the visual effect in the sky, it is possible to make a good conclusion as to what the meteor was comprised of.

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