Great Western Fireball

Did anyone see this???

Great Western Fireball

Yesterday, Nov. 18th, something exploded in the atmosphere above the western United States. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho say the fireball "turned night into day" and issued shock waves that "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time.

www.spaceweather.com...



Edit: Removed all caps title.

[edit on 11/19/2009 by AshleyD]

reply to post by blue_fish


Great post. S/F

I have family and friends in northern Utah and will see if any of them have heard/seen/read anything explaining this.

Meteor.

At least that was the explanation given by the Salt Lake Tribune (newspaper for northern Utah).

Meteor



Exciting either way!

Does anyone else notice that there have been more meteors hitting the earth lately. I remember there was another one that just hit last week too. Wondering if this is just a start of something bigger.

reply to post by blue_fish



Could very well be. The interplanetary defensive shield is down, and there are some strange things occurring throughout the entire Solar System, which is even affecting the Earth, and seems to be happening because something massive is causing this, and whatever it is, it is affecting, more and more the Solar System, so it must be getting closer, or the Solar System is getting closer to it.

Originally posted by blue_fish
Does anyone else notice that there have been more meteors hitting the earth lately. I remember there was another one that just hit last week too. Wondering if this is just a start of something bigger.

Yep.
Untill some 3 weeks ago, I never saw a meteorite, apart from shooting stars way up there in the sky, the usual stuff.
Well, that day I visited my parents and while I was driving home at night I saw a real bright one which must have been fairly low in altitude and I thought to myself - that's very cool.

Now, yesterday I'm riding my bike at 21:00 going home from work and as I enter the parking lot in front of the apartment building I see another one over the building, again low altitude, bright light.

I mean what are the odds? Nothing for 3 decades and now 2 in three weeks.

Does anyone else notice that there have been more meteors hitting the earth lately. I remember there was another one that just hit last week too. Wondering if this is just a start of something bigger.

This is quite a common misconception, and there is no evidence for it as I said
here.

Also further discussion here.

Could very well be. The interplanetary defensive shield is down, and there are some strange things occurring throughout the entire Solar System, which is even affecting the Earth, and seems to be happening because something massive is causing this, and whatever it is, it is affecting, more and more the Solar System, so it must be getting closer, or the Solar System is getting closer to it.

Rubbish. What has the magnetosphere to do with incoming meteoroids? It protects us from charged particles, not rocks! If it did then why did we see all the usual meteor showers (including outbursts and storms), as well as asteroids in the past decade, and previous to that?

Well, that day I visited my parents and while I was driving home at night I saw a real bright one which must have been fairly low in altitude and I thought to myself - that's very cool.

Now, yesterday I'm riding my bike at 21:00 going home from work and as I enter the parking lot in front of the apartment building I see another one over the building, again low altitude, bright light.

I mean what are the odds? Nothing for 3 decades and now 2 in three weeks.

We have a saying here... you wait hours for one bus, and then three come along all at once!

Bright meteors are actually quite common, especially at this time of year which is known for it's relatively high meteor activity rates. All you need is a little luck to see some. Even if you are not specifically looking, it's usually just a matter of time till you see one one day when you happen to be out.

I'd say the odds are pretty good

As for the apparent altitude, this can easily catch people out...

Meteors are only luminous at high altitude (except in the case of some extremely rare and large events), but they can also be seen from extremely long distances due to their altitude and brightness. If you see a meteor close to the horizon in the sky, because Earth is curved, it looks lower than it is. Meteors can fool the unwary!

Here is a diagram I made to explain the concept:


Basically, our brains are hard-wired for estimating the distance, size, and speed of objects that are on the ground, where things are familiar, and we have lots of visual cues in most cases.

However, when we see a bright light in the sky, there are few visual cues, and our brain misinterprets the few cues there are. Typically, a bright light is interpreted by the brain as being closer to the observer than a dim light, so a bright meteor can fool us into thinking it is much closer than it actually is. This works in much the same way as the Moon illusion.

[edit on 22-11-2009 by C.H.U.D.]