Huge Fireball Reported Over Madison, WI!

More video from Madison, WI...

Madison Meteor

I know this sounds hokey, but if you are going out to search for the meteorite... beware of zombies and definitely report back to us what you find.

reply to post by urbanzen


I remember a couple years back, maybe four years or so, Me and some friends were in D.C. and crossing over to Virginia and saw some crazy light. We were crossing the bridge and all of the sudden the whole sky lit up a bright blue, this was at night of course. And it flashed about four or five times like that. Definitely wasn't anything electrical. I have seen electric fires that light up the sky and they never looked like this. But just hearing about the blue light reminded me of this. Of course I never heard about any meteors or anything.

I'm confused - there seem to be people saying this is a UFO. Is there some kind of evidence for this? Or just people leaping on absolutely anything in a desperate need for it to be aliens? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a narrow-minded skeptic or anything, but it seems to me that if something appears through the atmosphere in a manner identical to that of a meteor, is not the most likely explanation that it is a meteor?

no way i saw it with my own eyes. definitely a meteor.

Second line

where/did it land?
or did it just go in and out of our atmosphere or something?
science geeks, would that be possible with the effects of gravity?

reply to post by ShadowArcher


Not sure where you get the UFO comparison. I have reviewed the police officer's dashboard cam several times. There appears to be an explosion midway through the flight path. You can clearly see that the object continues falling towards earth. The explosion that many heard miles away could have been caused by the object breaking Mach1 or the air around the object being super heated and exploding like thunder.

[edit on 15-4-2010 by sentinel007]

[edit on 15-4-2010 by sentinel007]

reply to post by ShadowArcher

I'm confused - there seem to be people saying this is a UFO. Is there some kind of evidence for this? Or just people leaping on absolutely anything in a desperate need for it to be aliens? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a narrow-minded skeptic or anything, but it seems to me that if something appears through the atmosphere in a manner identical to that of a meteor, is not the most likely explanation that it is a meteor?

Something can be a UFO without it being spaceships and aliens. In fact
without confirmation of a meteorite. UFO is more correct at present.

Very odd watching HLN right now. It's like," We got yer earthquakes in China, volcanos in Iceland, we got the biggest baddest damn fireball
you ever seen cuttin up the midwestern sky".

Listen to phage and those that are in the know and it's," fear not, everthing is normal."

With the exception of Tauristercus.

[edit on 15-4-2010 by randyvs]

reply to post by sentinel007


I'm not sure what you mean by 'comparison' - I'm not comparing anything to anything. I'm just saying it's the same as other meteors, so why people immediately claim it's anything else is beyond me. Of course we don't know that it IS a meteor, but that it surely the most likely explantion?

And yes, I am aware that the correct use of 'UFO' is correct (though technically, it isn't necessarily flying - if it's a meteor, it's falling ), but on ATS, UFO has become synonymous with 'alien'.

"It was big and had a neon blue color like LED lights with a longer orangish tail was really slow compared to normal shooting stars/metors COOL!!!" I saw the exact same thing very same description, and it did appear to be only 200ft in the air and it was moving diagonally, I saw it around 3 in the morning, I live in ft.lauderdale fl,I almost thought it was a plane crashing, I find it somewhat odd that im not the only one who has seen these and they seem to be appearing more frequently.

reply to post by skunknuts


Wow, nice thread. It won't be long until all of the meteorite hunters out there start pinpointing where this fireball went down and recover it. It will probably be worth well over a quarter of a million dollars if its as large or larger than the average human head.

If any of you are going to search for it, now is the time because others will track it down to a very narrow area very quickly. Expect to see lots of people with metal detectors. Just remember to take a friend or two with you when you go, and share-share-alike.

If you are seaching for the meteorite, get the landowners permission to "EXCLUSIVELY SEARCH AND RECOVER IT" in writing ("exclusive permission" will help you out later if you don't find the meteorite on the landowners property and someone else comes in and finds it later; it won't be theirs if they find it, it will be yours and the landowners), get it in writing to make it very legal if at all possible; and make sure you agree to split 50/50 with the landowner any recoveries.

If you don't get permission from the land owner to recover the meteorite, then you will loose the battle of ownership of the meteorite. Make sure it is in writing if at all possible. You will loose possession of the meteorite in the courts and possibly spend some jail time if you tresspass without permission to recover the meteorite.

Good luck to all of you meteorite hunters out there and if you do find the meteorite "DON'T CLEAN IT IF OFF WITH WATER"; gentley brush the dirt off. IF its the wrong kind of meteorite (Pallasite) and you clean it off with water you will have destroyed a very valuable meteorite (Pallasite). You won't have destroyed it right off the bat, if its the wrong kind of meteorite to be cleaning with water, but the iron in it will start oxidizing much faster than it should.

The bright flash in the videos is a small explosion occurring on the main body of the meteorite, smaller particles exploded off of it. The speed with which the meteorite was traveling means that it probably created a hole and is buried a foot or more under the surface of the earth. The smoke trail of the meteor as it shot across the sky is zig-zaggy only because the wind currents made it zig-zaggy.

At the very "least" the meteorite should be worth well over $100,000 and you can bet people who hunt meteorites are flying in from all over the country to locate this meteorite. If you should find the meteorite don't sell it right away to anyone, hang on to it and show the media to get it promoted; which increases its value. Don't give anybody any pieces of the meteorite or any slices of the meteorite, because there will be lots of people and universities who will tell you they want to study it. If they want to study it, then they can buy it instead, these universities are rich already and pay handsomely for slices of meteorites. Every time you chip off a piece the meteorite becomes less valuable. Meteorites are usually sold by the GRAM, not by the pound. Larger meteorites bring a premium, especially this one since so many people saw it falling.

You can sell it whole and then let the buyer start slicing it up and selling it by the slice. If there are small particles of this meteorite left in the surrounding soil very close to the impacted meteorite be sure to recover them also, don't let someone else come in and get free samples. Make sure you have permission to recover the meteorite.

Don't worry about selling the meteorite, once you get in front of a news camera and tell the story about the meteorite, the buyers of meteorites will find you. Don't sell until you have found the highest bidder, and there will be a lot of pressure put on you to sell for a low price so that they can make a big mark up. Don't forget to put the meteorite in a safe place that has insurance on it. Yes there are people who will want to steal it, and if you have made a deal for 50/50 with the land owner and you loose it, you will still have to pay the landowner whatever the courts deem that the meteorite was worth. Just because you let it get out of your possession doesn't mean that you won't owe the land owner for his/her loss; because you will have to pay them no-matter-what happens.

This meteorite does exist, it did not burn up. You can tell that it didn't burn up by the speed that it was traveling. Meteors that burn up drop very slowly with flames. This meteor was cruising at high velocity, it's out there waiting to be recovered, who will be the lucky finder?

If you are going to search for this meteorite and you think that you are serious about finding it, do yourself a favor and take a camera along with you. You can buy a cheap camera(s) at Walmart or some other store. The pictures you might take, might be worth more than the meteorite to you later on. If at all possible get a picture of yourself shaking hands with the land owner (before) and shaking hands with the land owner and the meteorite (after) showing that you have reached an agreement. If you should go to court for some strange reason, those photos could help your case in a very BIG WAY.

Your best chance of pinpointing exactly where the fireball went down is to call all of the police and sheriffs departments in the area of the fireball and ask them about who called in and gave reports on it, and get their phone numbers and call the eye witnesses who were really close. This is how many proffessionals pinpoint the area very quickly.

Meteorites are extremely valuable, the average person is not aware of how valuable they are because others can and do make a living off of meteorites and they don't let out their secrets as to how much meteorites are really worth.

Just to give you an example of the rip offs that occur, check this out. A farmer found a meteorite about 50 miles away. He called a nearby museum and told them he had a meteorite. The man from the museum came out and told him that he would pay the farmer what it was worth; $2,000 for the meteorite the size of your head. Within a month the man from the museum sold the meteorite for $368,000 and walked away a very rich man. There is no evidence of this meteorite in the museum now, or ever. So, don't sell your meteorites for low prices, and don't believe meteorite hunters when they give you a low bid. Meteorites the size of a pea are worth a $100.

The very exact same thing occurred out at Greensburg about 10 years ago. A farmer found a huge meteorite and took it into a land agent in town. He contacted a professor from KSU or KU and the professor told the farmer he would give him $2,000 for it, supposedly what it was worth. The professor sold it for a huge profit and the University never was none the wiser.



[edit on 15-4-2010 by RussianScientists]

great footage, it was even on news

[edit on 15-4-2010 by lottowinner649]

i think last week i have read a thread here in ATS about a guy who claimed to witnessed something very much like this (meteorite/fireball about the size of a bus) but he had no video so the thread was quickly buried i think.. so yeah just pointing out if maybe this was the same thing he saw..

[edit on 15-4-2010 by lottowinner649]

Sure do seem to be a lot of meteors streaking across the sky lately. And availability to the information regarding space objects was recently changed to a classified status wasn’t it? But it’s probably just like the increase in earthquake and volcanic activity. No real increase, just more electronics available to catch them. Right?

Yeah, My teen son saw a huge green fireball fly overhead here in So. Cal. a couple of months ago. He was very excited about it and it sounded big and close, but there was not one piece of info on this in our news.

Makes you wonder, are we entering into an active meteorite region of our universe? Just totally speculating! Galactic center and all that jazz. Guess I can throw it in -2012? Had to do it!

Here...I'll be the skeptic.

Ahem. Its the Aurora Borealis reflecting off of swamp gas that was simultaneously illuminating a pack of flying monkeys with flashlights strapped to their heads causing an atmospheric disturbance off of the ionosphere.

Nothing to see here. Its all just your imaginations.

Much love to all...

Here is an interesting news post on the item. They are reporting a broken tree and trees on fire. Most stories are saying it did not hit the ground. This suggest it got really close.

www.todaystmj4.com...

People in the southwestern Wisconsin town of Blue River said the sky directly above them turned bright green. A short time later, three members of the local fire department and rescue squad discovered at least two separate small fires burning in the woods along "Old Highway C."

They also found the top part of one tree broken off and on fire. The break in the tree was about 25 to 30 feet off he ground, and the top section of the tree was on fire too.

Awesome Thread Dude

Didn't something exactly like this happen in scotland very recently?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I think that was it.

The description is very much the same as what we're seeing here. I think it's worth taking a look and seeing if there is anything similar about the two.

They're probably connected in one way or another

I actually saw this one on my way home from the gym. Came in really fast, and had a greenish hue. I never thought I'd see something like it in my lifetime - what are the chances!

Goodness what IS that thing?

From what I know of astronomy in my amateurish research, meteor CRASHES (not showers) are rare because meteors usually miss Earth, otherwise they are too small and they usually burn up in the atmosphere creating the harmless meteor showers we normally see.

To actually have such a huge thing, with a light burst and reported shock waves... this is no ordinary meteor. Something like this... makes me suspicious. How come NASA didn't see it coming? How come it didn't fragmentize in the atmosphere?

Questions, questions, questions.

reply to post by vanhippi


Nice, you found a connection. Though if it REALLY was a meteor, then astronomically, something is wrong, because the chances of large meteors not breaking up in the atmosphere is really low.

WHAT is going on here?