Major Fireball / Meteor and Sonic Boom Rattles Windows In The Southeast US! Video Inside!!!

Ok this is my first attempt at an informative thread someplace other than General Chit Chat. So be nice to me. My first video too!! Here goes..

Around 9:20 pm EDT yesterday, we started to get a lot of reports that some type of meteor/fireball that flew across the skies over Birmingham, AL. The reports stated the meteor lite up the sky white then changed to a yellow/greenish color. Shortly following the meteor flash we got tons of reports of a sonic boom shaking windows, in particular in the city of Birmginham, AL. Within about 2 hours, we had reports from 5 states. This morning we are seeing video apparently of the major fireball that occurred last night![/exnews

WD RB Louisville KY

Dr. Bill Cook from NASA, reported today that this was a baseball sized ice chunk from a comet. I am surprised you can see if in 5 states because that seems relatively small.

The fireball over Birmingham Monday night was a baseball-sized chunk of ice from a comet, NASA's meteor expert said in Huntsville today. It evaporated before hitting the ground. Dr. Bill Cooke, lead scientist for NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said the ice ball was moving about 76,000 miles per hour when it entered the atmosphere. "You think of comets as big, dirty snow balls," Cooke said. "This is not a piece of rock from an asteroid. This is a bit of ice. When it hits the atmosphere, it's moving fast, so it begins to burn up and emits light. So people saw this brilliant streak of light streaking across the Alabama skies." NASA tracked the comet from 58 miles high just south of Birmingham to 25 miles in altitude over the town of Woodstock, Alabama. "At that point, it appears to have completely vaporized," Cooke said.

My thoughts are if a baseball size chunk of ice from a comet can cause enough light coming through the atmosphere to be seen in five states, what would a football size chunk do??

I

edit on 10-9-2013 by k21968 because: Fixed video

Hmm technical difficulties with the video...here is the link... because I have no idea how to fix it. Where is KODY???

www.youtube.com...

reply to post by k21968

what would a football size chunk do??

It would make enough light to be seen across those same five states, but maybe brighter and longer lasting. The area over which a fireball is visible has much more to do with the altitude at which it becomes incandescent (the outer region of the atmosphere) than how bright it is.

reply to post by Phage


Thanks Phage!!

What if it was rock and not ice?

Why didn't Dr. Cook name the comet it came from? I know ISON is due to come our way, but I didn't know of any others.

k21968
Hmm technical difficulties with the video...

Here ya go.

reply to post by VoidHawk


How did you do that???? THank you!!!! I tried.

reply to post by k21968


I wish I would've been able to see that!

It's surprising with all of the technology and nice cameras out there that they couldn't get a legit video. It looks like they filmed this with a potato.

reply to post by k21968


This is you youtube link
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AONHtXOeco

You just needd the numbers on the end
1AONHtXOeco

When you have those numbers click on the Youtube button (Right most button at top) and enter the number.

So what is the comet they identified, i would love to see the JPL data on it. How big, how close, when did it pass? Just a few questions. Was this part of the comets tail? With comet ISON due to cross our orbital plane in November what might this comet have in store for us? I know the dust is supposed to fall like peas and increase our noctolucent clouds and pepper us on both sides of the earth. So this mother must have been bigger than ISON to throw a baseball sized meteor into our atmosphere????? Explain please and thanks someone...

reply to post by k21968

If it were rock it may have been brighter still.

There isn't really any way of knowing what comet it may have originated from. I'm not sure how Dr. Cook concluded it was a comet fragment though. Perhaps because of its great speed. Asteroidal (rocky) meteors don't often travel that fast.

reply to post by whatnext21


I am thinking along the same lines as you and I am surprised the comet wasn't mentioned by name.

I found this one but no others...

Asteroid RZ5

It is close to the same time frame...so I am assuming it is leftover gunk from it.

reply to post by Mapkar



Definitely an amateur video. I think it was probably from a phone. At the time, the residents did not know what it was, so whomever videoed this was probably scared.

reply to post by k21968

Asteroids are not comets. Not much "gunk" associated with asteroids.

reply to post by Phage


Well color me embarrassed.

That just makes me want to dig more.

Comet UNKNOWN.

Scientists calculated the meteor's orbit and determined that it came from an unknown comet. It exploded so low in Earth's atmosphere that it triggered a sonic boom. The meteor was too bright to be picked up by NASA's All-sky Fireball Network, which tracks meteors brighter than Venus with 12 cameras in the eastern United States and New Mexico but whose parameters are set to screen out things like lightning. The network did detect nearly two dozen other meteors on Monday night, including five that are part of the little-known annual Epsilon Perseids meteor shower, which peaks in early- to mid-September.

from here... YAHOO

So why wouldn't they conclude this was from the Epsilon Perseids?

Phage
reply to post by k21968

 

what would a football size chunk do??

It would make enough light to be seen across those same five states, but maybe brighter and longer lasting. The area over which a fireball is visible has much more to do with the altitude at which it becomes incandescent (the outer region of the atmosphere) than how bright it is.

So this started out as a very large piece of ice to have ended up baseball sized when it entered our atmosphere. If it was indeed a large piece of ice from a comet, could a person reason that the comet has to be detectable in order for something large enough to survive our atmosphere and end up baseball sized at the end of the process? I am just astonished with all of the telescopes aimed at our sky why they cannot detect a comet??

I am just very curious. I have had one astronomy class. I took it because a cute guy taught it. I didnt learn much.

reply to post by k21968

Probably because of the direction as well as its size.

I have to correct myself with what I said about the speed of the fireball. In my head I added an extra zero. 76,000mph is not extraordinarily fast...for meteor. Not sure how it was determined to be a comet fragment.

reply to post by k21968



A map plus more info about the fireballs.
Source:
fireballs.ndc.nasa.gov...

I've got two questions:

1. How come it was too bright to be picked up? " The meteor was too bright to be picked up by NASA's All-sky Fireball Network, which tracks meteors brighter than Venus with 12 cameras " Bright? Hmm I would believe too dark or too small... But Bright?
That doesn't sound promising..

2. How come an ice ball get that bright? Ice doesn' glow, does it? Was it by heat transformed into H and O ? Or does the air around it heats up to brightness?


I think it was not ice.

reply to post by EartOccupant


Interesting thoughts...what else could it have been? There were sonic booms and it was seen in Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and TEnnessee.