Utah Fireball – November 18

A brilliant fireball was seen over Utah a few minutes past midnight last night. Video images give the time of the fireball as ~12:07 am MST (7:07 UT). At least 2 comments to this blog describe the event.

Miah wrote:

Did you guys see the one in Bountiful Utah a half an hour ago Nov. 18th 2009 12:12 A.M. It had to be at least 30 feet wide with a fire blazing tail that lasted for a couple of seconds stringing out at least a mile long and it lit up the dark night like it was a really bright sunny day. The kind of day you really need to wear sunglasses from horizon to horizon for at least 6 seconds it threw my heart up into my throat and I received an immediate and outrageous adrenalin rush. This experience was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen in the night sky. If anybody else saw this please post and I really hope someone or somebodys business buildings camera got this on tape and they post it soon. I really want to relive that moment again… All I can say is WOW…

and Melissa wrote:

i was at walmart shopping and when i came out to put my items away the whole sky lit up like it was morning for about 3 seconds and then i turned around and then things got dark again and i saw an orange tail in the sky looked like fire and then it was gone it was so weird and scary

KSL TV has a whole bunch of videos listed on their website. Especially check out Patrick Wiggins video where he gives a great and thorough explanation of what the fireball was. Some of the videos show the actual fireball in the sky while others show the ground being lit up as bright as day. Further news stories can be found at The Salt Lake Tribune and Spaceweather.com.

Six or so hours later, as the sun was rising, a ghostly blue trail was observed over Utah. This trail appears similar to those seen after other bright fireballs. What is amazing is that trail had not dissipated after such a long time. Note, the crazy meandering pattern of the trail does not mean the fireball was moving erratically. The erratic pattern of the trail is due to varying wind speeds and directions in the upper atmosphere.

So far I have not seen any images or videos of the fireball. All the videos and images just show the ground or sky lighting up. As Miah wrote above, the fireball lit up the ground as bright as day.

Though it was probably below the horizon as seen from Tucson, the sky did brighten towards the north. My north facing meteor camera did detect a brightening of the northern sky. Though I recognized it as something unusual when I looked over the data this morning, I deleted the data since there was no obvious meteor in the field. Only later did I read about the Utah fireball. Luckily the MMT all-sky cam picked up the flash from Mount Hopkins, just south of Tucson. The flash was observed to the north at the exact time of the fireball so there is no doubt they are related. If the flash was seen as far south as Tucson, it is likely that it was also seen from a wide area including the states of UT, AZ, NM, CO, WY, ID, CA,NV, and OR.

Though the fireball occurred at a time when the Leonids were at their best, it is doubtful it is related to the Leonids. The Leonids are extremely fast meteors, in fact they are almost as fast as meteors can get (~70 km/s). As a result, Leonids rarely last more than a second and usually burn out in one very quick burst. The fact that this fireball lasted for some time (~5 seconds) means it was a much slower meteor that probably descended to a low altitude (~20-50 km). It is more likely it was caused by a small (0.5 to 2 meter) asteroid.

2 Fireballs over British Columbia – November 7

Northern California residents weren’t the only folks who witnessed a brilliant fireball last Friday night. Not one but two fireballs were seen over southern British Columbia. The first fireball occurred at 7:03 pm PST and is the topic of a story on CBC News. The 2nd fireball happened at 7:44 pm PST.

Dave Balam of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory near Victoria, British Columbia sent an image of the 2nd fireball taken with the Observatory’s all-sky camera. (Thanks, Dave!) The brilliance of the fireball is evident by the fact that the sky was completely cloudy at the time. Even with the clouds and rain drops, the fireball is easily visible as it moved across the sky.

Fireball seen over Dominion Astrophyiscal Observatory on Nov. 7 at 7:44 pm PST. Credit: Dave Balam/Dominion Astrophysical Observatory

 

November 7 – California Fireball

A brilliant fireball was seen over California during the early evening of November 7 at around 5:10 pm. Quite a few reports have been posted in the comments sections on this blog.

A comment posting by Rich gives a rather detailed observation of the event:

“11/07/2009 at approximately 1700hrs we were driving south form Santa Rosa on Hwy 12 and were passing through Sonoma when we noticed a large brilliant white fireball in a SSW direction. It first caught our attention at about 20 to 25deg off the horizon. Our visual on it only lasted only about 3-4 seconds then just before passing the hills in the distance it seemed to go out. There was no associated noise or sign of impact. It was just gone. There was a smoke or debris trail that we could see after the object was gone that was visible for perhaps a minute or so then it was dispersed by the wind.”

Pictures of the residual smoke trail can be seen on the Spaceweather.com site.

Additional news stories were published by the Daily Democrat, San Francisco Chronicle, Contra Costa Times, and others.

The fireball was most likely caused by a small asteroid, probably no larger than a basketball. Though it is possible it may have been related to the Taurid meteor shower which is near its maximum in activity, it could easily be unrelated to any shower. The very bright slow fireballs are usually asteroidal in origin while meteor showers are usually produced by comets.

Sept 25th Ontario Fireball

Another week, another brilliant fireball! Last weekend a spectacular fireball was seen over New England. This Friday evening (Sept 25) at ~9 pm, observers from a bit further west in the eastern Great Lakes area witnessed the fireball.  Sightings have been reported to this blog and the AMS Fireball page from Ontario, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. Thanks to everyone who commented on this page. If you haven’t already, please submit a report to the American Meteor Society’s Fireball page.

Most of the reports are consistent in their description of a meteor at least as bright as the Full Moon and lasting 5-10 seconds. Most reports give a bluish/greenish color for the fireball though some reported a white or reddish color.

Luckily, the University of Southern Ontario operates a number of all-sky fireball cameras in the area. If those cameras were up and running, they all probably detected the fireball. So there’s a good chance that the fireball’s orbit can be determined. This info can be used to recover any meteorites that may have fallen.

[ADDED: The fireball network operated by the U. of Southern Ontario did, in fact, detect the fireball. They have a page devoted to the fireball which includes multiple videos, a diagram of the fireball's orbit, and the most likely location for the meteorite strewn field.]

The map below is based on reports sent to this blog and the AMS Fireball page. The red stars demote sightings while the 2 yellow stars denote reported sonic booms. The sonic booms located to the west of Toronto may pinpoint the location were the fireball came closest to the ground.

Sept 20th Fireball Over the NE

The Northeast US was treated to a doubleheader of rare sky phenomenon this past weekend. On Saturday evening, a NASA rocket launched from Virginia created a spectacular but short-lived “comet”. Later on that night around 12:30 to 1:00 am, a brilliant fireball was observed along the eastern seaboard from New Jersey to Maine. There were even sightings as far inland as the Buffalo area and far eastern Ontario.

The above map plots sightings of the fireball reported to the American Meteor Society’s Fireball page and this blog. The reports are consistent with an object that was at least as bright as the Full Moon and lasted for 3-10 seconds. There were 2 reports of delayed sonic booms, possibly caused by falling meteorites. These reports were relatively close to each in Derry, NH and Westford, MA. The fireball was most likely caused by a small asteroid (maybe a foot or so across) burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Please send any additional reports to the American Meteor Society’s Fireball page.

Update on the Vancouver/Seattle Fireball

There have been more reports of Saturday night’s brilliant fireball seen over British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. The reports were submitted to the American Meteor Society’s Fireball page and to this blog. The fireball was seen as far south as SW Oregon and as far north as southern BC. All observers reported that the fireball moved in roughly an East to West direction and everyone last sighted the fireball to their West.

The map below shows where the fireball was seen. I have labeled those reports that gave a sighting to the north (N) or south (S) of their position.

Zooming in on the Vancouver/Seattle area shows that the boundary between sightings to the North and to the South is near the US/Canada border. This is a good indication that the fireball flew over the border. Interestingly, there is a report of a delayed sonic boom in the Sproat Lake area on Vancouver Island (denoted with a yellow star in the zoomed map).

Fireball Over British Columbia and the American Northwest

Reports have been coming in of a slow bright fireball seen over the Canadian province of British Columbia and the states of Washington and Oregon. Most reports put the time of the fireball at ~8 pm local time on the evening of September 12. The fireball traveled from east to west.

Thanks to everyone who has submitted reports to this blog. Please also submit reports to the American Meteor Society’s Fireball page.They are the official archive of fireball sightings and all reports will be made available to the scientific community.

The east to west motion can rule out the re-entry of man-made space junk since 99.9+% of man-made stuff orbits the Earth from west to east. The slow motion (described as much slower than a typical meteor) and the long duration of the fireball suggest that this was due to a very small asteroid (probably no bigger than a basketball) rather than a small piece of cometary dust like most meteors.

It is possible the fireball dropped some meteorites though the lack of any reports of sonic booms suggests that material didn’t survive to reach the lower atmosphere. As close as the fireball may have seen it was much higher than an airplane. If it was similar to most slow bright fireballs, it first became visible at an altitude of 70-100 km and faded out between 20-40 km up.

The some local news stories on the fireball can be found at The Province, CBCNews, Time Colonist, and the Vancouver Sun.

The map below shows the location of sightings reported to this blog. [Map was last updated on Sept 15 at 9:30 am PST]

There’s Alot Going On Up There

Except following an exceptional event, this blog usually only gets a comment or two every day. Over the past few days/nights, I’ve been swamped in comments. They all involve stuff being observed in the sky. Some I can’t explain. That doesn’t mean people saw UFOs or anything weird, just that I can’t pinpoint a possible explanation from the given description.

[Note: If you see something cool in the sky and want help in ID'ing it, at a minimum give the time you saw it (doesn't have to be exact) and your location (city or county is fine). If you could also describe where in the sky it was (high up, to the west, etc) that would be great too.]

Since I started this blog in early September of last year, I’ve received over 150,000 visitors and 1000+ comments. I’d like to thank everyone who visited an left a note.

Since July 23rd, 55 comments have been written. Rather than respond to each comment individually, I’ll try to identify as many things as I can.

Jupiter

First off, lots of people have been startled by a bright star that is visible in the southern sky. The star rises around 8pm in the southwest and is located due south and about 40-50 degrees up around midnight. Some have noted that it is brighter than any other star and doesn’t appear to twinkle like a star. That’s because it isn’t star but the planet Jupiter. Right now Jupiter is about as bright as it gets. It is about ~13 times brighter than the brightest star visible in the sky at the same time. Even though Jupiter just got hit by a comet a few days ago, its brightness is normal and, in fact, it gets this bright for a few months every year.

Midwest Fireball

Both this blog and the American Meteor Society’s Fireball page have received many reports of a bright fireball seen from Kansas to Kentucky at 12:15 am (give or take 10-15 minutes) on the morning of July 26. The fireball appears to have been as bright as the Full Moon and was observed to fragment. So far there have been no reports of any sonic booms associated with it. This fireball was slow and bright enough that it may have been large enough to have produced meteorites that survived to reach the ground.

Reported sightings of the July 26th (12:15am) fireball. Reports from the American Meteor Society and this blog. Map created with Google Earth.

Lots of Other Meteors

Right now we are witnessing the peak of a few minor showers. The best of which are the Southern Delta Aquariids and, to a lesser extent, the Alpha Capricornids. Meteors from these showers are observable for almost the entire night, except for an hour or 2 after sunset. They can be extremely bright and of almost any color though they will usually be blue or green. It is not uncommon for these meteors to leave faint trails that are observable for a few seconds after the meteor. Unlike the giant Midwest fireball talked about above, these meteors are relatively fast and only last for a second or two.

Mason-Dixon Fireball – July 6

There have been reports of a fireball accompanied by sonic booms over PA and MD. The fireball was observed shortly after 1 am on the morning of Monday, July 6. Based on reports sent to this blog, the American Meteor Society and local news outlets, the fireball was seen from OH to CT including reports from PA, MD, NY and NJ.

The map below shows the location of sightings (yellow stars) and sonic booms (red circles). It is obvious that the sonic boom reports are clustered in the area of York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

What was it? Most likely the fireball was the result of a small asteroid (no bigger than a basketball) hitting Earth’s atmosphere at ~10 miles per second. The reports all confirm the telltale signs of a small asteroid ablating and breaking up in the atmosphere (blue green glow, long tail, multiple fragments, delayed sonic booms). There is a good chance that this fireball dropped a number of meteorites and I’m sure meteorite hunters are already in the area.

Additional information can be found at WGAL 8 and The Baltimore Sun.

Also remember to submit reports of this fireball to the American Meteor Society. These reports are a great help for understanding these objects and in the recovery of meteorites.

Meteorite Found?!! – June 23 AZ fireball

Jack Schraeder of Sierra Vista, AZ has reported finding a probable meteorite from June 23rds fireball over southern Arizona. He made his announcement of the find on the meteorite-list user group. A picture can be found at the Rocks From Space site.

According to the Rocks From Space site, the meteorite is a brecciated H chondrite weighing 155.6 grams (5.5 oz). It was found ~45 hours after the fall which corresponds to the evening of Thursday June 25. No info has been released on the location of the find or whether any additional meteorites have been found.