February 6, 2016

Was that a meteor?!

Did you see that?

Most spectacular sight in the sky we've ever seen.

ADDED: Aside from the sun and the moon, that was by far the brightest thing we've seen in the sky. We were watching TV together, in a room with big windows, and we both were immediately drawn to the sight, streaking in the north from east to west.

AND: It happened at 6:45 CT.

30 comments:

Fred Drinkwater said...

Hmm. Google reports bright meteors over Wisconsin on Monday night. Now more of them?
All right you midwesterners. Who's been annoying the Big Guy? Cut it out, now.

John said...

SMOD 2016 just cruising by before, you know.

Fred Drinkwater said...

or maybe it's aliens.
Aliens get blamed for everything these days, don't they?

Original Mike said...

Missed it, darn it.

Bob Boyd said...

But how is it connected to Donald Trump?

Quaestor said...

Probably one a the millions of small refrigerator-sized Earth-crossing asteroids, which show up randomly, and not part of a cometary shower. The next shower in 2016 is the Lyrid, but that's not due for 11 weeks.

Can you identify the background constellations?

Robert J. said...

Looks like multiple reports have already come in from Iowa and Illinois:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/browse_reports?event=PENDING

File your own sighting report here and you can contribute to identifying the exact trajectory, size, and possible fragment distribution of the meteorite responsible:

http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/

Meade said...

Thanks, Bob!

Quaestor said...

Observer KG from Anamosa IA must have seen your fireball. He reported it within a minute of your time and he says it lasted about 7.5 secs and was magnitude -10. The full moon is magnitude -12.6, so yours was bright indeed. Congrats.

Michael K said...

Starman landing. Although that might have been upper peninsula

There is an asteroid coming within 11,000 miles. I don't think it's here yet,

Quaestor said...

I did some rough calculations. Anamosa is about 1 minute of arc below your southwestern horizon, if we knew the approximate angles above the horizon your fireball was we could estimate it's position and track above the ground.

Humperdink said...

Need to read your prophetic politicians - Gore predicted this in 1996. To the day, I should add.

Quaestor said...

Yea, verily.

Levi Starks said...

Probably that missle n Korea just launched.....

Alex said...

Good, good. Let the butthurt flow through you.

Paul said...

Bush gets blamed if it hits, Obama takes credit if it misses.

Ken Mitchell said...

Tens of thousands of meteoroids (space rocks) enter the Earth's atmosphere EVERY DAY. A few hundred of these are big enough to make a noticeable "fireball" in the sky. (You can see the tracks of a few of them on spaceweather.com.)

Here's my current email sig line:

Si vis pacem, para bellum. - Plato

"Asteroids are nature's way of asking: 'How's that space program coming along?'"
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson
February 15, 2013
https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/302465037849743360

Etienne said...

My wife stopped by the meat market tonight and brought home four hot links.

I'm usually not keen on spices, but I cut a bunch of slices of about a 1-inch piece and made a sandwich.

Oh my God! That thing is still burning in my liver. She just smacked her lips like it was nothing, and she used a longer cut than mine.

Talk about a meteor. I don't really look forward to the landing...

Ken Mitchell said...

Michael K said..."There is an asteroid coming within 11,000 miles. I don't think it's here yet"

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a19280/a-small-asteroid-will-pass-an-astronomical-hairs-breadth/

This pass will happen in March; I don't think they had managed to calculate the precise orbit just yet. And it _MAY_ be as close as 11,000 miles, or it MIGHT be a couple of million; probably something in between. I'm sure it'll be in all the papers when they manage to calculate the orbit more exactly.

Heartless Aztec said...

God lighting farts.

chickelit said...

Photos or it didn't happen.

Nevermind, I'll ask my mother (who lives in Madison) about it tomorrow.

David said...

Trump burning up on re-entry.

Lewis Wetzel said...

If Trump burns out, but Sanders does not, what does this say about the sanity of the two parties' voters?
Sanders is a frikkin' nutcase. He thinks global warming is going to make the planet uninhabitable in less than a century.

Lewis Wetzel said...

How did Sanders become and an expert on the Earth's climate?

Education: Attended Brooklyn College, 1959-1960; University of Chicago, A.B. in political science, 1964

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/27/us/bernie-sanders-fast-facts/index.html
Jeepers! He's a regular Edward Teller!
The early 1960s were very good years for America. Top o' the world economy, a vibrant, growing middle class. We were about to go to the Moon. A young Bernie Sanders could have gotten a degree in a hundred things that would have actually benefited his fellow man. What did he go for?
Poli-sci. And an allegiance to a political system that crushed ordinary people.
It made him feel better about himself and superior to his fellow Americans.
Go Bernie!

loudogblog said...

I was taking the trash out a few years ago at night and the ground suddenly lit up like someone had just turned on a flood light in the sky. It was a meteor. One of these days we're gonna get clocked by a really big one.

Clyde said...

During the Leonid meteor storm of 2002 (I think it was), I saw a fireball flash by on the northern horizon. It was close enough that I could actually hear it crackle as it burned. That was impressive, although that meteor shower was just awesome, as I saw dozens of them over a few hours. I'll probably never see its like again.

tim in vermont said...

North Korea fires rocket
seen as covert missile test


Nothing to worry a about,

Anonymous said...

Um, let me get this straight. You and Meade were streaking in the north from east to west when you noticed this thing in the sky? Isn't it a little cold for streaking?

Original Mike said...

I spend a lot of time observing the night sky. One benefit is all the fireballs I've seen. Exciting.

Meade said...

@Jeffrey, we were chillin, bro.