Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57

https://fireballs.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2019/1775?platform=hootsuite

by mpweiher • 7 years ago

243 119 7 years ago

fireballs.imo.net

acdanger2• 7 years ago

I saw this last night in NW Washington, DC (10:57 local time) while walking my dogs.

It was very large and very bright. For several seconds after it had disappeared, I expected a large "boom" to occur. Quite an unsettling moment.

edit: Looks like some dash cams caught it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXdL5YTu50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdGhRNg6h0

52-6F-62• 7 years ago

Oh I saw one of these facing SW in Calgary (from the NW of the city) a about 11 years ago.

It was amazing. I wasn't unsettled—more surprised. Assumed it was a meteorite burning up close by.

craftyguy4• 7 years ago

I've seen one of these too a few years back. I'm waaay into astronomy but, in addition to being very exciting to see, it was still a bit unsettling because you have no immediate way of gauging how large the thing is, whether it might flatten a city nearby, or be 'the big one' (super slim chance, but tell that to your adrenaline).

CompelTechnic• 7 years ago

Being in D.C., did you expect it to be an ICBM? I would have.

acdanger2• 7 years ago

That's where my mind went in the initial seconds, yes. It's sad to think that there's a latent worry about that sort of thing living in this city.

rorykoehler4• 7 years ago

Really? Out of the blue like that?

trickstra2• 7 years ago

you watch too much TV

yc-kraln• 7 years ago

Funny you should mention this, when the earthquake hit some years ago my mind immediately went "NUKE!". Seemed more likely at the time.

evrydayhustling2• 7 years ago

Does anyone know if an ICBM would be this bright? I'd expect that towards the end of the trajectory it might not even need its torch, so the first light would be payload.

jcurbo• 7 years ago

Caught by the camera at the University of Maryland Observatory: https://www.facebook.com/UMObservatory/posts/101592265399548...

craftyguy4• 7 years ago

Is there a non-facebook link to their video?

ChrisArchitect• 7 years ago

ha, I like the clip with the car music -- "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" by Jake Owen

silveira• 7 years ago

Video: https://imgur.com/MoKD67j from Reddit at /r/nova.

kibwen3• 7 years ago

Giving a whole new meaning (er, a whole old meaning) to "nova"; took me a sec to realize that was the subreddit for Northern Virginia. :P

dajohnson89• 7 years ago

aren't novae stationary?

compuguy2• 7 years ago

If you have lived in the Washington DC Metro area, NoVA means Northern Virginia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Virginia

compuguy2• 7 years ago

As someone who lives in NoVA, I'm disappointed that I didn't see this. The Washington Post has an article about this as well: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/04/17/large-mete...

hokumguru• 7 years ago

Looks like this site is already experiencing the hug of death. Anyone have a mirror?

metamet• 7 years ago

Appears to be working for me, but here're two links to the videos they have listed, for those curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXdL5YTu50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdGhRNg6h0

Liquix• 7 years ago

Is there data on point of impact or suspected origin? Is this a relatively common occurrence? Interesting, thanks for sharing.

dsfyu404ed2• 7 years ago

point of impact

Atlantic ocean off of Deleware.

fisherwithac• 7 years ago

Tis a shame I started to go to bed earlier during the weekdays recently. Otherwise I may have been able to see this outside my apartment window.

Personal grumpiness aside though, I'm relieved that it didn't end up making landfall considering how close it was to some pretty major cities. I wonder if there's any hope for recovery of the meteorite itself since it appears to have fallen in the bay/ocean. Is it possible that it's close enough to land that they could find even a few parts of it?

Either way, I'm hoping more footage of the entry event starts coming in. Preferrably with audible reactions.

sk5t• 7 years ago

It would be neat to find, but--who is going to go scouring the seafloor off the coast of Delaware for a not-very-large magnetic rock?

toyg3• 7 years ago

Well, we think it’s a rock ... <insert Superman reference here>

dsfyu404ed2• 7 years ago

There's also probably a bunch of other junk down there to throw false positives. You'll make more selling the scrap metal you haul up than you will selling the meteorite (still won't be a money-maker though).

ip26• 7 years ago

Depends on whether the DoD believes it was a rock. Delaware is pretty close to D.C.

francisofascii• 7 years ago

“The preliminary 3D trajectory computed based on all the reports submitted to the AMS shows that the fireball was traveling from North to South and ended its flight in the Atlantic Ocean in front of Bethany Beach, DE,” the American Meteor Society said. https://wtop.com/science/2019/04/watch-fireball-streaks-acro...

jeffmould• 7 years ago

I live about 4 miles south of Bethany Beach on the Atlantic. I was inside, but the light lit up my house so much I thought either my house was on fire or a car was about to crash into my home.

tandr3• 7 years ago

Is it just me or do those events occure more often than say, 3-5 years ago? I understand we observe more, record and report more, but there should not be a significant difference from 5 years ago, right? I used to read about them and it was one-off wow event, now I read about it and feels like everyday news...

md224• 7 years ago

A steadily growing number of fireballs are recorded at the American Meteor Society every year.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid#Fireball

It's not clear to me if this is because the frequency is actually increasing... maybe it has to do with an increase in the number of cameras, or growing awareness of the AMS website?

tandr3• 7 years ago

Would be interesting to see some stats from say NASA or ballistic missiles monitoring system, but I suspect that data has high level of secrecy.

Sharlin• 7 years ago

Likely they’ve just entered public consciousness in a new way after the Chelyabinsk event (which occurred six years ago).

tandr3• 7 years ago

Did not think of that, thank you. So we are just paying attention more ("reporting more") :)

rtkwe2• 7 years ago

There's been a huge proliferation of cameras in the last 10 years and more recently as dashcams have come into increasing prevalence as camera costs come down more and more.

rhacker• 7 years ago

If you don't own a dashcam (or 7) now is the time to get one. It can massively help you (if you are a safe (read: slow) driver). /PSA

ddalex2• 7 years ago

I've personally seen lots of meteorites when driving long distance at night. But I had no means to capture it.

Almost all of videos come from dashboard cameras, and rarely from surveillance cameras because those are pointed downwards.

Guess which technology become popular with drivers in the last decade, and recently became good enough to capture good video at night?

mises• 7 years ago

If it's still intact, who owns the meteor (I assume it's a meteor)? The person on whose property it landed?

Radle• 7 years ago

it landed in the sea.

toyg3• 7 years ago

Well, certainly the country it landed in. It fell in the sea, so i guess it depends on nautical jurisdiction.

soulofmischief• 7 years ago

It depends on if it's public or private land.

https://www.space.com/18009-meteorite-collectors-public-land...

jordan801• 7 years ago

Probably so small that no one will bother retrieving it, since, according to another comment, it landed in the Atlantic.

easel• 7 years ago

I got the site to load but it was very slow and took a second try. I happened to be standing outside in Reston, looking East and saw the whole thing. I've never seen anything like it. Extremely bright with a green tinge, moving fast like a meteor. It was visible long enough that I was able to tell people to turn around and check it out.

Definitely a little unsettling. It was bright enough some folks that hadn't seen the whole trajectory thought it might have been fireworks.

makerofspoons2• 7 years ago

A fireball flying in from the north would scare the crap out of me if I lived near DC.

craftyguy4• 7 years ago

I presume it's because a thing following a great circle from Russia would have the thing coming in from the north?

makerofspoons2• 7 years ago

Right

apo• 7 years ago

Site down. What's the gist?

SketchySeaBeast• 7 years ago

Rock fell, no one died.

TheAdamist• 7 years ago

another dashcam from here: https://twitter.com/stevechazin/status/1118354864214614016

swiley• 7 years ago

Last time I checked <video> worked fine without javascript >>

edgarvaldes• 7 years ago

The Chelyabinsk meteor[0] came to my mind. I can not believe it happened 6 years ago already.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor

smoyer• 7 years ago

It was simply ULA trying to land one of their boosters like SpaceX does.

RickJWagner• 7 years ago

Cool site. It adds legitimacy to sightings, I like that.

Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57

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