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Space Science

Fireballs Awe Early November Skywatchers 32

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the ufos-and-you dept.
saskboy writes "NASA reports that an unusual number of fireball meteor sightings have been reported recently, possibly due to the larger number of people being outside for Halloween trick or treating, and others looking for the highly visible planet Mars while it's in the planetary neighborhood. From the article: "On Oct. 30, for example, Bill Plaskon of Jonesport, Maine, was 'observing Mars through a 10-inch telescope at 10:04 p.m. EST when a brilliant fireball lit up the sky and left a short corkscrew-like smoke trail that lasted about 1 minute.' The physical cause of the fireballs in the sky are likely the Taurid meteor shower. According to the International Meteor Organization, the Taurid shower peaks between Nov. 5th and Nov. 12th. 'Earth takes a week or two to traverse the swarm. This comparatively long duration means you don't get spectacular outbursts like a Leonid meteor storm,' rather closer to 'one every few hours.'" These meteor sightings have also, of course, sparked UFO speculation.
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Fireballs Awe Early November Skywatchers More

Fireballs Awe Early November Skywatchers

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  • Saw one a couple of days ago.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by dave-tx ( 684169 ) * <{moc.liamg} {ta} {todhsals+80891fd}> on Saturday November 05, 2005 @02:52PM (#13958495)
    ....while driving to work in the early morning. Brightest one I'd ever seen, and was quite a shock to see so clearly amidst the street and traffic lights. Honestly had no idea they could be so bright - it was easy to see it break up and fragment. Very cool indeed!

  • UFO's! (Score:2)

    by tsa ( 15680 )
    I think UFO's are a lot more interesting than fireballs. I, for one, welcome our firy overlords.
  • I read somewhere that the chances of anything actually coming from Mars are like, a million to one or something.
    • I was looking eastward when I saw one of these fireballs fall from the sky. It was seen early in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame high in the atmosphere. Hundreds must have seen it, and taken it for an ordinary falling star. Albin described it as leaving a greenish streak behind it that glowed for some seconds. Denning, our greatest authority on meteorites, stated that the height of its first appearance was about ninety or one hundred miles. It seemed to him that it fell to
  • She had been telling me about seeing these bright lights appear quite recently. She asked people in the parking lot what it was and they thought it was Mars. Now at least there may be another plausible answer.

  • These meteor sightings have also, of course, sparked UFO speculation.

    Oh, boy. Why don't these people just GROW UP!?!?!?!?! If there were UFOs "out there", at least the sort we could recognize, they would surely have either made themselves known, conquered, or otherwise interactred with us by now. Of course, since the probability of a humanoid ET is extremely small (something like a billion to 1), the probability is likewise that any ETs that exist would interact with us in a manner detectable by our t

    • The UFOs would surely avoid meteor showers like these. Either that, or we are seeing UFOs that have been struck by these meteors and are falling into our environs (in which case I must get a picture of them, the GIMP, and the Impact font ready so I can add to my personal MeteOWN3D!!1 gallery).
    • If there were UFOs "out there", at least the sort we could recognize

      If you recognize it, it's not an unidentified flying object.

      As a skeptic I love when people ask me if I believe in UFOs. I always say "Yes." They look at me funny until I say, "I believe people see flying objects they can't identify. I don't believe these objects are aliens tourists." UFOs exist. They will always exist. Aliens visiting Earth? lol
  • I saw what I thought was a fireball a few days ago, but wasn't sure since it was so bright. It was a big streak of green across the sky I saw in my peripheral vision clearly through the city lights. I thought it might be just fireworks, but now a fireball seems a much more likely explanation.
    • The one I saw years ago in southern Saskatchewan was definitely green and bright enough to be seen during daylight in the early evening. It tore through the clouds and lasted for at least a few seconds which was long enough to realize what it was.

  • UFO's... (Score:3, Funny)

    by sadler121 ( 735320 ) <msadler@gmail.com> on Saturday November 05, 2005 @04:26PM (#13958954) Homepage
    With the emergence of "Bird Flu" that is spreading rapedily across the world and now 'fireballs' appearing in the sky, all I have is one thing to say...

    Hallowed are the Orii
  • We [texasastro.org] were having our annual picnic out at our dark site last Saturday. The night was a little cool, seeing was decent with some very high north-south haze that was almost overlapping the Miky Way when it came up.

    Anyway, I saw a couple myself, one headed south to north that had a huge shedding tail and moved very fast, (I actually mentioned to another observer that it looked almost like another shuttle breaking up, with smaller pieces) and later one in the south skies headed east to west that looked very like
  • Hi, I'm some douche with a telescope who is easily impressed by things that have been around for billions of years, like meteors. Also, I'm constantly baffled by that big yellow glowing god that comes out during the day time before the moon goddess arises and protects us in our slumber.

  • Yeah, so I was drunk (Score:3, Funny)

    by DoctaWatson ( 38667 ) on Saturday November 05, 2005 @07:02PM (#13959810)
    I'm glad to hear the fireball I saw in the sky last night wasn't just a figment of my tequila-soaked imagination.
  • me and a bunch of friends were at a hill station sorta place (on nov. 3rd, 0100-0400). very little ambient town light so it was those typical starry nights u never see in the city...really starry.

    between the 5 of us we saw 5-6 of these. none of them were bright enough to be "fireballs" but of one them, which i missed, was bright enough for me to see the area light up from the flash.

    this was before we got drunk.
    • What's it with people getting drunk, and then bragging about it on the Internet? This is no less than the third alcohol related posting on this thread alone? Are almost all astronomers trying to look like jocks by getting plastered before they impress the ladies with their large scopes?
      • pointing out the fact that i/we weren't under the influence while the observations were made. we weren't there to see the stars or look at anything specific...so there goes ur "astronomers trying to look like jocks" theory.

        bragging about getting drunk...? talk about projecting!
        Freudian Projection:

        "The individual perceives in others the motive he denies having himself. Thus the cheat is sure that everyone else is dishonest. The would-be adulterer accuses his wife of infidelity."

        "A defense mechanism in which

        • Far be it from me to start a flame war over fireballs and highballs, but I don't get drunk, and don't care to. Talk about a waste of money, time, and health.

          I was simply pointing out that not everyone is impressed with random peoples' ability to consume too much alcohol and then brag in public how little self control or good sense about alcohol they have.
  • Someone just invented some REALLY good fireworks for (Guy Fawkes|Bonfire Night) [wikipedia.org]. No alien conspiracies here.
  • ..damn, I blew it.
  • It's been cloudy and raining for several days now.
  • Look at the B&W picture in the article. A Borg cube is quite clearly visible.

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