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Meteor Streaks Over American East Coast 111

Posted by timothy from the missed-the-memo-re-flyover-country dept.
California doesn't get all the action; The Washington Post is one of many news outlets reporting that the east coast of North America got a good view of a meteor, with more than 300 sightings from Canada to Florida. Did you see it? If so, did you have your dashcam on? Update: 03/23 13:43 GMT by T : The meteor was captured at least by some security cameras, as reported by The Guardian.
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Meteor Streaks Over American East Coast More

Meteor Streaks Over American East Coast

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  • me thinks (Score:4, Funny)

    by cultiv8 ( 1660093 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @12:12AM (#43254673) Homepage
    russia got more action than california. just sayin'.
  • Come on, this America vs Russia thing is getting too far. Whats next? Brag about what meteor was bigger, or brighter?

    • Re:Too far (Score:5, Funny)

      by gmuslera ( 3436 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @01:15AM (#43254889) Homepage Journal
      If a meteor strikes a big city, then USA could start the War on Space. Will still be madness, but at least this time won't be thousands of civil casualties because of it.

      • Re:Too far (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Endovior ( 2450520 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @02:57AM (#43255177)
        That'd actually be a good thing, really. I mean, it's short-term terrible about civilian casualties and the destruction of a city and all, but long-term, the investments in space technology and meteor detection would be vastly more positive for everyone in general than any of these other wars have been.

        • Re:Too far (Score:5, Interesting)

          by The Master Control P ( 655590 ) <ejkeever@nerdshacFREEBSDk.com minus bsd> on Saturday March 23, 2013 @03:09AM (#43255215)
          The Titanic had to sink before the fools listened to people saying "ships should have enough lifeboats for everyone, and the radio should always be on."
          Hundreds of people had to burn to death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire before the fools listened to progressives saying "locking the doors is bullshit."

          So yes, I fully expect that we're going to have to see a large city or small nation vaporized before the threat is taken seriously.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            It is difficult to hit a small nation from the sky. The first casualties of a meteor strike will be from China, Russia, USA or India.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gmuslera ( 3436 )

              Is difficult to hit a specific small nation. And more important, is very difficult to hit a city, even or specially a big one,, with rich enough people live in it, to make governments worry about it. Odds are high that will strike ocean (and probably several did in the last decades, if weren't bigger than recent Russia ones) or deserted land.

              But the problem are big ones. With them don't matter the exact point where it hits. And if you didn't invested to detect early or advance enough tech to be able to do

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Yes, and how many people need to die from lightning before we build an iron dome to protect us from the weather?

            Meteor impacts are very low probability events. Just because after thousands of years of human history we now are approaching the technology level to deal with meteors doesn't mean that the risk of meteors has changed. And if you are worried about extinction events, 99.999% of your attention should be focused on the ones that humans would cause (nuclear war, bioweapons release, etc.).

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Anonymous Coward
              Your post would've been modded '+5 Informative' if you had signed in. And many people aren't aware that mod points can be freely exchanged for bitcoins. (True fiction!)

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by doug141 ( 863552 )
              Some low-probability events that did cause big changes in public policy: dying in a terrorist attack, having a kid get shot at school, dying in a plane crash.

            • the worst lightning strike will not cause the extinction of mankind, but there are asteroids out there that could do this

              if you ignore lightning, people die every year from it in a statistically dependable way. so you can ignore lightning and personal tragedies may come and go, but there are no society level tragedies. ever

              meanwhile, if you ignore asteroids, you could go 100,000 more years and never have a problem more serious than the tunguska event

              or... the entire species could cease to exist in a few yea

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • Thousands of people had to die in a terrorist attack before we took airport security too serious.

              FTFY

      • They're already got a training application [slashdot.org] for that...

    • Someone is going to post your picture to twitter soon

  • i understand that meteors are neat and all.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wierd_w ( 1375923 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @12:32AM (#43254759)

    But really now.. I have seen many fall this year driving home from work. One even lasted 5 seconds before burning out, and was brilliant white. (Saw it sometime in February.)

    Do people on the coasts just have so much light pollution that anything other than a jumbojet or helicopter with running lights on causes excitement? Seriously, meteors happen all the time. The one that fell over russia was especially large, and had a lot of energy. That's why it was news. This one over the east coast just sounds like your garden variety to me.

    What's all the buzz about?

    • Re:i understand that meteors are neat and all.. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Sperbels ( 1008585 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @12:50AM (#43254813)
      Because most people never see one like that and don't realize it's fairly common. After the Russian incident, any bolide means THE SKY IS FALLING!! and they click on it. The buzz will die eventually.

    • Re:i understand that meteors are neat and all.. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <me&brandywinehundred,org> on Saturday March 23, 2013 @01:07AM (#43254869) Journal

      It was pretty amazing. I saw it in China town of Philadelphia. It was bright. Like a firework.

      actually I thought it was a firework until seeing this post, but the timing matches, and it was moving like a meteor.

      I've gone to very rural areas for meteor showers, and never seen anything like this, and it was in a fairly major city, and randomly.

      it was thicker, and sparklier than any I've seen, even with the light pollution.

      • Hmm.. sounds similar to the 5 sec one I saw in Feb then. It looked a lot like a white phosphorus shell, and was equally bright. Lit up the whole area, which is what caught my attention while driving home that night.

        Prior to that, the brightest I had seen this year was a lovely green one that lasted about 1 sec.

        Don't get me wrong, I don't to be bag on anyone, and 8sec is a very long lived object, but it still isn't anything to be seriously concerned about. Just smile because you got to see something cool, an

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by AvitarX ( 172628 )

          Yes, that was absolutely what I did.

          I was just trying to differentiate it from he ones that one sees regularly in more rural areas.

      • it was thicker, and sparklier than any I've seen,

        ... Is this about a meteor or the porn version of Twilight?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      Sadly, light pollution is a huge problem on the east coast and it's spreading. It has been a long time since the pink glow appeared in the sky where I live and it keeps getting worse. There are places where kids don't know you're supposed to see stars when you look up at night. It takes a fairly bright light to make an impression in a lot of places.

    • My wife and i both saw this one from the back yard here in Bradenton, Fl. While i see quite a few of them myself this one was pretty bright. Short only lasting a few seconds. What makes it stand out to me was even through tree branches it was a pretty bright flash of light. Much brighter than normal compared to the dozen or so I've seen in the last few months. and there is a lot of light pollution here.

  • Did it make a sound? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @12:45AM (#43254803) Journal

    Unless it made a sound, it's no big deal. I've been lucky enough to witness one meteor that made a sound. It was during a Perseid shower 20 years ago. A particularly bright one lit us up enough to cast a shadow. I turned just in time to see the tail end of it, then I heard a sound. It was as if the show put on a finale for us. After that, they were all just tiny streaks and then the shower was over for us.

    • i had of the kind, at night, where it actually lights the place around up quite a bit. we all looked at ourselves and all thought "ok, so, that's whats the end of the world is like". then it fell in the ocean somewhere, sufficiently far enough away. Biggest i've ever seen.. and hopefully i'll ever see. we were all grown ups, yet all scared :P

    • Re:Did it make a sound? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23, 2013 @03:54AM (#43255333)

      Where was the ka-boom? There's supposed to be an earth shattering ka-boom!!!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Unless it made a sound, it's no big deal. I've been lucky enough to witness one meteor that made a sound. It was during a Perseid shower 20 years ago. A particularly bright one lit us up enough to cast a shadow. I turned just in time to see the tail end of it, then I heard a sound. It was as if the show put on a finale for us. After that, they were all just tiny streaks and then the shower was over for us.

      In Utah we had a meteor that lit up the night sky so that it appeared to be daylight for a brief moment along with a loud explosion. It was a local news story.

    • I saw a Leonid meteor shower around 10 years ago, and that ended with quite the bang too. It peaked, a large one appeared with sound and all, and then it quieted down almost immediately, much like your typical fireworks show.

  • wish i'd seen it (Score:4, Informative)

    by wbr1 ( 2538558 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @12:54AM (#43254833)
    I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a fireball meteor in the earlghty 90's. I was 13 or so and night fishing. Saw light on the trees across the lake. Thought it was headlights at first, then realized it wasnt. It streaked overhead, then it was gonee behind the trees. Then there was a flash. After came the sound. Scared me a bit at first. Gave me my love of astronmy though.

  • Conspiracy (Score:5, Funny)

    by pitchpipe ( 708843 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @01:17AM (#43254903)
    It's a well orchestrated conspiracy by astrophysicists to vastly increase their government funding. These fat-cat scientists must be stopped now!
  • We're talking three significant meteors within a few weeks at the same general latitude. Everyone will say they are unrelated but it seems possible. End of the world? Give me a break. I think it's more likely a minor cluster that haven't been identified. More of a curiosity than a threat. Without knowing the path it's impossible to know if they'd cross our path in our lifetimes again. If they are part of a loose association of asteroids odds are this is the tail end of it. I'd be curious if there were more
    • Not even a cluster - a meteor this size occurs several times a day naturally. The Russian one was more notable as it only occurs a few times a year. That being spotted was, in itself, fairly rare as most of the planet is unpopulated.

      If this had occurred during daylight (when, approximately half do) it wouldn't have been spotted. As bright as the moon is not, generally, bright enough to see in sunlight, unless you happen to be looking at the right spot (that's not to say you can't see it during the day s

  • Isn't it time... (Score:5, Funny)

    by DaHat ( 247651 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @01:38AM (#43254971)

    ...for common sense meteor control?

    We cannot stand by and let these senseless meteors fall upon our great world... no! We must pass laws to require all meteor's that wish to pass within a parsec of us undergo a background check.

    More so, we must declare the surface of the earth a "meteor free zone" and let it be known far and wide... that we do not allow meteor violence here!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The TSA has said they will allow meteors to carry knives of 2.73" or less into the atmosphere

  • Clearly what happened is the Americans fired an atomic missile at the Russians, but they managed to stop it, and then the Russians tried the same trick on the Americans, but they managed to stop it as well. Either that, or it turns out that these fancy atomic things don't work as well as they used to. Or for those who want a conspiracy theory, they're actually releasing mind altering chemicals. Or the alien version would be that they're probes for the coming mothership. For the 2012 fan, sorry, they mes

  • Not very spectacular (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Saw a much more spectacular and sky lighting up meteor in southern wisconsin 3 years ago which would comparably put this one to shame, But I suppose after the russian one, one becomes fearful of such events.

  • its heavily overcast here and I am hundreds of miles from the east coast ya douche

  • No huge explosion?
    No shattered windows?
    No collateral damage?
    No pieces on eBay yet?
    Lame.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @03:44AM (#43255317)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Aha! Russia has retaliated for our meteor strike over Chelyabinsk!! ;-)

    In case you don't get the reference:

    http://rt.com/politics/zhirinovsky-meteorite-american-weapon-316/ [rt.com]

  • I noticed a lot of the comments saying that the tail was blue/green with a white/ yellow explosion. Is there anyone in the know who can comment if this gives an indication of the meteorites' composition. Green maybe indicating copper content, yellow maybe Sulfur? If so can you use the colour of tail upon entry to identify meteorites that have the same colour as being of the same origin? Just thinkin'
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Cool, thanks SternisheFan, good ol' wiki :) I wonder if it would be possible to record the spectra of light being emitted and then match other meteors with the same spectral pattern. If the fragments that have been hitting lately all have the same colour pattern it may imply that they came from a single source. It's probably already being done, I'm a virologist not an astronomer so I don't know about these things. Surely we have enough high quality "scopes" recording what is going on in the upper atmosphere

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by ae1294 ( 1547521 )

          Cool, thanks SternisheFan, good ol' wiki :) I wonder if it would be possible to record the spectra of light being emitted and then match other meteors with the same spectral pattern. If the fragments that have been hitting lately all have the same colour pattern it may imply that they came from a single source.

          Stop trying to deceive us with your science! We all know that god is angry, probably about gay marriage or Obama-care... We'll all just have to wait for the Oracle at FOX News to reveal the truth behind gods rage. God loves us and he'll fucking kill us all if we don't stop letting people do whatever makes them happy...

  • I saw it! (Score:3)

    by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Saturday March 23, 2013 @07:51AM (#43255953)
    I was out walking my dog (about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Baltimore, MD) and happened to be facing the right way (north). I saw a large, very bright light green meteor with a yellow tail streak across the sky, moving east. It lasted about four or 5 seconds and didn't make a sound. It was beautiful . . . I've never seen anything like it!
    • You lucky bastige!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ae1294 ( 1547521 )

      I was out walking my dog (about 25 minutes northeast of downtown Baltimore, MD) and happened to be facing the right way (north). I saw a large, very bright light green meteor with a yellow tail streak across the sky, moving east. It lasted about four or 5 seconds and didn't make a sound. It was beautiful . . . I've never seen anything like it!

      There is no earthly way you could have known which way to be facing to see this which means you must be a WITCH! BURN THE WITCH!!!

  • ... that can be downloaded of this thing? Formats like dirac, mp2, mp4, ogg theora, vp8, are fine. I need to play it in mplayer.

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