Comments on: Meteor Activity Outlook for March 3-9, 2012

By: amsadmin

amsadmin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:55:06 +0000

Steve and All,

Meteors seen during the evening hours usually are traveling slower than those seen in the morning sky. The reason for this is that during the evening hours meteors have to catch up to the Earth. Therefore you have the meteors initial velocity in space minus that of the Earth which creates slow meteors that often last many seconds. During the morning, just the opposite is true. Your location has now turned toward the same direction that he Earth is moving. Meteors that strike the Earth and now striking the atmosphere head-on. This creates fast meteors that rarely last more than a few seconds. In simple terms, the windshield of a moving vehicle is the like the morning sky and the rear window is like the evening. Raindrops striking the windshield will do so with more more force than those hitting the rear window.

I hope this helps!

Robert Lunsford

By: steve davis

steve davis — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:13:15 +0000

I saw a meteor at around 8:30pm tues.eve.6-19-12. it was traveling from east to west. it was more like a comet. what was it?it appeared to traveling really slow.

By: Mark Hoffman

Mark Hoffman — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:01:28 +0000

I too saw this event but it was 8:45 my time (EST). I live in Washington, DC and was in the city at the time facing S-SE and when I came from under some trees covering the road I saw a bright ball falling slowly straight down for roughly 4-5 seconds with a tail roughly 6-8 times as long as the fireball is wide. It split into 2 or 3 pieces before falling below my horizon. Included is a copy of the facebook post I immediately put up after witnessing the event.

Mark Hoffman
Just saw a meteor fall on my way down Nebraska Ave!
Like Â· Â· Share Â· March 9 at 8:45pm via BlackBerry

By: Joseph Janosov

Joseph Janosov — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:22:41 +0000

I too saw observed what I believe to be meteor burning rather slowly across the sky at approximately 07:55 PM on
the evening of 5 March 2012 at Wapwallopen, PA on the Susquehanna River

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:44:43 +0000

I guess I’m lucky than. I saw one over ft.cambel Kentucky in late lit it was over cast at and it lit up the clouds and again I saw one over Florida in the mind 90′s

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:30:35 +0000

I was traveling East in Virginia at approximately 4:30 this morning and witnessed a VERY large ball of light that started not too far over the treetops and it looked to fall directly behind the treetops at a slight angle. It happened so quickly that the details are blurred, but I know there was a bright white light, a large noticeable tail, and some part of it was red/orange. I’ve never seen anything like it and had the person with me failed to see it, I might have thought I was losing it. Fireball? Just an interesting side fact, I’ve never seen a falling a star and actually saw an unmistakable falling star less than 30 minutes later.

By: amsadmin

amsadmin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:43:05 +0000

Erjona,

We need a few more details before trying to guess what you witnessed. The most important factor is the duration of your event. If it lasted just a few seconds then odds are it was a fireball. Your location would help us determine if there were any other witnesses nearby. Let us know and we will check it out.

Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society

By: Ken

Ken — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:03:39 +0000

I saw it as well from Diamond Hts in the city looking south toward San Bruno mountain. It was amazing – especially the way it broke up.

By: Erjona Lamani

Erjona Lamani — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 02:22:31 +0000

I saw a bright yellow/orange light traveling across the sky. It looked like a fireball. It was around 7:45PM and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. It looked like it was the same distance away as a plane but I’m sure it was further away. Eventually the light got smaller and smaller until it burned out. I’m so curious to know what it was. It didn’t seem to be coming closer and closer just kept going across the sky. Someone please tell me if they have any idea what it was or saw it too.

By: amsadmin

amsadmin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:22:43 +0000

Nicole and All,

It was most likely an aircraft but the possibility exists that it was a meteor. A meteor low enough to produce a sonic boom would have been bright enough to be seen in the daylight sky. Some eye-witnesses could confirm this for us.

Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society

By: amsadmin

amsadmin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:19:16 +0000

Hope and All,

A fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal. Most meteors are only the size of small pebbles. A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere. Even the slowest meteors are still traveling at 10 miles per SECOND, which is much faster than a speeding bullet. Fireballs occur every day over all parts of the Earth. It is rare though for an individual to see more than one or two per lifetime as they can also occur during the day or on a cloudy night, or over some remote region. Observing during one of the major annual meteor showers listed on our website can increase your chance of seeing another bright meteor.

I hope this helps!

Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:45:57 +0000

On March 6 at 4:29 p.m. CST, we heard what has been described as a “sonic boom” in Rockford, Alabama (Coosa County). There were hundreds of reports from an 8 or 9 county area of the same sound of an explosion. Shortly thereafter, several helicopters appeared and seemed to be searching for answers. Could it have been a meteor?