Stepped outside a few minutes ago, and there was an enormous and soundless flash in the sky to the south of us (12:08 AM our time).  Must have been below the horizon.

It's cloudy here, but I'm wondering if it was a fireball from the Leonid meteor shower, currently at its height.

Best,

George

That would be my guess George.

Ray

If it was, I doubt there will be many reports from the area nearer where it must have occurred.  If you look at Boise on a map, you'll see there are few populated areas to the south of us.

Best,

George

The ones that approach the size of a pea can be awfully damned bright, George. It takes them longer to burn out, thus they produce a lot of light for a good second and a half to two.

Most of them are the size of a grain of sand and are still extremely visible.

They are that small?  Are you sure?

I thought they averaged the size of a VW, with a large one being about as big as a school bus. 

Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong thing....

Keep your head down George

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BMoneeTheMoneeMan wrote on Nov 18^th, 2009 at 10:38am:

They are that small?  Are you sure? I thought they averaged the size of a VW, with a large one being about as big as a school bus.  Maybe I'm thinking of the wrong thing....

From Wikipedia:

A meteor shower is a celestial event in which a number of meteors are observed to radiate from one point in the night sky. These meteors are caused by streams of cosmic debris called meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere at extremely high speeds on parallel trajectories. Most meteors are smaller than a grain of sand, so almost all of them disintegrate and never hit the Earth's surface. Fragments that do survive impact with Earth's surface are called meteorites.

Maybe you're thinking of Spaceballs. ;D

[quote author=61662C0 link=1258529147/5#5 date=1258560486]Keep your head down George

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That was it, MJ.  Same time-frame.

I didn't actually see the fireball itself.  Just the flash.

Best,

George

And people wonder why movies like Armogedon and 2012 are so popular.  Before modern technology, the few people who saw these things were considered nut cases. 

Now, we wonder if someday one may destroy the earth.

I watched the news piece, how cool!

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Buncha killjoys  8-)

Charlie

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Latest estimates put the thing's size at somewhere between a microwave and a kitchen range.  Produced an explosion between .5 and 1 kiloton of TNT.

Pretty spectacular.   :o

Best,

George

So it wasn't the mushrooms?

Yep, that's a pretty big meteoroid.

As a small kid I saw the night light up, a very stark brightness.  It was found fifty miles south, about the size of a man's shoe.



Quote:

The meteor exploded with the equivalent of 0.5 to 1 kilotons of TNT, according to spaceweather.com. Then, about six hours later, a "twisting iridescent-blue cloud" lit up the dawn sky for residents in Utah and Colorado.

Yep, much larger.  Wow.




George wrote on Nov 18^th, 2009 at 3:29am:

I doubt there will be many reports from the area nearer where it must have occurred.  If you look at Boise on a map, you'll see there are few populated areas to the south of us.

A little more bang than imagined.  ;)

Your first impression was right.   :)


Quote:

The hell was that?

 

Second good-sized one in the past two weeks.  This one, even bigger, went largely unreported in the US media:

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Thanks to Mel for pointing this out on FB a couple weeks ago.   ;)

Best,

George

You know, I can't believe that the one by you George didn't even go national! 


unbelievable. ::)