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GREAT WESTERN FIREBALL: Yesterday, Nov. 18th, something exploded in the atmosphere above the western United States. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho say the fireball "turned night into day" and issued shock waves that "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. The fireball was so bright it actually turned the sky noontime blue, as shown in this image from KSL TV in Utah:https://spaceweather.com/
KSL also received video clips of the meteor from Utah residents. Click on the video links to the right to watch the clips.
SEE NEWS REPORT
Meteor Fireball Turns Night Into Day Across Western US
------https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A61Xwc29cg
Story compiled with information from Alex Cabrero, Shara Park, Mary Richards and Randall Jeppesen.
Although the fireball appeared during the Leonid meteor shower, it was not a Leonid. Infrasound recordings of the blast suggest a small asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding with an energy of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Experts liken the event to the Park Forest fireball of 2003, which scattered dozens of meteorites across a suburb of Chicago. Meteorites are likely from this fireball as well. Stay tuned for developing information about the possible fall zone.
more fireball images: from KSL TV in Utah; from KTVB News in Idaho; from Thomas Ashcraft near Santa Fe, New Mexico; from Marsha Adams of Sedona, Arizona;
into day" over parts of the western United States last
night was likely an Earthgrazing Leonid associated with the
tail-end of the outburst described below. Stay tuned for further
analysis.
A flash of light in the sky over Utah
SALT LAKE CITY -- A fast moving meteor lit up the night skies over most of Utah just after midnight Wednesday.
KSL News has been receiving hundreds of calls from southern Utah to
southern Idaho. There also are reports of people seeing it from
Wyoming, Las Vegas and areas of California. People are reporting a
flash so bright it lit up the entire sky for a couple of seconds.
Some people are also reporting a slight rumbling sound a few
seconds after the flash. One caller told us it knocked a few items off
her shelf.
One resident who lives in Cedar City said she could see the mountains and her grass for a few seconds.
Another resident in Bountiful said the sky was so bright, it shut off the light-sensored street lights for a few seconds.
Patrick Wiggins, who is a NASA ambassador living in Tooele County, says the bright light is most likely a bolide meteor.
The Earth is passing the Leonids right now, which is one of the
most spectacular meteor shower shows that can be seen every year.
Wiggins says a bolide meteor creates an intense flash that is rare but happens from time to time.
According to Wiggins, it's also possible the meteor may have
broken apart in our atmosphere causing some rocks to land, though the
size of the rocks wouldn't be very large.
However, with reports from people who've seen the flash coming
in from such a large area, Wiggins says the chances of somebody
actually finding a meteor rock are small.
KSL also received video clips of the meteor from Utah residents. Click on the video links to the right to watch the clips.
Story compiled with information from Alex Cabrero, Shara Park and Randall Jeppesen.
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Seems it also happened back in 2008, June.
(file picture, courtesy NASA)
Becky Bruce reporting
It's a UFO no more. An unidentified flying object spotted over the
mountains between Salt Lake and Tooele has been identified as a rare
daytime fireball; a meteor big enough and close enough to be spotted
when the sun's still out.
at: www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3496031
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The surge occurred when Earth passed through
a double-stream of debris from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. We
call it a "double-stream" because it consists of
dust ejected from the comet on two occasions, in 1466 AD and
1533 AD. Earth is exiting the double-stream now, but low-level
Leonid activity continues.
Listen for pings on the meteor
radar. .
Spaceweather.com  
Thunderbolts Picture of the Day Â
US, China Agree to Discuss Cooperation in Space
The United States and China have agreed to discuss expanded cooperation in space exploration and science. According to a joint statement released in
Beijing on Tuesday, the two counties will start a "dialogue" on human space flight and exploration, and both nations looked forward to reciprocal visits
by the NASA administrator and appropriate Chinese space leaders in
2010. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, currently in Japan, said
cooperation on the high frontier could pay dividends for both countries.
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