Serendipity
Jedi Master
In the last 10 days I've seen slow falling meteorites(fireballs) at least 8 times.
First time I saw it was when I went on my balcony and there was light almost as bright as Venus moving horizontally across the sky.For as few seconds I thought it maybe is a plane but planes have flashing light and this thing was just simple round light (like a star) so the UFO came to mind, and especially when after 6-7 seconds it started fading away until in the end I could only see a small dot and then nothing at all. In the next few days I saw it 2 more times in similar conditions.I would come out and there it already was, moving horizontally again and fading after some time.For some time I had the idea that UFO's are stalking me :P , and when they realize I've spotted em they turn of their lights. ha ha
But after thinking about it more I came to conclusion that it probably were meteorites though very strange behaving type,I've never seen before.
Then last night I went out to relax and watch some shooting stars. I saw quite a few,all behaving like usual shooting star. Lasting around one second and moving really fast.
Then I came back home,on balcony and talked with my father about meteorites.He went inside,and then in middle of sky appeared one bright as Venus,moving really slowly.I called my father to come quickly, he came 7 seconds later when it already started fading so I pointed my finger to the sky and in that same instant another one with same size,same speed and direction appeared following the first one. My dad didn't noticed when it appeared so when I asked him what's that pointing to 2 slow moving fireballs(one fading) he thought it's a star before noticing it moves and then stood and looked at it silently. I told him wow that's weird we just talked about meteorites and then saw 2 of them coming in same time. He then went to sleep and I remained to smoke.
When I was lighting my 2nd one on the north appeared another fireball, this one moving vertically and had orange glow to it. I watched with my mouth open thinking 'oh my god' as it was falling at even slower rate then others I saw before,and it kept falling for 20 seconds before becoming obscured by the hill.Later I put my indexfinger at my arms distance with base of the finger being top of the hill and I measured that the meteorite appeared below base of the nail.It took him 20 seconds to go through that length.
I went to bed thinking what a strange night that was. After so many incidents happened in last 10 days,I have feeling that if I just go out to watch the sky and wait for about 20 minutes I can count to see another one!
I got 4 questions bugging me:
why they move that slowly?
why they last so long?
why I keep seeing them so frequently last 10 days?
why they appear only between 2:30 am and 4:30 am? (each one of the 8 I saw appeared in that time range,more so when I spend far less time outside in that time range then. lets say between 10 pm and 2 am ,and in that time range I've only seen shooting stars)
From http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241972-Fireballs-of-February- article, NASA scientist gives partial answers to my first 2 questions
on the other hand, is it maybe just normal type of meteorite activity,that is nothing at all unusual for Perseid meteor shower and I'm making fool of myself?
Still it's strange and strange is good enough to peak my curiosity so I'll go out tonight after 2:30 am and see if they come again no matter what they are they are fun look at, at least for the time being :) Thank s for listening
First time I saw it was when I went on my balcony and there was light almost as bright as Venus moving horizontally across the sky.For as few seconds I thought it maybe is a plane but planes have flashing light and this thing was just simple round light (like a star) so the UFO came to mind, and especially when after 6-7 seconds it started fading away until in the end I could only see a small dot and then nothing at all. In the next few days I saw it 2 more times in similar conditions.I would come out and there it already was, moving horizontally again and fading after some time.For some time I had the idea that UFO's are stalking me :P , and when they realize I've spotted em they turn of their lights. ha ha
But after thinking about it more I came to conclusion that it probably were meteorites though very strange behaving type,I've never seen before.
Then last night I went out to relax and watch some shooting stars. I saw quite a few,all behaving like usual shooting star. Lasting around one second and moving really fast.
Then I came back home,on balcony and talked with my father about meteorites.He went inside,and then in middle of sky appeared one bright as Venus,moving really slowly.I called my father to come quickly, he came 7 seconds later when it already started fading so I pointed my finger to the sky and in that same instant another one with same size,same speed and direction appeared following the first one. My dad didn't noticed when it appeared so when I asked him what's that pointing to 2 slow moving fireballs(one fading) he thought it's a star before noticing it moves and then stood and looked at it silently. I told him wow that's weird we just talked about meteorites and then saw 2 of them coming in same time. He then went to sleep and I remained to smoke.
When I was lighting my 2nd one on the north appeared another fireball, this one moving vertically and had orange glow to it. I watched with my mouth open thinking 'oh my god' as it was falling at even slower rate then others I saw before,and it kept falling for 20 seconds before becoming obscured by the hill.Later I put my indexfinger at my arms distance with base of the finger being top of the hill and I measured that the meteorite appeared below base of the nail.It took him 20 seconds to go through that length.
I went to bed thinking what a strange night that was. After so many incidents happened in last 10 days,I have feeling that if I just go out to watch the sky and wait for about 20 minutes I can count to see another one!
I got 4 questions bugging me:
why they move that slowly?
why they last so long?
why I keep seeing them so frequently last 10 days?
why they appear only between 2:30 am and 4:30 am? (each one of the 8 I saw appeared in that time range,more so when I spend far less time outside in that time range then. lets say between 10 pm and 2 am ,and in that time range I've only seen shooting stars)
From http://www.sott.net/articles/show/241972-Fireballs-of-February- article, NASA scientist gives partial answers to my first 2 questions
But question why they keep appearing nowdays remains unanswered(at least for general public,I mean)It's not the number of fireballs that has researchers puzzled. So far, fireball counts in February 2012 are about normal. Instead, it's the appearance and trajectory of the fireballs that sets them apart.
"These fireballs are particularly slow and penetrating," explains meteor expert Peter Brown, a physics professor at the University of Western Ontario. "They hit the top of the atmosphere moving slower than 15 km/s, decelerate rapidly, and make it to within 50 km of Earth's surface."
on the other hand, is it maybe just normal type of meteorite activity,that is nothing at all unusual for Perseid meteor shower and I'm making fool of myself?
Still it's strange and strange is good enough to peak my curiosity so I'll go out tonight after 2:30 am and see if they come again no matter what they are they are fun look at, at least for the time being :) Thank s for listening