Large bolide under the Perseid night
Published 13 August 2015 11:26 by Steinar Midtskogen
The activity of the meteor swarm Perseids is at its greatest in these days and many in the east of Norway who were up at night to see meteors, got a great experience. A large bolide appeared 1:50:39 and lit up the night. It shone like the brightest full moon, was yellow-green in color, some have described it as blue and white, and was visible for 8-9 seconds. However, this was not one from the Perseid. Over parts of eastern Norway it admittedly looked like coming from Perseus, but this is a perspective effect. It was slower and lasted much longer than any Perseid, and seen from elsewhere, it came from a different direction than Perseus.
The meteor is also seen in Sweden. Preliminary bearings suggests that meteor went from northeast to southwest and extinguishes about 30 km of Töckfors just across the Swedish border. The average speed was about 17.5 km/s. Speed and brightness makes meteor interesting in terms of possible meteor fallout, but it extinguishes at 30 km above the ground, while we would like to see the lights way down to 20-25 km. That would be a good indicator that meteorites may have reached all the way down to the ground. It will be interesting if it comes into any reports of bangs afterwards (1-3 minute after the bolide could be observed).
