Meteor over central Ohio lights up night, phone lines (Very large)

The Columbus Dispatch ^ | 09/29/13 | Ben Sutherly

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The brilliant streak seen on Friday night in the skies over central Ohio was a piece of an asteroid or comet that was 2 to 3 feet across and hit the atmosphere at 113,000 mph, a NASA official said yesterday.

The bright flash of light at 11:33 p.m. prompted some people to call Columbus police to ask what it was while officers chatted about the event over their radios.

“The initial trajectory suggests it passed over Columbus, Ohio, moving slightly north of west,” Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office told The Dispatch in an email. Cooke said there were some reports of sounds similar to sonic booms, which suggests some of the fireball’s fragments made it to fairly low altitudes.

NASA’s meteor camera in Ohio and Pennsylvania first detected it at 67 miles up, and it began breaking apart 41 miles above the earth. Cooke said it’s not yet certain, but it’s unlikely that the fireball produced meteorites on the ground given the “tremendous” speed at which it was moving.

“The fireball was so bright our meteor-detection software ‘went home to momma’ and thought it was seeing lightning,” Cooke wrote. “The fireball lit up the sky, so the detection software thought it was lightning and did not flag it as a meteor/fireball.”

According to the American Meteor Society’s website, Ohio was ground zero for the sighting. The society’s fireball coordinator, Robert Lunsford, said the fireball already had generated 900 reports to the society’s website, making it the third-most reported meteor event since the group began tracking them in 2005.

“It seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Sandi Poyer of Pickerington. “We camp out a lot. We’ve just never seen anything like that.”

Poyer said her husband, Michael, had just picked up daughter Hannah and her friend from the Pickerington North football game. The two eighth-graders planned to sleep out, and the Poyers had started a campfire.

“We were sitting there, and the whole sky lit up with this big green streak,” Poyer said. “It left a big trail, kind of like a vapor trail” but wider. The streak moved far too fast to be an airplane or other manmade object, she said.

Poyer said the meteor drew an audible reaction along their street.

Cooke said there are a few such fireball events each month across the planet. At 7:05 a.m. Thursday, another fireball centered over Indiana also generated a large number of reports and was seen in Ohio.

Tom Burns, director of the Perkins Observatory in Delaware County, has seen 30 meteor showers of similar brightness in his 50-year observing career.

What makes Friday’s event so special was when it happened.

“There were a lot of people that saw this,” he said. “I’ve been out at 3 a.m. and have seen something special and I think, ‘Maybe I was the only one who saw it.’ With this one, the timing was right on.”

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Another Massive Fireball Over Atlanta (This one if from last night 9/28)

Its been a busy week for the AMS as we are bombarded by fireball reports from all different parts of the country. The latest event took place over Alabama and Georgia last night September 28th 7:30 PM local time. Over 250 witnesses from Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia have reported the event so far

New Fireball spotted in Midwest(9/26 & 9/27)

The mid west has witnessed two major fireball events in less than 2 days.

On Thursday (September 26th), the AMS has received more than 730 reports of a large fireball around 7:05 am local time. Witnesses from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin reported a bright light moving across the morning sky.

(This one is the article posted)

The second Fireball occurred last night September 27th around 11:30 PM local time over central Ohio. The AMS has tagged over 450 witness reports to this event so far and there are still over 400 awaiting review.

Large Fireball Meteor with Sonics Over Alabama (Big one on 9/9)

Over 275 (so far) witnesses reported a large fireball over Alabama last night (9/9) around 8:25 PM local CDT (1:25 on 9/10 UT). The fireball was seen from primarily Alabama and Georgia, but witnesses from Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Carolina’s also reported seeing the fireball.

We are currently investigating dozen of reports about this event. We will update this page later today with more information.

Link to American Meteor Society; http://www.amsmeteors.org/articles/

Link to last nights Atlanta meteor; http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/09/fireball_seen_in_alabama_skies.html

4 big ones in the last 3 weeks

[oxcart]

This was from a police car cam in Canada...
MUST SEE: Meteor caught on police dashcam

http://kfor.com/2013/09/27/must-see-meteor-caught-on-police-dashcam/

[oxcart]

(((PING)))

[oxcart]

That video was from 09/21/13

[SubMareener]

God is warming up in the bull pen! Just wait until ahe takes the mound!

[4mybiz]

My husband, daughter, and I were sitting at the kitchen table talking. I was the only one facing our back deck door when the whole back yard lit up, and I said, “Whoa! Lightning.” Except I remembered the forecast for Friday night was for clear skies. About a half hour later the local news reported the meteor.

[Las Vegas Dave]

Ping list (Of possible interest).

[BushCountry]

[LibLieSlayer]

I saw one come across my property a few years ago... while standing on my back deck. It was large... about the size of an auto... moving fast and burning with flames. I could see the rocky part without a problem. I would guess it was about 1000 feet up. It was silent and moving very fast from South East to North West.

[IMR 4350]

I saw one almost exactly like that in 1987 or 88.

Same eerie green color.

You see everything as if you are looking at a black and white 3D picture.

Only thing missing was the music from the Twilight Zone.

[tomkat]

Re the dashcam :

Just for giggles, lets call it 500 miles from Columbus to 'Somewhere, Canada'.

That bottle rocket woulda made the trip in ~15.92920353982301 seconds, give or take a decimal.

dang, makes me miss bein' young and fast !

[Whenifhow]

Thanks for the ping. Good thing there were no power outages like Mexico experienced.

Huge Fireball Explosion Creates Power Outage in Yucatan, Mexico
http://strangesounds.org/2013/09/huge-fireball-explosion-creates-power-outage-in-yucatan-mexico.html

[lepton]

That thing was doing 0.6c? Wow!

[Whenifhow]

On this page, there is a video that shows the meteor from space.

Meteor Explodes Over Ohio, Kills Two 2013

http://www.adguk-blog.com/2013/09/meteor-explodes-over-ohio-kills-two-2013.html