It was very, very bright, IMHO too bright for meteor. I have not heard any reports that it was a meteor?
Bump...
Large Meteorites have been known to "detonate" in the atmosphere without ever impacting the surface.
That huge area of Siberia that was levelled back in the early 1900s was attributed recently to a large meteor detonation. I don't think that they ever found craters or where anything actually hit the ground.
Fortunately it was all over uninhabited wilderness and no one got hurt by it.
They say that these detonations can be equivalent to a multi - megaton nuclear device, and a big one over an inhabited area could be big trouble for inhabitants.
There was a metorite detonation over the middle East back during the Gulf War, apparently, and for a while there the military thought that some one had popped a nuke in the area. I guess there were a lot of severely puckered sphincters for a while there untill they got it sorted out as an act of God, rather than an act of Allah.
It sounds as if whatever this was happened over Western Canada someplace. Do we have any reports from up thattaway?
For that matter, have we heard ANYTHING from Western Canada this Morning??!! Hello!: Anyone still alive up there??!!
Things like this occur more often than most people probably think, its just that it is pretty rare when it happens close to a developed, densely populated area that gets media exposure.
A meteor entering the earth's atmosphere can be a spectacular sight, unlike the pinpoint streaks that you see from far-off meteor showers.
Um.....there have been numerous reports that it was a meteor.
In fact, the Naval Observatory says it is.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/247-06032004-310845.html