Posted on 12/07/2008 8:02:17 AM PST by ETL
COLORADO SUPERBOLIDE: Last night, Dec. 6th at 1:06 a.m. MST, a meteor of stunning brightness lit up the skies of Colorado. Astronomer Chris Peterson photographed the event using a dedicated all-sky meteor camera in the town of Guffey, near Colorado Springs:
"In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I've ever recorded," says Peterson. "I estimate the terminal explosion at magnitude -18, more than 100 times brighter than a full Moon."
Fireballs this bright belong to a rare category of meteors called superbolides. They are caused by small asteroids measuring a few to 10 meters in diameter and massing hundreds of metric tons. Superbolides trigger seismic detectors on the ground, produce waves of infrasound that can travel thousands of miles, and they are tracked by military satellites scanning Earth for nuclear explosions. Recent examples include the El Paso fireball of 1997 and the Slovenian Superbolide of 2007.
Last night's fireball is on the low end of the superbolide scale. Nevertheless, it was still a beauty and likely peppered the ground with meteorites when it exploded. Sighting reports are welcomed; they could help guide the tracking and recovery of debris.
LISTEN! 250 miles south of the fireball, radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico photographed the flash and recorded radio echoes from the superbolide's ion trail. Click here to listen [see link below].
Spaceweather.com for Sunday, December 7, 2008:
http://spaceweather.com/
The Leonids were back in mid-November. The Geminids *might* be just starting now. In any case, they may be waiting for more info before they try to guess which, if any, annual meteor event this fireball may have been part of.
"The Geminids are a meteor shower caused by an object named 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be an extinct comet. The meteors from this shower can be seen in mid-December and usually peak around 12-14 of the month. The Geminid shower is thought to be intensifying every year and recent showers have seen 120-160 meteors per hour under optimal conditions."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminids
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Also see:
Stunning fireball over Cloudbait on the morning of December 6!
At 1:06 AM MST a huge fireball exploded over central Colorado, near Colorado Springs. I estimate its brightness at magnitude -18, about 100 times brighter than the full Moon. You can see this remarkable event here,. Stay tuned for more details as I investigate this huge fireball. If you saw it, please file a witness report.
A bright fireball was witnessed from Colorado and the surrounding states at about 8:43 PM MST on December 4:
Weather conditions prevented the meteor from being caught on any cameras, but the large number of witness reports make it possible to estimate the flight path over southeast Colorado. Read my report, and if you saw this fireball please file a witness report.
The annual Leonid meteor shower peaked on the morning of November 17:
Although there was a bright Moon interfering, the Cloudbait camera captured 141 meteors over four nights. See my 2008 Leonids page for details.
There was a bright fireball over central Colorado at 7:29 pm MDT, October 28:
It was recorded by several allsky cameras. I have received hundreds of witness reports from all over Colorado. Images and videos are available here. If you saw this fireball, please report it so your information gets included in the analysis.
I saw a real green ripper years ago on a boat dock over near Tampa. We were all looking out over the bay just after dusk, and a mostly green meteor appearing as big as a pea held at arm’s distance just tore across the sky, showering off red and silver spark trails. Unforgettable. It made the news.
Sometimes on ocean voyages, meteor showers provide a nice night’s entertainment for the watch. Big ones coming down every other minute, but never as big as that one green ripper in Tampa.
Somebody’s shooting at us.
Yeah, DC, take one for the Gipper!
“Starship Troopers” comes to mind.
Coincidence? I don't think so.......There's definitely something going on here. (now where did I put that tinfoil...)
Extra careful, I guess.
I live in Cripple Creek, about 20 miles from Guffey.
I slept right through it but one of my employees was up and he said it was the damnedest thing he ever saw.
It would truly be divine intervention if it happened.
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:whispers:
(Was it as good for you as it was for me?)
Rickroll anyone? sorry I couldn’t help it.
/mark
Yours had about a minute of unrelated video preceding the meteor explosion. I found the link on the same page as the video you linked to.
"It's bad enough when a blindingly beautiful meteor shower causes 99 percent of the world's population to lose its eyesight. But things only get worse when a crop of walking, flesh-eating plants begin preying on a sightless planet. Can a sighted sailor and an alcoholic scientist save the human race from becoming mere plant food? Steve Sekely directs this classic sci-fi picture based on the novel by John Wyndham."
[IMG]
What’s that up in the sky? It’s Super Bolide!
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