Posted on 03/11/2015 9:09:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
So it's true: The early bird gets the fireballs.
Coloradans who were up before the sun on Wednesday morning saw a "bright green" fireball soar across the sky before it burned out over the mountains.
More than 60 eyewitnesses filed sightings on the American Meteor Society's website.
Greg Moore, an analyst and contributor at Weather5280, told Mashable he was driving over the top of Vail pass, west of Denver, just before 6 a.m. local time when "a bright green fireball caught my eye."
The object had a "flaming tail with a long trail behind it," Moore said. "As it moved towards the far horizon it started to flame out, but even after the tail was gone a bright orange ball was still visible till it disappeared beyond the far mountain range."
"It was pretty incredible," he said.
Snapchat user Joel Jimenez sent Mashable video he caught from a Home Depot parking lot in Fort Collins.
Brian Paulson, a software engineer, caught the fireball on his car's dash cam while driving about 15 miles north of Pueblo, Colorado. A second man caught it on his dash cam from Denver.
Colorado resident Nate Hershey told Mashable he was getting his kids dressed on Wednesday morning and happened to look out the window when the object was streaking across the sky.
"The head was bright white, and it had a deep orange tail with what looked like sparks falling behind, moving very slowly for a meteor," he said.
"I had time to put my 1 year old down, grab my four year old, climb onto my bed and hold him up to the window for a few seconds before it faded," Hershey said. "At the end, the tail appeared to be an eerie green with a slight blue tint as it disappeared."
"I've seen a lot of meteors in my day but this must have been the most spectacular, lasting for what seemed like around 10 seconds," he said.
The fireball, which could have been a meteor, satellite debris or a warning shot from an alien warship, was first reported on Twitter.
Saw the craziest meteor I've ever seen over Denver this morning at 6:00 AM. Must have been visible for at least 8-10 seconds! #fireballs
Nate Hershey (@nate_hershey) March 11, 2015
Huge meteor just streaked east to west over Castlerock Colorado. It burnt bright green and faded over the mountains. #meteor
Francis Eggelton (@nudge4ward) March 11, 2015
Huge fireball north to south west of vail pass this morning. Bright green flaming tail. Across full sky. #fireball #meteor #cowx
Greg Moore (@GMoore34) March 11, 2015
Others reported seeing the fireball on 9News's Facebook page.
LOL!
"Half a city block explodes in a ball of green flame. Green flame! All hell is breaking loose here."
I’ve got this really cool app on my iPhone, SkyView.
Basically, it displays all the objects in the sky wherever you point the screen.
You should see all the “rocket bodies” floating around the south pole. Reminds me of all the sticks & debris that gathers around a storm drain.
Space junk is more apt to be going west to east.
There’s always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!
Craig Breedlove...
Sounds great, thanks for pointing it out!
I don’t rust the Russians or the Chinese.
They probably launch backwards just to be a-holes................
Ten years or so ago, I was walking out to the truck to go to work at about 0530. As I got to the door, everything lit up with a greenish light. I turned around and saw the largest fireball I have ever seen traveling eastward about 10* above the horizon.
The fireball extinguished before it hit the ground.
No aliens or anal probes involved. (^;
He’s STILL KICKING!...............
Oh, it gets better - when you let it “focus” on an object, it will trace its orbit or track through the sky as the earth turns and give you “set” times, etc.
It displays constellations with their drawings if you want.
Can’t think of all the stuff, but it’s neat.
That you can remember................
I read the next day that it landed in North Carolina.
“It was either an old satellite or Hillary’s E-mail server..................”
LOL. Well, Hillary said her email was in the cloud.
Dave’s not here.
Taco night at the School of Mines in Golden
Or a stoned dash cam....
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