Big meteor flashing by

[rthorvald]

Tonight, i saw something very impressive, and strange:
I happened to look out the window of my living room, which has a great view of central Oslo. It was about an hour before midnight.

Suddenly a huge, glowing ball flashed by, and passed the entire city in an instant: it had a distinct greenish tint, and looked sort of like what you would see if you gave a sphere a BIG, green atmosphere in Celestia. It came down on a sharp angle from the northeast toward southwest, and was visible for just a few seconds.

It was _much_ bigger than a plane, which was easy to tell since it crossed the in-flight path to our airport: planes pass the area constantly, and looks like small dots in comparison.

I jumped out of my chair and rushed to the window, but it was gone. Probably went down in the fjord. There was no sound.

It must have been a meteor, but i don??t understand the green color. Optical illusion, perhaps?

The web newspapers are just now starting to report it - from other cities to the south, so it must have been very high up. Maybe someone managed to photograph it, let??s see tomorrow...

- rthorvald

[ElChristou]

Bah... this is well known, green = alien...

[Cham]

Runar, I think you were sleeping on your chair, and saw your own avatar in a dream.

[Dollan]

I've seen several green meteors before... here's a link with an actual image : http://tomsastroblog.com/?p=938

I've not seen any that were exceptionally bright, however.

...John...

[Colin_hutcheson]

Congratulations you have just seen a fire ball! i've only seen one which was in Canada 2001 for the Perseids'. The one I saw left a purpleish streak and a trail for a couple of minutes.

Thinking about it, the greenish trail you saw could be caused by Nitrogen atoms being excited (ionised) by the engery of the rock. If it were red then it woudl probably oxygen atoms being ionised. Hope that is useful.

Colin

[rthorvald]

Congratulations you have just seen a fire ball!
Thinking about it, the greenish trail you saw could be caused by Nitrogen atoms being excited (ionised)

Yes, thank you!

Or, Cham, it was my avatar on fire...

- rthorvald

[Chuft-Captain]

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one, but still they come..."

[Adirondack]

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one, but still they come..."

Yes, that's exactly what I thought too ...

Runar,
you have seen what is described in this addon. Do you rember?

More information...


Adirondack

[rthorvald]

[you have seen what is described in this addon. Do you rember?

Aha. Of course!

Seriously, reports say it went down in mid-Sweden, which is about 300 kilometres to the east. But i saw it coming down at a very steep angle, travelling southwest. So it must have been big, much farther away than i thought - and heading towards me.

- rthorvald

[Chuft-Captain]

...and heading towards me.

Runar,

Do you have a target painted on your forehead? (I seem to remember a similar incident involving a mountainside near you about a year ago...?)

[LordFerret]

I'd once seen a meteor appear to come straight down (facing north), no angle or so it seemed, leaving a brief faint vapor trail. Two years ago I'd seen a brief glimpse of one to the east, it was nothing more than a very quick bright flash seen from the corner of my eye... but I also heard (or thought I'd heard) a faint hiss - much like a bottle-rocket firecracker without the boom. I've searched the web on this subject and find I'm not alone, there are others who've 'heard' them as well.

[julesstoop]

I hope you heard the hiss a few minutes later than the visual effect or else we eould have to rewrite the laws of physics
In other words, I suppose it's a synesthetic suggestion.

[LordFerret]

Not minutes, but within under a minute, which suggests it was within a few mere miles from me. I would have thought there to be a sonic-boom especially considering the speed involved. The 'hiss' was very deep in tone if that accounts for anything, rolling briefly much like thunder.


*edit*
It's ok, when I first heard it I thought I was going nuts too.

Some relevant links...

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26nov_1.htm
http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/leonids/2001/sounds.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/generalscience/iridium_sound_000328.html

[julesstoop]

Then it was pretty close indeed!

I didn't want to seem condescending though.
Many people do think they hear something at the moment of the visual occurance though. This can probably be attributed to some degree of (synesthetic) shortwiring in the brain.

[LordFerret]

Many people do think they hear something at the moment of the visual occurance though. This can probably be attributed to some degree of (synesthetic) shortwiring in the brain.

I thought the same too until I'd read the information about meteors generating VLF radio signals...

Of course, human ears can't directly sense radio signals. If Keay is right, something on the ground -- a "transducer" -- must be converting radio waves into sound waves. In laboratory tests, Keay finds that suitable transducers are surprisingly common. Simple materials like aluminum foil, thin wires, pine needles -- even dry or frizzy hair -- can intercept and respond to a VLF field.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26nov_1.htm

...and where I live, the area is known as the Pine Barrens. I'm surrounded by pine forest.

[rthorvald]

Do you have a target painted on your forehead? (I seem to remember a similar incident involving a mountainside near you about a year ago...?)

I remember... But that one i did not see personally... It just made the news because it destroyed a small mountainside in nothern Norway - sort of our own mini-Tunguska

- rthorvald

[Enkrone]

This isn't directly related to the topic, but a couple weeks ago a similar meteorite went down somewhere in Finland, and some people reported that it had a slight green tint to it.

There is a 14-second long video about it on YouTube, try searching for "finnish meteorite" or just click this link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=krS9d-30XDo .

[WOWspaceISbig]

This is pretty irrelevant, too, but didn't The War of the Worlds begin with green "meteors?"