28 May 2013

Meteoroid Over Canberra

| Gungahlin_Bob
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Did anyone see the Meteoroid over Canberra last night (27th May) at about 11.30pm??

I was watching from Gungahlin towards Civic last night and it came in extremely fast and was clearly in the atmosphere, and burnt out with a very bright magnesium flash at the end. It literally only happened over a second. It was enough to startle me. From where I was looking it was only about 30-40 degrees above the horizon.

This was not like the normal streak across the sky (seen hundreds of them) that basically are touching the atmostphere, this was almost straight down with a small arc and if I was to take a guess it was literally only a few kilometres high above Civic….but recognise that distances are hard to gauge.

Anyone else see it or heard anything about it???

Gungahlin_Bob

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Conan of Cooma said :

I’ve been seeing more than often but that can be attributed to the usual annual activity. I saw a corker the other night that was bright green and burned for a good 3 seconds before lighting up the sky, and was much, much larger than your average incoming rock.

Was it probing the atmosphere?

Conan of Cooma7:28 pm 28 May 13

I’ve been seeing more than often but that can be attributed to the usual annual activity. I saw a corker the other night that was bright green and burned for a good 3 seconds before lighting up the sky, and was much, much larger than your average incoming rock.

mossrocket said :

My kids saw something near braidwood about a month ago – during the day!
They said they saw a streak of light across the sky that went behind cloud cover – they expected it to disappear then, but it lit up the cloud as it travelled through it.

It seems we have an invasion happening, and Bill Gates is here to greet our overlords as Earth’s representative.

Mossrocket, if it was during the day, around dusk/dawn, another possibility is it could have been an Iridium flare, they can be very bright.
See http://www.heavens-above.com/IridiumFlares.aspx?lat=-35.28333&lng=149.2167&loc=Canberra&alt=609&tz=AEST

Gungahlin_Bob5:07 pm 28 May 13

@Dub

Finally worked out your comments….

Now know who Gungahlin_Al is and that he is normally the one with the head in the night sky…

Regards

Bob

Gungahlin_Bob5:02 pm 28 May 13

@bigfeet,

The Internet is littered with various definitions, many conflicting….

However this seems to be similar to many other answers….

“The debris is called a meteoroid. A meteoroid is a piece of interplanetary matter that is smaller than a kilometer and frequently only millimeters in size. Most meteoroids that enter the Earth’s atmosphere are so small that they vaporize completely and never reach the planet’s surface.”

Regards

Bob

Meteoroid or Meteor?

I thought that once it collided with, or passed through the Earths atmosphere it ceased being a meteoroid and became a meteor?

Of course Mr Fitz, my grade five teacher, may have given me the completely wrong information all those years ago!

Gungahlin_Bob1:01 pm 28 May 13

@54-11
yes that sounds like you were looking at the same thing. It was spectacular….especially the brightness of it. I say it startled me as I was just relaxing before going to bed, with everything quiet, and this just appeared – no noise…have to admit it was close enough that I listened for a noise if it hit the ground.

I suppose its not beyond the possibility as it is Meteor season (increased amount around).

I checked the Meteor registration sites this morning and seems to have been a rash of sightings around the world last night at a similar time (+/- 1hr) – possibly meteor break up??

@Dub
I probably missed the “joke”….I assume that there is a Gungahlin_Al around??? or is he the resident foil hat wearer 😉

Regards

Bob

Yep, saw it as well. Was facing about South-west in the car and a very quick streak went over. Very quick but quite spectacular.

My kids saw something near braidwood about a month ago – during the day!
They said they saw a streak of light across the sky that went behind cloud cover – they expected it to disappear then, but it lit up the cloud as it travelled through it.

It seems we have an invasion happening, and Bill Gates is here to greet our overlords as Earth’s representative.

Gungahlin_Bob, you may want to log out and log back in as Gungahlin_Al, then explain. 🙂

Not last night but some years ago I observed a truly remarkable sight when driving down the Monaro Hwy around midnight the sky literally lit up a greenish colour for approx 5 seconds and I observed what I believe was a meteorite which apparently landed somewhere near Goulburn. That’s something you never forget 🙂

TheBusDriver9:33 am 28 May 13

Nope. I didn’t see that one. I did see one about 2 weeks ago as I was driving east past the new ASIO building along Moreshead Drive. It streaked south south east from the north, I thought it was a plane at first but it seemed too fast for a plane then it grew bright, seemed to flash white and then a dull red. There was no way to gauge the size of it, and it was compleatly soundless. This happened in the early evening so it was still a little light outside. I figure whatever it was, may have been pretty big to still be intact after its brightest impact.

Holden Caulfield9:14 am 28 May 13

I, for one, welcome our new meteoroid overlords.

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