Hundreds Spot Fireballs In Colorado, Nearby States

pingpong writes "Hundreds of people in Colorado and 7 surrounding states have reported seeing "fireballs" in the night sky. They are described as being 10 to 15 times larger than a normal shooting star and bluish in color. Two people even claimed to see one land, but it has yet to be found. The Daily Camera is reporting it online here." Field reports invited.

Say what? [funny]

[djupedal]

"None of the fireballs appear to have anything in common with each other."

Other than:

• When they arrived
• Where they were seen
• Why they were in this vicinity
• Color
• Speed
• Size
• Origin
• Composition [Class III Fireball - Do not handle without proper training and protection. Consult your handbook.]

Reach for the sky, hombre!

Re:Say what? [funny]

[Malcontent]

What I found interesting was that there was no attempt made to try and explain this phenomena. All then talk about is how rare it is and how they are unrelated. You'd think a scientist would exhibit at least some curiosity about the subject.

Re:Maybe it's a new meteor shower!

[Murphy(c)]

"was in geosync orbit over that area "

Colorado isn't on the equator. Or even remotely near it.

ya, he meant LEO(low earth orbit) sats tho...they follow very elliptical orbits, and are not usually equatorial.

You have both missed the point. A satellite (or any thing else for that matter) that is in Geosyncronous orbit will never come back down. That's exactly the point of using GEO orbits, you're basically at the point where an object travling at the same angular speed than earth own rotation does not change in altitude.

If my memory serves me, it is around 36'000Km compared to LEO which is around 200-400Km (the space shuttle is presently [nasa.gov] at 222.6KM).

Murphy.

Re:It has to be...

[ObitMan]

There is no George W jr.
George H Bush is the Father
George W Bush is the son. you have to have the same full name to be a jr.
Appropiate slights on him are: Shrub and Dubya.
I'm sure there are others.
His alchoholic daughters are hot.
I'd poke 'em.

Re:Better story

[Rogerborg]

With an interesting point: "Around 7:15 p.m., law-enforcement dispatchers began receiving reports from most corners of the state"

Granted that these people probably had good intentions, but it does demonstrate how arrogant we are, assuming that anything so big and showy must be an event generated by or concerning humans. We cannot accept that the universe does plenty all by itself, and doesn't really care about whether we're watching or not.

Re:Say what? [funny]

[DustMagnet]

The article quotes:

"It's quite astounding that we've seen two in two nights," said John Bally, an astrophysics professor at CU. "Sporadic fireballs are quite rare. Unless we're in a meteor storm, it's very uncommon."

I guess the reporter figured that mentioning that it was the peak of Draconids [amsmeteors.org] would take some of the fun out of the story. The last paragraph left me thinking it was very uncommon, not that it was actually slightly unusual.

Re:Witness

[Gerry Gleason]

It's interesting how different people react to a story like this. Some have to find or at least suggest what it is, others assume it must be something way out of the ordinary. Always more of a map of your own mind than anything 'out there'.

You have to keep an open mind, or you are going to miss important phenomena. The brain/mind always tries to put perceptions into a category, and it is even hard to make accurate observations when you don't know what to expect, but expectation shape the observation. Just one of those strange loops that can't be eliminated completely.

Re:I saw a bunch one night, 40 years ago

[evilpenguin]

Okay, I know spelling/grammar flaming isn't right, and this isn't anything personal (I make flagrant errors due to fast typing an no proofreading myself), but I am really beginning to be bugged by people mixing up "site" and "sight." A "site" is a place, a location. A "sight" is something to see, something seen or worth seeing. So you have a web "site" and a "sight" to see. This is not to mention the word "cite," which is a verb meaning "to refer to" or "to quote."

Cite, site, sight.

Sorry about that. Phew. Now, on topic:

No LGMs? Any BEMs?