Hundreds Spot Fireballs In Colorado, Nearby States 509
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.
Explanation needed (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Explanation needed (Score:3, Funny)
That guy? I reckon this guy [slashdot.org] owes us an explanation!
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
DO NOT LOOK AT THE PRETTY LIGHTS! (Score:5, Funny)
Keep salt water handy...it's your only defense! It melts them.
Re:DO NOT LOOK AT THE PRETTY LIGHTS! (Score:2, Funny)
Damn Fireballs.
Re:DO NOT LOOK AT THE PRETTY LIGHTS! (Score:2)
All we need now... (Score:3, Funny)
Arm those water guns!
Re:All we need now... (Score:4, Funny)
2. buy a 2x4 plank(piece of wood)
3. plot some nice forms on paper with harp
4. do some nightshift work at fields
5. ?????
6. go looting after mob breaks downtown after going into panic(==PROFIT).
(all the comments i saw for this very marked funny or trying to be one, i thought not to be different)
weatherballoons (Score:5, Funny)
Re:weatherballoons (Score:5, Funny)
I hate that weather-balloon that keeps ubducting Aunt Laura and poking her in the brain.
Re:weatherballoons (Score:4, Funny)
>Aunt Laura and poking her in the brain
Her brain?
Aren't they taking kind of the long way around to get to it?
-l
Re:weatherballoons (Score:5, Funny)
>Aunt Laura and poking her in the brain
Her brain?
Aren't they taking kind of the long way around to get to it?
Obviously, you don't know Aunt Laura.....
must be (Score:5, Funny)
Could it be? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Could it be? (Score:4, Interesting)
Here's an interesting thing to try--
Stick a couple of old forks in a pickle with the handles pointing away from each other. Split a power cord down the middle and attach some alligator clips to the cut off part. Attach the clips to the forks and put the plug in the wall. After a few seconds, you'll see the pickel glow yellow between where the forks are stuck in the pickle. It's pretty neat to watch.
Re:Could it be? (Score:5, Informative)
Along the same lines as the eletric pickle (but totally irrelevant to the rest of the topic), there's always the sparking grape trick [pmichaud.com].
-l
And in other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Here's an interesting thing to try-- Stick a couple of old forks in a pickle with the handles pointing away from each other. Split a power cord down the middle and attach some alligator clips to the cut off part. Attach the clips to the forks and put the plug in the wall. After a few seconds, you'll see the pickel glow yellow between where the forks are stuck in the pickle. It's pretty neat to watch.
Re:Could it be? (Score:4, Informative)
Better story (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Better story (Score:4, Interesting)
The weird thing is, I work with a guy that takes the bus every morning. He waits for the bus pretty early when the sun is just about to rise. He told me all about some super beautiful fireball he saw streaking across the sky about 2 weeks ago. I calmly explained that it was just a meteor but he kept insisting that it was different, he'd never seen one like this before. He went on and on about it, how it was a bright blue streak, etc. At the time, I wrote it off, but now it seems to be a phenomenon.
Guess there was relevance in his story after all. He'll love to hear about this story
Re:Better story (Score:3, Informative)
The AMS [amsmeteors.org] has a FAQ on the subject which includes brightness info. It also points out that nickel tends to produce the green color.
Also, there probably is a correlation between your bus-waiting guy and these other sightings. If you're in the northern hemisphere...there is more darkness right now than a few weeks ago. Easier to see meteors.
There was a time... (Score:2, Funny)
I'm going to go home and start filling up water glasses.
Witness (Score:5, Interesting)
I had the time to: understand (maybe) what it was, wake up my wife, stop the car, get out an look. Total time maybe 20 seconds. The 'object' was moving slowly, spewing green flames and eaving a long lasting orange trail behind. Trajectory was more or less horizontal. It disapeared in a flash. I tried to listen but there wasn't any noise besides the cooling car engine.
Re:Witness (Score:2)
Re:Witness (Score:5, Funny)
That's nothing bad. It's those icy fireballs you have to watch out for...
Re:Witness (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Witness (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's where the craziness comes in. The more we looked at the sky, the more people started to see more satellites. In all there were probably 8 we could watch moving, all in vector paths from the horizon to some point in the sky. That point ended up being nearly directly overhead from us.
Once the dark stars reached a central point, they formed a slowly rotating circle. None of us could believe what we were seeing and we were all scared shitless. None of us could look away either because it was so unreal.
After less than ten minutes, we saw clouds blowing in hard from the south. The wind probably hit 20mph in a matter of minutes and we decided it was probably a good idea to leave. The dark stars were still circling overhead when the clouds fully obscured our view of the sky.
We drove fast and hard all the way home and nobody said much of anything. We beat the storm home and it was fairly clear outside except for the clouds coming up from the south where we had been. I don't know if anyone else besides myself has told the story but I don't blame them if they haven't. It sounds like bullshit to anyone who hears it, and it still freaks me out to this day.
Re:Witness (Score:5, Funny)
We had found a mirror-flat lake in the country and we were stumbling around watching the shooting stars, when suddenly we appeared to be on an ancient spacecraft. I looked up and saw the stars reorganizing themselves into various patterns, the constellations drawing themselves out to create realistic images.
We continued this strange, and very cold, journey throughout the evening, until my socks turned into meat.
Very few people believe me when I tell this story. Until I mention the presence of some extremely potent LSD.
Re:Witness (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Poor sarge. (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, I'd be mad as hell if some whack journalist put my name in the same goddamn PARAGRAPH as that pun.
Say what? [funny] (Score:5, Insightful)
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] (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:2)
Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:2)
Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:4, Funny)
Being dealt a Royal Flush is rare, it is notable, it happens. Why, and why on *that* hand?
Because shit like that happens. By chance.
What were the odds of being dealt that last hand you got that wasn't a Royal Flush?
Ah! If you knew the anwer to that you'ld know a lot more about "coincidence" than you apparently do now.
By the way, why do you suppose they call it "astronomical" odds?
KFG
Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:5, Funny)
Do not taunt Happy Fireball
Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:4, Funny)
If I remember correctly....
Ingredients of Happy Fun Ball include an unknown glowing green substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
Seek shelter and cover head (Score:3, Funny)
Discontinue use of Happy Fun Ball if any of the following occurs:
- Itching
- Vertigo
- Dizziness
- Tingling in extremities
- Loss of balance or coordination
- Slurred speech
- Temporary blindness
- Profuse sweating
- Heart palpitations
If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head. Happy Fun Ball may stick to certain types of skin.Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:3, Interesting)
They are just larger meteors.. I have seen about 6 in my lifetime like this... but then I spend lots of time looking at the sky at night (3-4 nights a week in the hottub for 30-45 minutes staring at the open night sky)
the interesting thing is their approach direction is wrong.. for the time of the night it should have been from the west and more vertical as the planet was travelling in the direction at that time.. this one reentered as if it had been orbiting the planet from an odd direction (from the north) and was very flat(travelled across the sky with no visible angle toward the ground)
I highly doubt that these are special at all.. Meteorites happen... get over it people.
Grooann... Another &#^@! MSDS to find! (Score:3, Funny)
Oh no! Fireballs have HMIS information?! I already have to find the rest of those 10 000 Material Safety Data Sheets for work; where oh where am I going to find contact information for "Fireball Manufacturers"?
As if my job weren't tough enough...
Interrobang, Conscript MSDS Updater
Re:Say what? [funny] (Score:4, Insightful)
"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.
Here is my first hand report. (Score:5, Funny)
"LUNCH, NOT LAUNCH!" I yelled as he absent-mindedly pushed the button that freed the living quarters from the rest of the station.
Ok. I'm looking out the window. Hey! I see clouds! Cool. That looks like mountains over there... I wonder if 3pojjaet8rj['[545$YW#$#..
sw245ll.///
./#%.
Ok. I seem to have crashed. I can't move my legs. Could someone please get me an asprin? I'll try to walk. Oh God! The pain... it's excruciating! Ow. I think my leg just snapped. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Maybe it's a new meteor shower! (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, so why can't we be in a meteor storm? They find new comets and asteroids all the time, why can't there have been one that passed through the orbit of the earth that we missed? Anyway, I think it's probably just a satellite that was in geosync orbit over that area that came apart over a few days. That would explain why the fireballs have been fairly localized, and the unusual colors come from the variety of unique metals in most space objects we build. I imagine based ont he color descriptions of the flames they'd be able to at least take an educated guess on what compounds were combusing. Let's all just hope that whatever came down didn't bring any radioactive material with it.
More likely it's an old one (Score:4, Informative)
"This stream
activity, with occasional fireballs thrown in. The duration of activity
stretches from September 20 to November 2, while the maximum occurs
during the first week of October..."
Re:Maybe it's a new meteor shower! (Score:3, Insightful)
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:Maybe it's a new meteor shower! (Score:4, Interesting)
We can't because we aren't. A meteor storm is explicitly defined [thursdaysclassroom.com] as a period during which at least 1000 meteors per hour are observed. These events are extremely rare. The Leonids just barely exceeded that in 2001 [space.com], and in 1966 they topped 100,000 per hour over the US. Here's a decent history of the Leonids [leonids.org].
Meteor showers are common, occurring 10-14 times per year. Meteor storms are quite uncommon, occurring maybe three or four times per century.
Re:Maybe it's a new meteor shower! (Score:2)
New Zealand as well... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:And the UK... (Score:5, Informative)
Story on the BBC News site [bbc.co.uk]
I saw a bunch one night, 40 years ago (Score:5, Interesting)
As the drive continued, we saw about 6 more fireballs, all red, all running east to west, through the rest of the evening.
Quite a show. The clear and thin high altitude air of the rockies, along with the lack of city lights, makes these sitings a lot more common in those areas.
We didn't see any LGM, however.
Re:I saw a bunch one night, 40 years ago (Score:3, Insightful)
Cite, site, sight.
Sorry about that. Phew. Now, on topic:
No LGMs? Any BEMs?
Planet X (Score:3, Interesting)
There are many people that believe in the year 2003, another planet is going to enter our solar system from either outside the solar system or another dimension. It's known either as Planet X, or a name that starts with N, which escapes me at the moment... I do find it an interesting coincidence that a story was just posted about the discovery of a new planet, and now to hear of these bizarre fireballs. I'm sure they're having a field day with this on the Art Bell show tonight. I'm a skeptic on all things "extraterrestrial" and paranormal, but it's still really interesting to listen to. :)
Nibiru (Score:5, Interesting)
is the planet's name, for anyone who wants to do a Google search or look on Art's site about it. I should also mention that they expect highly evolved alien races to accompany this giant planet/spaceship. :)
Re:Nibiru (Score:2)
Uncle Owwweeeeeeeeeeen
Re:Nibiru (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a pity you didn't see any when you were in Egypt. You appear to have missed out on a significant core element of Egyptian iconography.
Re:Planet X (Score:4, Interesting)
The evidence for this is the periodic drops in biodiversity (i.e. mass extinctions) that seem to occur every 26 million years (according to some paleontolists). However, we are between extinctions, and should be relatively trouble free for more than 10 million years.
From other posts in the vicinity it looks like Nemesis wasn't what you were talking about, but I guess it's in the same category. Personally, I think we would know if there was another star--even a small dark one--that close to us.
(Source: Michio Kaku, _Hyperspace_, pp. 296-298. Recommended for people like me who can't get past first-year university but like scientific things anyhow.)
It's Not Like They Didn't Warn Us (Score:2, Funny)
Re:It's Not Like They Didn't Warn Us (Score:3, Funny)
Burning, itchy... (Score:3, Funny)
The only difference... (Score:2, Interesting)
These big, slow green fireballs happen from time to time. The only difference this time is that there were two different consecutive fireballs in two days. Its probably two chunks of the same rock...
Just like shoemaker-levy did when it smashed an earth sized crater in Jupiter. No worries.
Robin Williams? (Score:4, Funny)
I note that the reports are of the fireballs landing near Boulder. Does this mean that Mork from Ork has arrived?
Nanoo Nanoo!
[For those young whippersnappers who don't watch TV land, the popular TV show Mork and Mindy, starring Robin Williams, was set in Boulder]
Slashdot Readers Report Rise In One-Liners (Score:5, Funny)
"usually we'll see a few, maybe even a bunch, of one-liners for certain stories we've posted," said CmdrTaco, languishing in a drunken hallucinagenic stupor on the steps of his villa in the south of france. "but christ, its like henny youngman possessed the populace on a scale rivaling that of
"certainly one-liners are a common, almost obligatory, form of logical reponse," said one reader, "but this many makes me want to get in a white van and shoot people at random. do these people think they're funny? its really just in bad taste."
one-liner watchers are unconcerned however. "we've seen this before - like the article about the giant Bart Simpson doll copulating with a penguin - and no substantial harm was done on the long term." some, however, are still reliving the nightmare.
with no end in sight to this barrage, Micro$oft engineers have released a worm to tack on at least 3 sentences promoting WindowsS.Ux, Ballmer Edition to each post to space out the green bars just a little further.
Re:Slashdot Readers Report Rise In One-Liners (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh gawd, i can't wait 'till the onion gets a field day out of those stories.
So, who's covering this story? (Score:2, Funny)
Jay (=
The logical explanation (Score:5, Funny)
All those who say otherwise are cynical naysayers.
By the time they are convinced it could well be too late. The time for action is now.
I for one support the military action that George W. Bush is planning for these alien enemies of state. So grab a gun and head for Colorado! Time is a-wasting.
triffid references??? (Score:2, Interesting)
what's wrong with you people!
maybe there's just nothing funny about plants that eat people...
Re:triffid references??? (Score:2)
Great, now I have to go stock up on triffid guns and toilet paper.
Picture of the Fireballs (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.cloudbait.com/science/fireballs.html [cloudbait.com]
Quite a bit of extra information is on this site as well.
Goodness gracious ... (Score:4, Funny)
What a concept! It simply shakes my nerves and it rattles my brains.
This seems to be some cloud (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, if I don't miss things it looks like that there is one more account about a similar phenomena out of the USA. Unfortunately I don't remember the place.
So, it seems that we are inside some fresh new cloud of cosmical debris. The events we see are probably the result of Earth crossing the trajectory of Kuiper belt newcomer. Usually, when this happens, we get some spectacular phenomena on the skies, usually presented as meteorite showers. However this fireball show is surely less usual to see. The fact that this lasts for a few days is probably the result that the newcomer crumbled to pieces while approaching the Sun.
Explaination... (Score:4, Funny)
Wargames [imdb.com] + LSD [erowid.org] = Science: Hundreds Spot Fireballs In Colorado, Nearby States [slashdot.org]
daily camera (Score:2)
There were a bunch of these in the UK this week (Score:3, Informative)
uh, (Score:2)
Different directions? (Score:5, Interesting)
If the article is correct, one or both of the fireballs must have been something else, such as a sattelite reentering the atmosphere, despite all the quotes from experts saying that they were meteorites...
Re:Different directions? (Score:5, Informative)
It's similar to bugs heading towards your windscreen - they all appear to originate from one point (ahead on the highway) but as they get closer they radiate out and hit different parts of the windscreen from your perspective.
I presume that at this time the radiant was close to 90 degrees overhead - then they would appear to be heading in different directions.
Somebody Call Art Bell! (Score:2, Funny)
No doubt this is the beginning of the end for Colorado as the ALiens are probably kidnaping thousands of people and implanting them with mind control computers that will turn them into mindless Microsoft users. Who Cares.
I actually think I saw one of these (Score:3, Interesting)
It wasn't one of the most recent fireballs, but the one on September 6th [cloudbait.com].
It was probably around 8 at night and I was walking back to my dorm room (Univ of Colorado at Colorado Springs [uccs.edu]) from work. I was almost back to the campus when I saw a bright but small fireball in the northeast sky. Mostly white with a bluish tinge it moved pretty slowly (for a metor/shooting star) across the sky, parallel to the ground, and leaving behind little particles that glowed briefly before fading away. After about 30 seconds, the fireball itself faded away.
Since there was a plane in the sky near where I saw it first, I thought it was a firework or something shot from the plane. Maybe the military testing something (who doesn't like a good mystery?). For some reason, a metor never occured to me.
I've always wanted to see one of these, cool.
Astronomy courses, and other WEB PAGES (Score:3, Interesting)
No Photos? (Score:5, Funny)
Anyway, for those of you jealous of Colorado residents, take out your geeked out keychain and stare into the bright blue light. Now step outside and look at the sky. Yeah... it was a lot like that...
And don't worry, they should go away in a few hours.
aTek
The famous honorable "another witness". (Score:3, Funny)
Wasn't that the guy who asked Kevin Kostner to call him "Mr. X" in the JFK movie?
From what I understand this is the same guy that also saw that indestructable "tin-foil" laying around in Maricopa by Roswell after that big bang one night. And he once had a Job on Area 51 and had this bumb-in with a small greyish green bug-eyed humanoid in a silver spandex jumpsuit.
I know that guy. He's absolutely trustworthy.
Really.
On the scene (Score:3, Funny)
I'm here at the crash scene... there is a glow and a deep hum and a glow coming from the crater... a door is opening... oh my god... they're coming towards me... this is the most incredible thing i've ever trererewwerw
Re:UFO's? (Score:5, Funny)
So you are that goatse guy. Quit promoting your site here!
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:3, Interesting)
True true, but as a previous resident of Colorado I can tell you that these names are at least 120 years old. They were so-named during the frontier era when the only thing that kept you alive was your gun. Mountain men relied on thier weapon for food and for protection. That's just the way it was in the West during the 1800s, and that's why they named stuff the way they did.
It just makes a canajen boy shake his head and celebrate the difference.
Maybe you should study your countries' history a bit more.
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:4, Funny)
You got a
I live in Texas and I never shot anything but a BB gun until I was 12.
How can you even make a comment about Americans and guns? =P
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2, Offtopic)
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
Having had guns pointed at me by cops I can tell you that it gets your attention real quick. Not pointing the gun at someone until you actually intend to put a bullet in them overlooks the secondary purpose of guns, which is to make the blood run like icewater in your veins.
Incidentally all I was guilty of was speeding (10 mph over) and not pulling over when they put the lights on me (my back window was iced over and there are lots of streetlights on mission street in santa cruz.) The minute they bleeped the siren I pulled over, and I rolled down my window to find two guns pointed at my head. Scary as fuck.
Also, your bit about foreign policy is just trolling. Fish elsewhere.
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
heh. word up ;] my crenshaw homies r on it.
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
Yeah. all those canadians. they're out to warp our fragile little miiiiinds. [tele2.ee]
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:4, Funny)
To stay on topic, however, these "fireballs" are causing the most brilliant members of the Denver area to make their opinions known. Several people, went interviewed on 9 News, were convinced that an airplane had flown into a building...
Riiighht.
Re:It's all so damn 'Merican (Score:2)
Re:The explanation (Score:2)
Not to be confused with the local Szechuan restaurant's seafood special, FIERY FISHBALLS!
Re:Meteor Showers (Score:2, Interesting)
Being in Colorado, if on the chance it was our government playing with a new toy, I wouldn't be surprised. IIRC, Nevada, offshore California and the Rocky Mountains and parts of Colorado are prime testing areas.
There are some pretty crazy ideas out there for propulsion, however I know of none that would create anything this big in such a shape (tail only 2-3x longer than width one person stated in the Denver Post article). This also doesn't explain descriptions of "chunks falling off" of the fireball.
I have yet to see "Signs." I suppose in this case that's a good thing. =)
Re:probability (Score:3, Funny)
Re:field report? (Score:2)
Re:INVASION DAY (Score:5, Funny)