Green fireball meteor

[tex_1224]

I was in Pensacola,FL and at 4:27 am in the early morning of Sunday Dec. 5 2005. I saw in the southern sky a huge, I mean Big, Meteor burning emerald green. It was coming down to what looked like to me, in the Gulf of Mexico, or south America somewhere. I saw it burning coming in slower than normal meteors I've seen, so it had to be big, because It looked like it made it to the ground. I also noticed that it seemed to decend not in a straight line, but like that more of a Nike swoosh, like on a curve.<br /><br />Does anyone know what types of meteorites cause an emerald green burn??? And did anyone else here of any satelites or anything falling in on Dec 5th???<br /><br />Barium chlorate burns green, but I'm not to sure about space rocks???<br /><br />It seemed very heavy and dense to re-enter and burn, stop burning and decend with a green glow in what looked like a curve.<br /><br />Anyone else see any green meteor fireballs in the sky south of the Florida panhandle???

 

[jmilsom]

I was just reading yesterday about Moldavite, a dark green fused glass gem found only in Czech Republic, which resulted from an historic meteorite impact - perhaps the meteor had the same composition.<br /><br />Info: Moldavite is a rare, glassy, translucent, dark green gemstone. Moldavite is a silica-based tektite, a mineral formed when a meteorite (a rock from space) struck the Earth's surface and melted and fused the surrounding rock. Moldavite is only found in Bohemia (the Czech Republic) in the Ries Crater in the Moldau River valley (which it was named for). Moldavite was discovered in the late 1800's; the meteorite from which it formed hit the Earth about 14.7 million years ago. Moldavite has a Mohs hardness of 5.5-6.6. Inclusions of gas bubbles and iron/nickel spherules are common. This natural glass has been used for jewelry, religious articles, and decorative objects since prehistoric times. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[ordinary_guy]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Does anyone know what types of meteorites cause an emerald green burn??? And did anyone else here of any satelites or anything falling in on Dec 5th??? <br /><br />Barium chlorate burns green, but I'm not to sure about space rocks??? <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />I know copper burns green – so I set out to see if that could be it. Problem: most meteors don't contain copper. Turns out most of the green color comes from gases in the atmosphere, in this case the green coming from ionized oxygen.<br /><br />I haven't heard about anything on the 5th, but here's a related tidbit that was in the Tampa Tribune from late this last September.<br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p><b>Suspected Meteor Lights Up Florida coast</b><br />From The Associated Press<br /><br />Published: Sep 30, 2005<br /><br />MIAMI - Experts believe a meteor was visible along a large section of the Florida skyline Thursday night, although NASA officials have not confirmed what the intensely bright, fast object exactly was.<br /><br />The glowing orb was spotted around 7 p.m.; some who saw it called county and state officials to ensure that it wasn't a crashing aircraft.<br /><br />``This one could've been from a baseball to a basketball- sized chunk of space rock that slammed into our Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed,'' Jack Horkheimer, director of the planetarium at the Miami Museum of Science, told The Miami Herald...<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />So, when it comes to seeing big burning stuff barreling through the sky, you're definitely not alone down there. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p style="font:normalnormalnormal12px/normalTimes;margin:0px"><strong>Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority.</strong></p> <p style="font:normalnormalnormal12px/normalTimes;margin:0px">-Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)</p> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

I've seen several meteors. There was this one I saw back in the 80's that had green, red and blue colors around it as it fell. It would flash and then disappear and then flash some more and it kept doing that for several seconds before it disappeared for good. It looked more like it was flying a spacecraft re-entry trajectory because it wasn't headed down. More like across the sky. And it was obviously breaking up as little pieces could be seen coming off of it.<br /><br />This sighting occured during a meteor shower (can't recall which one) so I saw several similar objects during that period of observation, but nothing nearly as big as that one. It was the most spectacular thing I've ever seen in all the time I've watched the sky. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>

 

[harmonicaman]

The material composition and speed of a meteoroid determine its color as it streaks across the sky: <br /><br /><b>Meteor (and fireball) Element Color Chart</b><br /><br />Sodium: Orange-yellow <br />Iron: Yellow <br />Magnesium: Blue-green<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <br />Calcium: Violet <br />Silicon: Red <br /><br /> <br />

 

[mlorrey]

Rocket engines use a lot of copper in them, because of its thermal conductivity, among other things. This object could have been an old booster finally burning in. I've seen such events with the green fire before.

 

[mikeemmert]

I've seen green meteors, but they moved really fast and straight. Also, it was kind of a chartreuse or yellowish green. That was neutral excited oxygen. With a meteor the size of a football producing a fireball the size of a football stadium, the composition of the meteor wouldn't make much of a difference.<br /><br />With the color, speed, and trajectory you describe, I would tend to go with mlorry's theory about a copper rocket part.

 

[atticus808]

did it look like this?<br />http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/meteor.html

 

[silylene old]

speaking of nice videos, There was a real nice meteor fireball video filmed in Australia last week. I saw it on TV, but never found it on the internet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[najab]

BBC Video link.

 

[mlorrey]

nice piece. hope they find some pieces of it, but not likely in that neck of the woods.

 

[guy1241]

i was driving on I-4 in Sanford fla. heading towards Orlando about 3am DEc.5,2005 when isaw a fireball about the size of a small moon trailing a red tail moving southwest. I thought it was going to hit in downtown Orlando. When it reached just above the treetops, it turned into a bright green ball and disappeared below the horizon. It looked like it hit somewhere in west-central florida. The next day i read about a meteorite that struck Austrailia about the size of a car. It was definitely the most spectacular thing i have ever seen, and i have yet to talk to anyone else who had also seen it.

 

[eburacum45]

As mikeemmert posted above (way back in 2005) the green colour in fireballs is caused by excited oxygen in the atmosphere, similar to the green colour seen in the aurora.