Midwest Meteor, 4/13/10

[doublehelix]

Just was alerted to this by - of all places - Mashable, the social media site! A meteor/fireball was spotted last night in the upper midwest.

http://mashable.com/2010/04/15/meteor-i ... n-twitter/

Meteor in Wisconsin: Images and Video Hit Twitter

Last night, several folks in Wisconsin, Minnesota and various midwestern states got a free light show in the form of a large fireball — probably caused by a meteor. Consequently, news sites took to Twitter, asking residents for their pics of the natural phenomenon.

Here's a video of the event that they posted, too:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCP5hwOXtMk[/youtube]

here's an animated gif (click to see it animate):



MeteorWayne, do you know any more about this? Is it actually a meteor or something else?

-dh

 

[MasterComposter]

Fireball!

Anyone in the Midwest see The Fireball?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/15/midw ... tml?hpt=T2

 

[menellom]

It was definitely a meteor, it was apparently seen across most of the midwest last night, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois.

... and I missed it cause I had work! Grrrrr!

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

Re: Fireball!

Hers's a video captured by the dash cam of a local Iowa PD car ... (last 10 secs is the good part)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCP5hwOXtMk[/youtube]

and a gif of some time lapse photo's by U of Winconsin ....
(takes too long to load to embed)

http://www.aos.wisc.edu/fireball/2010_0 ... 8_long.gif

 

[silylene]

It was definitely a meteor, it was apparently seen across most of the midwest last night, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois.

... and I missed it cause I had work! Grrrrr!

There is a possibility it was a re-entering satellite or rocket stage. I'd like to see more proof it was a meteor.

 

[CalliArcale]

Re: Fireball!

I wish I'd seen it! It was all over the news this morning. Looked pretty cool.

 

[doublehelix]

Just a note - I merged the two threads on the same topic into one thread and chose SS&A for its home.

-dh

 

[MeteorWayne]

There also was one across the midwest on April 9th, with many reports to the AMS.

This is a period very close to when 3 meteorite (not meteor) showers have occurred. Some of the first meteorites that ever had their orbits measured, and seem to be part of the same stream of large objects have occurred in early April. Peter Jenniskens has called this stream the April alpha Comae Berecinids (International Astronomical Union shower #272)

The recovered meteorites are:

Pribram
Neuschwanstein
Glanerbrug

MW

 

[menellom]

Oh god you guys are gonna love this.

Apparently the doppler radar station in Dubuque, IA (my hometown) actually CAUGHT it!

I can just imagine the poor guy stuck monitoring the thing, bored out of their mind staring at clear skies when suddenly THAT pops up out of nowhere. :lol:

 

[MeteorWayne]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/w ... 00417.html

A small chunk of rock believed to be a fragment from a meteor that burst into a stunning fireball over Wisconsin Wednesday night was discovered by a farmer after it fell on the roof of his shed.

The meteor fragment is peppered with gray, white and reddish minerals, though one side is covered in what scientists called a "fusion crust" – a layer of dark material forged during the meteor's fiery passage into Earth's atmosphere. It weighs just 0.2 ounces (7.5 grams) and is about 2 inches (5 cm) long and less than an inch wide.

(Picture with the article)

Researchers are convinced more fragments exist based on the first sample's "fusion crust," which is only on one side of the rock.

"If the meteorite had broken up high in the atmosphere it would have developed a fusion crust that completely covered the exterior," explained geosciences professor John Valley also of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "This doesn't have that, so it broke up low enough that I'd have to say more of it hit the ground."

 

[doublehelix]

An update on this Wisconsin meteorite fragment:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/w ... 00506.html

The largest chuck of a meteorite that exploded over Wisconsin has been recovered by intrepid space rock hunters. But the remnant, which broke into three pieces, is still small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.

Marvin Killgore, the curator of meteorites for the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, and his wife, Kitty, arrived in Mineral Point, Wisc. just days after the April 14 fireball sighting, and now have a 10.6-ounce (300-gram) chunk of space rock that may be the largest piece of the meteorite found so far.

On April 14, people in southwestern Wisconsin and northern Iowa bore witness to a sonic boom and fireball that briefly lit up the late evening sky. The object, an ancient rock from space, entered the Earth's atmosphere as a ball of flames after a 4.5 billion year journey through the solar system.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Thanx, dh. I've been too busy to check this week. :!: