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Ask HN: Fireball in the sky
On Friday evening (11/21) I was walking home (in NJ) at around 8 PM and I saw a fireball streak across the sky. It's hard to describe the size of the ball but let's say it looked to be about the size of an airplane, but moved very quickly and left a yellow streak in its path. It was a pretty spectacular once in a lifetime type of sight...but it left me scratching my head and asking myself what the hell was that?
I searched for a news story about what happened Saturday evening and this is the closest thing I found (an incident from a different day, same week): http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=9390870&nav=LpDZ
And here is a YouTue video about the meteor from the above story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_2aX-784sw
The fireball I saw was about a fifth of the diameter, much less bright, and its trajectory was much more horizontal- it looked like it wouldn't hit the earth for a while if it kept on its path.
My best guess after a little research on the web is that I saw part of the Leonid meteor shower.
Anyone else see anything similar in the past 7 or so days?
- ram1024 18y agoi see dead people
- gojomo 18y agoDidn't see your fireball, but your description sounds a lot like the streak of the space shuttle in its reentry before landing that I saw a few times from Texas in the 1990s -- went from horizon to horizon rather quickly, like a glowing jet contrail in the night sky.
- robg 18y agoI'd bet heavily that it was a meteor of some kind. The different compositions will produce different colors and they can enter the atmosphere at many different angles. But there may not have been a report because you may have been the only one to see it! They happen so quickly and you have to be looking up at just the right moment. I once saw one (fiery streak then short burst of flaming goodness) sitting on the Hudson shore in Hoboken looking across at the NYC skyline. I'll never forget that, especially with revelers nearby jamming to Latin music.
- h34t 18y agoI saw something just like this from Orlando, Florida (I live in Alberta but was there for a trade show) on Tuesday, the same day as the police cam. The one I saw didn't make as huge a flash at the end, but it was still the most incredible thing I've ever seen in the sky. I was with a friend (who didn't see it) and told him that I just saw something that absolutely had to be fireworks (even though it was going horizontal and not like any other fireworks I'd ever seen) because it was so bright and amazing, and we weren't far from Disney World. But turns out it was a meteor...
- kwamenum86 18y agoYes, that reminds me a lot of what I saw. Something like fireworks but horizontal and a single large (relative to fireworks) streak.
- daftdani 18y agoI've seen these things in the sky over Stockport about 6 times now, they're never falling, always travelling as a plane would. On new years eve four of us saw one going along as usual but then split into 3 and go in different directions. Whatever these things are they seem to have a flight path over our house as we've only been there 6 months and seen them 6 times! I've seen mereorites falling before and they're definately not those and I live near Manchester airport and know for a fact they're nothing to do with planes. They are definately big balls of fire travelling through the sky. Weird!!!!!