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SPACESHIP SIGHTINGS:
Space shuttle Atlantis has docked to the
International Space Station and the two spacecraft are now
circling Earth together. The shuttle-ISS combo is very bright
in the night sky. Check the Simple Satellite
Tracker for flybys of your home town.
GREAT WESTERN FIREBALL:
Yesterday, Nov. 18th, something exploded
in the atmosphere above the western United States. Witnesses
in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho say the fireball "turned
night into day" and issued shock waves that "shook
the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain
Standard Time. The fireball was so bright it actually turned
the night sky noontime blue, as shown in this image from KSL
TV in Utah:
Although the fireball appeared during the Leonid
meteor shower, it was not a Leonid. Infrasound recordings
of the blast suggest a small asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere
and exploding with an energy of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Experts
liken the event to the Park
Forest fireball of 2003, which scattered dozens of meteorites
across a suburb of Chicago. Meteorites are likely from this
fireball as well. Stay tuned for developing information about
the possible fall zone.
more fireball images: from
KSL TV in Utah; from
KTVB News in Idaho; from
Thomas Ashcraft near Santa Fe, New Mexico; from
Marsha Adams of Sedona, Arizona;
Approximately 6 hours after the fireball, people in Utah
and Colorado got another surprise. As the sun rose over those
states, a twisting electric-blue cloud appeared in the dawn
sky:
"These curious clouds on the horizon caught my attention
just before sunrise," says photographer Don Brown of
Park City, Utah. "They were strangely bright relative
to the rest of the sky."
The cloud strongly resembles artificial noctilucent clouds
formed at high altitudes by rocket and shuttle launches. Yet
there was no (officially reported) rocket launch at dawn on
Nov. 18th. Could the cloud be associated with the fireball?
The geographical coincidence is certainly striking. Debris
from the fireball should have dissipated by sunrise, but the
cloud remains unexplained and a connection to the fireball
cannot yet be dismissed. Readers, if you have more information
about this event, let
us know.
more mystery cloud images: from
Lisa Cain of New Castle, Colorado; from
Daniel Owen of Monarch, Utah; from
John Omohundro of Grand Junction, Colorado; from
Jeff Kendrick of Salt Lake City, Utah; from
Allan Jeffers of Denver, Colorado; from
Scott Stringham of Salt Lake City, Utah; from
Sean O'Leary of West Jordan, Utah;
UPDATED:
2009
Leonid Meteor Gallery
[previous Leonids: 1998,
2001,
2002,
2006]
November
Northern Lights Gallery
[previous Novembers: 2008,
2007, 2006,
2004, 2003,
2002, 2001]
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the Sunspot Cycle |
