Bright object steaking across the evening sky
-
weixing
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Hi,
I send an email to "The Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies" to ask is there any possibility that this is cause by a reentry of any space debris?? The director of the centre, Dr. William Ailor, replied this morning:
"Thanks for your note. We checked our data and there were not reentries of tracked objects at the time and location you noted. The description (green color, 20-30 sec duration) is consistent with a large fireball. Sounds like a good one."
Have a nice day.
I send an email to "The Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies" to ask is there any possibility that this is cause by a reentry of any space debris?? The director of the centre, Dr. William Ailor, replied this morning:
"Thanks for your note. We checked our data and there were not reentries of tracked objects at the time and location you noted. The description (green color, 20-30 sec duration) is consistent with a large fireball. Sounds like a good one."
Have a nice day.
Yang Weixing
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance."
"The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." No it's not a green flash. I observed it along with my wife (she spotted it earlier then called me). Object was in SE sky and when I first saw it, it was greenish. As it approached the horizon it turned orangish and fragmented into at least 3 pieces. My first thought : bolide/fireball.rlow wrote:I read in today's Straits Times that someone suggested this could have been a green flash. I have seen one type of green flash before, a green tint at the tip of the sun as it sinks down the horizon. While we cannot rule out a green flash yet, I don't think the description of the object seen by eye-witnesses (broken into 5 pieces etc) fits the characteristics of a green flash.
Reentrant space junk possible too. But definitely not refractive/thermal inversion effects on the light of the setting sun.
Ahh, thanks for that. I'm so happy I saw a bona fide fireball then!weixing wrote:Hi,
I send an email to "The Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies" to ask is there any possibility that this is cause by a reentry of any space debris?? The director of the centre, Dr. William Ailor, replied this morning:
"Thanks for your note. We checked our data and there were not reentries of tracked objects at the time and location you noted. The description (green color, 20-30 sec duration) is consistent with a large fireball. Sounds like a good one."
Have a nice day.
About the US lightshow. (got this from another board).
the space junk was probably of Russian origin ...
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 42,00.html
Space debris lights up skies
Early morning show visible in Colo., seven other Western states
By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
January 5, 2007
Early risers in at least eight Western states were dazzled Thursday morning when the burning remains of a Russian rocket streaked across predawn skies.
The space junk re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Wyoming then flashed southward across Colorado and into northwestern New Mexico about 6 a.m. MST, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs.
The fiery falling object was believed to be part of a Russian Soyuz 2-1B rocket that launched a French space telescope into orbit Dec. 27 from Kazakhstan.
NORAD, which tracked the rocket's re-entry from Cheyenne Mountain, was unable to confirm a report that a piece of debris landed in the town of Riverton, Wyo.
Most of the space junk probably burned up in the atmosphere, but it's possible that some small pieces reached the ground, NORAD said.
No damage had been reported anywhere along the flight path, and the debris was not believed to be hazardous, said Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly, a NORAD spokesman.
Capt. Mark Stone, of the Riverton Police Department, had walked outside his home to pick up his newspaper Thursday morning when he saw a bright white object tracking slowly across the sky.
"It went right over the city of Riverton and went out of sight to the south," he said. "It was mostly white with some orange color coming off it. It looked like it was something that was breaking up and my concern was that maybe we had an aircraft that was going down."
Stone called the spectacle "the most impressive thing I've seen in the night skies in 46 years of my life."
Sgt. Bart Ringer, of the Riverton Police Department, said that the fireball was visible for a minute or more.
"It was traveling slow enough that one of our officers was able to call into the station and tell folks in there to come outside to look at it," he said. "We had about five of our officers and dispatchers out there, and they got a good look at it, too."
An automated Wyoming Department of Transportation camera on Wyoming 28 at South Pass, roughly 55 miles southwest of Riverton, may have detected a piece of the falling space debris.
The road across South Pass was closed because of a howling snowstorm, but Trooper Daniel Wyrick was sent to investigate.
Wyrick said he found a shallow 3-foot-by-3-foot depression in the snow, 35 feet from the road. Fresh snow had filled the depression and there was no visible debris and no scorch marks, he said.
"About the only thing I found was an area where something hot may have melted some snow, but then it was covered up again," Wyrick said.
He said he didn't dig into the snow in case radioactive material lurked beneath the surface.
"We don't have a clue as to whether what I found was related to whatever re-entered the atmosphere," Wyrick said.
Astronomer Chris Peterson, who operates the Cloudbait Observatory in Guffey and compiles witness reports of meteors and fireballs at www.cloudbait.com, said he received more than 100 e-mail accounts Thursday from eight states: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Most people said they observed the fireball at 6:15 a.m.
One witness said it looked like an aircraft on fire, with a sparkler-like tail.
Others said it resembled the space shuttle Columbia breaking apart.
Bright green, orange, red and white streaks were reported. One Rifle resident said it was brighter than the full moon, which was in the sky at the time, Peterson said.
The show lasted much longer than a run-of-the-mill meteor, which fades after two or three seconds.
Witnesses in Grand Junction, Rifle, Meeker, Craig and Steamboat Springs reported that the fiery streak glided across the entire sky, from north to south, and was visible for about one minute, Peterson said.
The space junk was probably the second stage of the Soyuz rocket, Peterson said.
That stage is 26 feet long, weighs 2 tons, and is made of various metals.
"There is nothing radioactive or anything like that," he said. "Sometimes there is concern that fuel can survive - they use kerosene and liquid oxygen - but in this case it probably all burned up."
If any chunks of the rocket stage reached the ground, southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico are the most likely impact zones, NORAD said.
If anyone finds a piece of suspected rocket debris, they should leave it alone and contact local police or fire officials, said Capt. Elena O'Bryan, a spokeswoman for NORAD.
In 2005, 213 pieces of space debris - rocket bodies, spacecraft and assorted orbiting junk - fell to the Earth's surface, according to NORAD. Only one piece is known to have landed in the U.S.
"This was a very uncommon event," Kelly said. "It does happen, but it doesn't happen that often."
the space junk was probably of Russian origin ...
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/l ... 42,00.html
Space debris lights up skies
Early morning show visible in Colo., seven other Western states
By Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
January 5, 2007
Early risers in at least eight Western states were dazzled Thursday morning when the burning remains of a Russian rocket streaked across predawn skies.
The space junk re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Wyoming then flashed southward across Colorado and into northwestern New Mexico about 6 a.m. MST, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs.
The fiery falling object was believed to be part of a Russian Soyuz 2-1B rocket that launched a French space telescope into orbit Dec. 27 from Kazakhstan.
NORAD, which tracked the rocket's re-entry from Cheyenne Mountain, was unable to confirm a report that a piece of debris landed in the town of Riverton, Wyo.
Most of the space junk probably burned up in the atmosphere, but it's possible that some small pieces reached the ground, NORAD said.
No damage had been reported anywhere along the flight path, and the debris was not believed to be hazardous, said Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly, a NORAD spokesman.
Capt. Mark Stone, of the Riverton Police Department, had walked outside his home to pick up his newspaper Thursday morning when he saw a bright white object tracking slowly across the sky.
"It went right over the city of Riverton and went out of sight to the south," he said. "It was mostly white with some orange color coming off it. It looked like it was something that was breaking up and my concern was that maybe we had an aircraft that was going down."
Stone called the spectacle "the most impressive thing I've seen in the night skies in 46 years of my life."
Sgt. Bart Ringer, of the Riverton Police Department, said that the fireball was visible for a minute or more.
"It was traveling slow enough that one of our officers was able to call into the station and tell folks in there to come outside to look at it," he said. "We had about five of our officers and dispatchers out there, and they got a good look at it, too."
An automated Wyoming Department of Transportation camera on Wyoming 28 at South Pass, roughly 55 miles southwest of Riverton, may have detected a piece of the falling space debris.
The road across South Pass was closed because of a howling snowstorm, but Trooper Daniel Wyrick was sent to investigate.
Wyrick said he found a shallow 3-foot-by-3-foot depression in the snow, 35 feet from the road. Fresh snow had filled the depression and there was no visible debris and no scorch marks, he said.
"About the only thing I found was an area where something hot may have melted some snow, but then it was covered up again," Wyrick said.
He said he didn't dig into the snow in case radioactive material lurked beneath the surface.
"We don't have a clue as to whether what I found was related to whatever re-entered the atmosphere," Wyrick said.
Astronomer Chris Peterson, who operates the Cloudbait Observatory in Guffey and compiles witness reports of meteors and fireballs at www.cloudbait.com, said he received more than 100 e-mail accounts Thursday from eight states: Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Arizona.
Most people said they observed the fireball at 6:15 a.m.
One witness said it looked like an aircraft on fire, with a sparkler-like tail.
Others said it resembled the space shuttle Columbia breaking apart.
Bright green, orange, red and white streaks were reported. One Rifle resident said it was brighter than the full moon, which was in the sky at the time, Peterson said.
The show lasted much longer than a run-of-the-mill meteor, which fades after two or three seconds.
Witnesses in Grand Junction, Rifle, Meeker, Craig and Steamboat Springs reported that the fiery streak glided across the entire sky, from north to south, and was visible for about one minute, Peterson said.
The space junk was probably the second stage of the Soyuz rocket, Peterson said.
That stage is 26 feet long, weighs 2 tons, and is made of various metals.
"There is nothing radioactive or anything like that," he said. "Sometimes there is concern that fuel can survive - they use kerosene and liquid oxygen - but in this case it probably all burned up."
If any chunks of the rocket stage reached the ground, southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico are the most likely impact zones, NORAD said.
If anyone finds a piece of suspected rocket debris, they should leave it alone and contact local police or fire officials, said Capt. Elena O'Bryan, a spokeswoman for NORAD.
In 2005, 213 pieces of space debris - rocket bodies, spacecraft and assorted orbiting junk - fell to the Earth's surface, according to NORAD. Only one piece is known to have landed in the U.S.
"This was a very uncommon event," Kelly said. "It does happen, but it doesn't happen that often."