Earlier quoted context omitted.
For a moment I thought you are an Estonian, because we, too, call it a falling star. But our military service is still mandatory :(
We call it a falling star in English too (though “shooting star” is more common, at least in my experience).
Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
151–158 of 158 posts
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw a big one in the evening during army bootcamp. For a second or two it was as bright as day. One of the guys says "wtf was that?" and another replied "it's a falling star" (literal term we use for shooting stars in our language). A third guy asks, "so why do stars fall?". Silence. I ventured, "uh, guys... stars don't fall. Stars are like the Sun, just really far away. What we saw was a meteor, a rock that flew t…
For a moment I thought you are an Estonian, because we, too, call it a falling star. But our military service is still mandatory :(
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
We call it a falling star in English too (though “shooting star” is more common, at least in my experience).
I have never heard the term "falling star" before this thread.
Save them for a Rainy Day. Never let it fade away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VJlHWESyLI
\o/
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is the top suggestion on a science video like that an anti-vax rant?
Suggestions are personalised for what it thinks you’ll engage with (depending on how much it has profiled you - if you’re logged in, have watch history). The top suggestion for that video when I’m logged in is a video about architecture…
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#155In case the link won't load for anyone else, there's a YouTube video on the page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfNdaYqVxR0
Why is the top suggestion on a science video like that an anti-vax rant?
It's similar to how casino slots aren't actually any fun because you don't need any fun to trigger a gambling addict, so they are optimized for that outcome rather than optimized for fun. Except it's even worse because nearly everyone is susceptible to the effects of anger inducing content, it's just how our brain works.
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#156I was riding my bike to the Longs Peak TH, outside RMNP at around 5:00am one winter - around 9,000' - clear sky. A streak just like this went across the sky. I figured it was either a roman candle or the start of WWIII. Neither turned out to be true. Good summit of Longs Peak, that day.
I was at the base camp of Challenger Point / Kit Carson Peak, laying out watching the sky after dinner. I saw something similar to this but a bit more green and it shot off sparkles like a firework as it burnt up. Did not make the summit the next day though!
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
And one has been caught on film (we think) https://www.universetoday.com/110963/norwegian-skydiver-almo... . There’s also a nice coffee table book about them: https://www.amazon.com/Search-Stardust-Micrometeorites-Terre...
Damn nearly getting cut in half by a meteor while skydiving!
Re: Fireball Spotted over Northeastern USA
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, relatively speaking. First likely hit I found: "Meteors enter the atmosphere at speeds ranging from 11 km/sec...to 72 km/sec ... The wide range in meteoroid speeds is caused partly by the fact that the Earth itself is traveling at about 30 km/sec (67,000 mph) as it revolves around the sun. On the evening side, or trailing edge of the Earth, meteoroids must catch up to the earth’s atmosphere to cause a meteor, an…
The "relatively slow" 11 km/sec is still 39.600 km/h, or around Mach 30 (although that depends on air density and temperature), so still pretty fast I would say...
Suppose you were watching a (CGI) movie or a video of a meteor hitting Earth, with the whole globe on screen.
The diameter of the Earth is almost 13,000 km. So a meteor(oid) going even 70 km/s is going to take 3 minutes to hit from one diameter away.
It should look like it's barely moving on a planetary scale.