American Meteor Society
The American Meteor Society has so far received approximately 25 reports of a dazzling fireball over the southeastern USA including Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. This event occurred near 7:20pm EDT Monday evening October 24th. Of the reports received so far, white is the most mentioned color. Many reports also mention orange and yellow colors. The average brightness reported by witnesses was near the light produced by a full moon.
A fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal. Most meteors are only the size of small pebbles. A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere. Even the slowest meteors are still traveling at 10 miles per SECOND, which is much faster than a speeding bullet. Fireballs occur every day over some parts of the Earth. It is rare though for an individual to see more than one or two per lifetime as they can also occur during the day or on a cloudy night. Observing during one of the major annual meteor showers can increase your chance of seeing another bright meteor.
Fireballs often appear much closer than they really are. The AMS receives countless reports that an object landed just over the hill when in fact it was several hundred miles away and was witnessed over several states. It is your perspective that makes meteors appear to strike the horizon when in fact they are still high in the atmosphere. This is much like a jetliner seen low in your sky. It appears low to you but for someone located many miles away in that direction, the jetliner is passing high overhead. Meteors become visible at approximately 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. Friction slows these objects down until they fall below the velocity necessary to produce light. At this point they still lie at least 5 miles high in the sky. They are invisible below this altitude and cannot be seen as they basically freefalling to the ground at 200mph. Very few meteors actually reach the ground as 99.99% completely disintegrate while still 10-20 miles up in the atmosphere.
In the AMS fireball table, refer to event #1227 for 2011.
Clear Skies!
Robert Lunsford
My whole family was outside in our backyard on Tuesday evening Oct 24th. We all saw the large meteor around 7:20. We were amazed. None of us had ever seen anything like it. It was so bright and lasted so long. It was awesome to see the sparks that I guess were the tail.We live in Collettsville, NC
I caught this fireball on my security camera at 7:23 PM on 10-24-2011 . I was 4 to 5 miles to the east of camera location when it came in . We saw the whole event and it lasted over 15 seconds . The meteor was moving very slow . It was as big and bright as a full moon . It had chunks breaking off and was burning bright green from my location. It exploded around 15 seconds in just to the east of us . It was the slowest meteor I have ever witnessed . Here is the link to what my cam captured .It does not show the full event that I witnessed .Time seen on video is wrong . Time was 7:23 PM just after sunset . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB4OLP4GsPE&feature=feedu
Beautiful video! Could you provide more information on where this is located and where it was pointed?
I was flying from FL to NYC and something caught my attention and I turned to my Wife and said that I saw a very fast moving plane. I immediately turned to look at it again but with in a matter for maybe less than 5 seconds it disappeared. My flight left form Orlando at 6.23 PM and I must have been over either Georgia or the edge of Carolinas at that time. I tried to look for what I initially thought was a plane but quickly realized that it was traveling way too fast for a plane and told my wife that I just saw a meteor. As I replayed the image in my brain, I remember witnessing a distinct tail and a bright yellow color. I must have caught the final few seconds of the awesome display. Too bad I couldn’t get my phone out fast enough to snap a pic or take some video.