Possible Meteor sighting in San Diego -

[haele]

At 2000 PDT (8:00 pm Pacific for you non military clock readers) pretty much on the dot, we were driving facing pretty much directly east when this ball of green came straight down from about 60 degrees above the horizon to about 10 degrees above the horizon. It was either splitting up as it was coming down into a main and a smaller one, or it was two rocks.
Pretty big, too. So it was either small and close or middling and higher up/further away.
But it was definitely green, whatever it was. Laz and I said it at the same time.
So...be careful buying succulent plants over the next couple weeks.

Haele

[usonian]

1. Report what you saw!

https://amsmeteors.org/

I saw one a while back while driving. But I had a decent memory of it, and my report fit in with others, which was pretty cool.

[LeftInTX]

2. Eight reports in Southern CA, and AZ all around 8 pm

ETA: I found many more from 8 pm



Maybe someone caught it on camera

[haele]

4. It was also seen in Nevada and Colorado.

I reported it. Looks like they have a good database collection for it.
It was really quite a pretty green. And quite large, if it was that far away.

Haele

[LeftInTX]

3. Someone caught it on camera!

&t=16s&ab_channel=AmericanMeteorSociety

[usonian]

5. Wow, a fireball.

Surveillance cameras all over!
They're always on.

[PCIntern]

13. Wow. Terrific.

[RKP5637]

26. That was huge!

[chouchou]

6. It was green. That sounds like the Romulans. Their ships are green.

Perhaps they've come for Donny Boy. The pipes, the pipes are calling. (I wish)

[RipVanWinkle]

7. Maybe Donny Boy should

greet them with “Jolan tru” and offer them some soup.

[chouchou]

21. Ya...and laced with bleach. (Since Donnie loves that so much).

[canetoad]

8. You may have seen a comet

Explosive green 'Mother of Dragons' comet now visible in the Northern Hemisphere

The green comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is now visible in the night sky in North America. Here's how to see it.


A rare, formerly-horned comet that astronomers have dubbed the "Mother of Dragons" is now visible after dusk in the Northern Hemisphere.

This "Halley-type" comet, officially known as Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, completes a single orbit around the sun once every 71 years. The last time it passed by Earth was in 1954, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA).

The city-size comet has a nucleus measuring 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) wide and orbits the sun in an elliptical shape. Recent observations of the comet have revealed a hidden spiral of light surrounding its frigid heart.

Like most comets, 12P/Pons-Brooks is composed of ice, dust and rock and its head also has a green appearance. This is due to comets containing diatomic carbon molecules — duos of carbon atoms stuck together — that emit emerald light when exposed to the sun.

https://www.livescience.com/space/comets/explosive-green-mother-of-dragons-comet-now-visible-in-the-northern-hemisphere

[William Seger]

18. No, comets don't appear to be moving except over a period of days

Also, 12P/Pons-Brooks is very dim now -- you'd need binoculars or a telescope under dark skies to see it.

[canetoad]

24. Thank you

I really didn't think about it hard enough, but your comments are obvious.

[William Seger]

9. Green meteors are burning nickel and magnesium

I've only seen one, but it wasn't a fireball.

[LeftInTX]

11. I've seen one too. It was a fairly large meteor

[BigmanPigman]

10. I just looked at Reddit and there are many reports

in the area of San Diego. Someone posted a dash cam video.

Aren't scientists supposed to be aware of this stuff before it is sighted? Does it have to be a certain size?

[LeftInTX]

12. Nope. They aren't predictable

There was a huge one that hit Russia in 2013. It created sonic booms, broke windows and caused injuries.

&ab_channel=AlexGrotesqTrailerz-%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BC%D1%8B%D0%B9%D0%BB%D1%83%D1%87%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%B9%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BB

[BigmanPigman]

14. Wow! It's odd seeing one when it is light outside.

It almost looks like a missile. If I saw it that in person it is what I would have initially thought.

Here is a stupid question... the asteroid that hit near the Yucatan peninsula was big enough to hit the planet and cause a giant soot cloud around the globe. If one were that big in 2024 would scientists be able to detect it before it hits the ground?

[LeftInTX]

15. Yes, it did look like a missile! I have no idea if they could have predicted the Yucatan asteroid!

They do research on near-earth objects to prevent such catastrophes, so hopefully they have the technology. The meteor from Russia was the size of a truck. .

[BigmanPigman]

17. The one that hit Yucatan was 6+ miles wide

Hopefully, scientists will be able to detect one similar in size.

[Polybius]

20. What good would detecting it do?

Knowing that we're gonna die? I honestly don't think we could stop it unless we predicted it years in advance.

[BigmanPigman]

25. That is why Hollywood is BS.

They always have some solution like blowing it up before it hits the planet. Personally, if there is something coming in my direction I want a direct hit on my city so I die right away instead of suffering for any length of time.

[Polybius]

27. I suppose there is a slight chance they could knock it off course

But it would have to be done well in advance, and very far away with some powerful nukes. But not one that's more 6 miles, that's huge. It might not budge with 100 nukes.

Here's an interesting article:

For an asteroid to wipe out most everything on Earth, it would have to be massive. Scientists estimate it would take an asteroid about 7 to 8 miles (11 to 12 kilometers) wide crashing into the Earth. Once it made impact, it would create a tremendous dust plume that would envelope the entire planet, block out the sun and raise temperatures where the asteroid made impact. Billions would die, and much of life on the planet would be destroyed. But, scientists believe some would survive. NASA scientists say it would take an asteroid 60 miles (96 kilometers) wide to totally wipe out life on Earth.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/natural-disasters/asteroid-hits-earth.htm

[BigmanPigman]

28. I feel badly for the animals and plants

that would die as a result. Humans are a lost cause as far as I am concerned.

[Sympthsical]

19. We would've seen Chicxulub coming

It would have been visible in the sky to the naked eye for a few days before impact, growing bigger and bigger. But our modern NASA would've seen it ages off. It was chilling around dipping into our orbit regularly for millions of years before gravity finally got it just so. We would've been tracking it like we do other near-Earth objects now (and a six mile asteroid is super visible to our technology that close).

The good news is, we know where most of the dangerous asteroids around the Earth are and none of them are predicted to smack us any time soon. Last I saw, it was something like 90% estimated found, tracked, and orbits calculated.

Our real problem is the Oort cloud. There could be asteroids or comets with high eccentricity that only come around every few hundred or thousand years. By the time we saw something really damaging coming, not much to be done for it.

But we are on it as much as one can be: https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense

All that said. There's always a chance some random ass asteroid that could go off like a nuke might pop in out of nowhere. Very, very small chance, but not non-zero.

[Tommy Carcetti]

16. I remember seeing a fireball over my house once when I was a teen

It was the craziest thing. I didn’t hear any impact but I certainly saw it in the air.

[haele]

22. According to Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy, it was probably a Bollide..

About grape sized, and by most reports, it burned up over Arizona. Even though it was also seen in Colorado.

Haele

[MineralMan]

23. I saw a bright green one once in California

4 A.M. I was driving from the central coast to San Diego and back that day, so I left very early. Not 10 minutes after I started driving, I saw the green fireball cross the sky in front of me, headed out over the Pacific ocean. Very bright. Seemed to be moving slowly, but probably was very high and moving fast.

Fascinating. At that time in the morning in that area there were probably very few people out, so I never heard any reports on it. Very impressive, though.