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Posted: **2003-10-04 11:25am**

A teenager in the UK supposedly caught this on a digital camera.

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:31am**

I'm willing to stand by NASA on this one and say that it's a comet (or whatevr the proper term for it is) burning up in the atmosphere.

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:36am**

2000AD wrote:I'm willing to stand by NASA on this one and say that it's a comet (or whatevr the proper term for it is) burning up in the atmosphere.

Actually, NASA as of the 1st of October, has no idea.

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:36am**

I've seen something similar (big orange, concentric explosion in the night sky) while camping in the Alps two years ago.

It's a rock blowing up. Simplest explanation that fits.

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:38am**

BoredShirtless wrote:
2000AD wrote:I'm willing to stand by NASA on this one and say that it's a comet (or whatevr the proper term for it is) burning up in the atmosphere.
Actually, NASA as of the 1st of October, has no idea.

I thought they had it up on their site as "photo of the day" saying that it was a comet or something? (That's what all the newspapers over here have said)

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:42am**

2000AD wrote:
BoredShirtless wrote:
2000AD wrote:I'm willing to stand by NASA on this one and say that it's a comet (or whatevr the proper term for it is) burning up in the atmosphere.
Actually, NASA as of the 1st of October, has no idea.
I thought they had it up on their site as "photo of the day" saying that it was a comet or something? (That's what all the newspapers over here have said)

From http://apod.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031001.html:
What is it? Experts disagree. The first guess was a sofa-sized rock that exploded as a daytime fireball, but perhaps a better hypothesis is an unusual airplane contrail reflecting the setting Sun.

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:43am**

Colonel Olrik wrote:I've seen something similar (big orange, concentric explosion in the night sky) while camping in the Alps two years ago.

It's a rock blowing up. Simplest explanation that fits.

Yeah. You camped in the Alps? Lucky bastard.

Posted: **2003-10-04 03:27pm**

My vote goes to Exploding Rock.

Posted: **2003-10-04 03:40pm**

It's a Giant Fiery Cosmic Cumshot from God.

So God, you like Bukkakkeing planets now? You'll like my roommates...

Posted: **2003-10-04 03:53pm**

'S a rock.

Posted: **2003-10-04 04:23pm**

It's those damn aliens come to borrow some sugar from me agian. You'd think that going to a grocery store wouldn't be a problem for a spiecies that's mastered interstellar travel, but ohhhh noooo, they're always showing up to borrow stuff.

Posted: **2003-10-04 05:16pm**

Based on the position of the setting sun, and the consistency of the color far up on the tail of the object, I'm of the opinion this is an airplane contrail.
I live right near jacksonville international airport...and have seen something akin to this before...several times. perhaps not as extreme as this. But I have seen contrails begin life on a clear day, and at the end of the day look like highly dispersed, wispy cirrus (Is that the ones that are feathery and really high-altitude?) many many tines larger than their original size. I really don't think this is a rock burning up. Although, the argument could be made that the sheer density of the cloud eliminate the contrail theory, but the setting sun can make clouds do straaaaaaaannnnge things. That's my two cents. and great picture, by the way. Kudos to BS for locating this interesting image

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By the way, you guys like my new Av?
Now I gotta figger our how to put images in my siggy!

Posted: **2003-10-04 05:42pm**

I say it's an exploding rock.

Otherwise, it's best not to ask the fundies.

~ver

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:00pm**

I'd say something exploding in the sky. However, since it appears to be a visible explosion above the clouds, it couldn't be something like a model rocket someone attached a bunch of explosives to, unless the smoke is only a few feet above the ground.

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:06pm**

Dang, I missed the planet by THAT much! My aim must be off by a few micro-arcseconds...

Anyway, with the amount of junk up there, and the rocks, it is no wonder some of it gets caught on somebody's camera. Pretty neat, though.

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:19pm**

Warspite wrote:Dang, I missed the planet by THAT much! My aim must be off by a few micro-arcseconds...

Anyway, with the amount of junk up there, and the rocks, it is no wonder some of it gets caught on somebody's camera. Pretty neat, though.

You didn't miss, you just hit Duck Dodgers by mistake.

Seriously it looks like a rock or comet to me. The Contrail Theory works too but it they can find some bits of that thing(and if it was they probably will) then we will know for sure. NASA has probably already sent a team to try and do that already!

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:21pm**

IT'S THE END OF THE FREAKING WORLD!!!

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:27pm**

i heard someone mention that it might be a fighter jet dumping fuel which then got ignited by the afterburner... he said he'd seen that happen before or something.

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:35pm**

Isolder74 wrote:You didn't miss, you just his Duck Dodgers by mistake.

Eheheh!

Seriously it looks like a rock or comet to me. The Contrail Theory works too but it they can find some bits of that thing(and if it was they probably will) then we will know for sure. NASA has probably already sent a team to try and do that already!

I never saw contrails doing this, and it seems too much grey to be a contrail, even with sunset... And I see a lot every day, one of the Iberian Peninsula-American Continent corridors passes over my area.

As for the afterburner idea... nope. Even for airplanes with the vent near the engine, fuel disperses too fast at such heights (due to speed, low pressure and temperature) to ignite.

Posted: **2003-10-04 06:41pm**

Warspite wrote:
Isolder74 wrote:You didn't miss, you just his Duck Dodgers by mistake.

Eheheh!

Seriously it looks like a rock or comet to me. The Contrail Theory works too but it they can find some bits of that thing(and if it was they probably will) then we will know for sure. NASA has probably already sent a team to try and do that already!
I never saw contrails doing this, and it seems too much grey to be a contrail, even with sunset... And I see a lot every day, one of the Iberian Peninsula-American Continent corridors passes over my area.

As for the afterburner idea... nope. Even for airplanes with the vent near the engine, fuel disperses too fast at such heights (due to speed, low pressure and temperature) to ignite.

I agree on all points but because the chance of it being a cointrail was brought up we are stuck until someong either proves it was a rock or a hoax or something else. It looks looks a meteor to me though

Posted: **2003-10-04 07:04pm**

Isolder74 wrote:I agree on all points but because the chance of it being a cointrail was brought up we are stuck until someong either proves it was a rock or a hoax or something else. It looks looks a meteor to me though

Quite. Notice how it comes burning right from the top corner, and siddendly blooms into the explosion and puff... nothing else. Good thing it was small, a Tunguska effect over Europe wouldn't be fun.

Posted: **2003-10-04 10:51pm**

Warspite wrote:
Isolder74 wrote:I agree on all points but because the chance of it being a cointrail was brought up we are stuck until someong either proves it was a rock or a hoax or something else. It looks looks a meteor to me though
Quite. Notice how it comes burning right from the top corner, and siddendly blooms into the explosion and puff... nothing else. Good thing it was small, a Tunguska effect over Europe wouldn't be fun.

i did it looks like a rock that did this in Canada. But until they had found the bits of it they could not prove it was a rock. It was the only way to get the UFo guys to shut up about it being a spaceship blowing up or a military misfire

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:03pm**

I vote that it's a rock.

Didn't a meteorite fall in India, set some homes on fire?

Posted: **2003-10-04 11:20pm**

LadyTevar wrote:I vote that it's a rock.

Didn't a meteorite fall in India, set some homes on fire?

I think one pissed off the dinosaurs too.

Posted: **2003-10-05 07:43am**

I think the pic is real. There has been alot of shit falling out of the sky lately.

The Sky Isn't Falling -
But Pieces Sure Are
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer - SPACE.com
10-2-3

A host of mostly coincidental recent events make Chicken Little sound ever-so-slightly more credible. In the past eight days, stuff falling from space rocked a village in India and a bathroom in Louisiana, while lighting up the skies over the San Francisco Bay area, Europe and Australia.

The most spectacular visitor from beyond was a meteorite initially said to set a village afire in India and injure 20 people this past weekend. Later reports by the BBC and elsewhere put the injuries at three.

The fireball streaking through the sky turned night into day, witnesses said. It was reported visible across a nearly 5,800-square-mile (15,000-square-kilometer) region. Two pieces about 11 pounds each (5 kilograms) were said to be recovered.

On Monday, Sept. 29, a bright fireball startled residents around San Francisco. Witnesses said it flared several times over a few seconds before disappearing below the horizon, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News.

"It's by far the brightest and longest I've ever seen,'' said Jake Burkart, an amateur astronomer who said he'd been watching shooting stars since his youth. "It was really amazing.''

Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer with the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center, told the newspaper that the event had the markings of comet debris, which is more fragile than asteroid material and therefore more likely to break apart and generate a bright flare.

The object may have landed in the ocean, Jenniskens said.

Jenniskens said the fireball might have been part of an unexpected shower of debris. Another bright meteor had been spotted five hours prior from Europe, he said.

Another bright and fiery object was seen in the night sky over Australia this past weekend, near the time of the Indian meteorite. No connection between the two has been made. An official in Australia said, however, that manmade space junk may have caused the curious event spotted from south of Queensland.

Space rocks frequently strike Earth's atmosphere. They are called meteors when streaking into the ever-denser air, where most vaporize. While in space they might be referred to as asteroids if they are large, or meteoroids if they are small. If they hit the ground, they're called meteorites.

Most of the smaller pieces light up fantastically, as shooting stars or fireballs, and never reach ground. It is not uncommon for residents of a particular region to be surprised or even shocked by a fireball, as space debris rains down on Earth daily.

Many visible shooting stars start out as bits no larger than a sand grain. It only takes a pea-sized object to generate a brilliant fireball. And even something the size of a Volkswagen can disintegrate before reaching the surface.

One that did not fully vaporize hit Roy Fausset's recently renovated bathroom Sept. 23 in New Orleans.

Fausset returned from work to find holes in his roof and two floors. A space rock was in a crawl space under the house.

"The powder room door was open and it looked like an artillery shell had hit the room," he told the Associated Press. Tests by Tulane University researchers suggest the object indeed came from space.

"I'm in shock," Fausset told the Associated Press. "Oh, that's scary. I will certainly go to church this Sunday, because the Lord was certainly sending me a message."

There are no known deaths by meteorites. But a few people have been injured.

Hey look at that 500 post, Woo hoo, I'm not a damn Padawan anymore.