Possibly a really big meteor. Story here.
Anybody see it?
If I had seen it, I would have wet myself.
Jeepers, fireballs from the sky, earthquakes, volcanoes…
Oh, and one of our offices at work has an infestation of fruit flies; that tears it, as far as I’m concerned.
END TIMES, END TIMES!!!
Excellent! So, is now a good time to empty my 401K and run up my credit cards?
Not quite a mystery.
Money is the root of all Evil. Those with money will suffer in the End Times. So save yourself while there’s still a chance; send it all to me. I’m a generous spirit who’ll take the Fall for you.
Sorry, that was me. I was just testing my latest upgrades to my Tungsten Dude suit.
Stranger
It landed in a former Doper’s neighbor’s yard. I’ll send her a link and see if she wants to say more.
Molybdenum Guy is gonna kick your ass.
Not a chance. I’m teamed up with Ferrocerium Girl. Molybdenum Guy is toast.
Stranger
No shit? Tell her not to touch the green stuff.
Seriously, that’d be awesome.
What’s the latest on the thing? My husband heard on “the news” (?) that it was a golf ball-size meteor. He must have misheard. Wouldn’t it have to be bigger than that to light up the sky like it did? Maybe it’s golf ball-size now.
I read a story saying it was somewhere in the range of softball to basketball sized.
Saw it, or rather saw the light from it, in northeast Iowa. It just lasted just a few seconds but it was a WTF moment. A hot-shot at one of the state universities is reported to have said that it was anywhere from basketball size to the size of a VW Bug. In any event, it seems to have broken up over east Iowa and come to earth somewhere in SW Wisconsin, around Baraboo. It will be interesting to see what we have when the fragments turn up.
Some people around here say there was a noise like the rumble of distant thunder. I didn’t hear anything, but I was inside and the TV was on.
A meteor that was “the size of a VW Bug” at that altitude would have left a very large impact crater. Even an object that was “basketball sized” would be at the high end of possible for those observations. The shooting stars that you see occasionally are on the order of the size of a pea.
Stranger
This was much larger than a “normal” shooting star. The videos I saw showed something that looked about half the size of the moon, though I understand most of that size is glowing ionized gas around the object.
Not my judgment Boyo. I have no basis of knowledge. Must rely on what people with knowledge say. Astrophysicists at Iowa State and U of Iowa are reported in papers and radio and TV news say was bigger than your run of the mill meteorite and was anywhere from basketball to VW size but they say they can’t say for sure until they have a chance to see the fragments. That this was the report is a fact. That the report was factual in beyond my ken.
Depends.
Was it iron and stayed in one piece until it hit the ground? Or was it a more fluffy material and pieces broke off here and there in the upper atmosphere?
Recall not too long ago there was a space shuttle sized thing that broke up in the upper atmosphere over the southwestern united states and narry a crater was created.
My fault. I thought I was responding to Boyo Jim. I now see that the relevant post was by Stranger on a Train. No dismissive nickname intended.
I’m not sure the reporting on CNN is entirely accurate…
That berth describes about 98% of what’s in my house.
I’ve been seeing a lot more shooting stars lately for some reason. Never seen anything that lit up the sky like that one though. Wonder if some Meteorite Men up that way are in early stages of tracking down any remnants.