# Pretty little meteor **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295 "2013-05-14T04:26:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/1 "2013-05-14T04:26:10Z")
Just stepped outside for a minute and saw a nice little meteor, tracking west over the Pacific at about 47N. It was burning green with a red tail, followed it for over half a second before it burned up. I mean, how much more Mundane and Pointless a post can one make? ---
**Author:** ![NBYodo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9a28c/32.png) [@NBYodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NBYodo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/2 "2013-05-14T05:28:21Z")
I hope it wasn’t the Soyuz capsule with the departing ISS crew (burning up I mean). 😉 Don’t worry, they’re down safe a few hours ago. NB ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/3 "2013-05-14T05:54:25Z")
I am fairly certain that it would have been coming down the other way. This thing looked westward-bound. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/4 "2013-05-14T07:00:48Z")
Meteors are splendid to watch. I was once in the backwoods of Minnesota during the Perseid meteor shower in August when a _huge_ bolide streaked across the sky. That was 40 years ago, and I still remember it clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/5 "2013-05-14T07:41:38Z")
I have a question - for the OP and for anyone else who has seen meteors, especially bigger/longer events… When you replay the memory of the event in your head, does it now have sound effects? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/6 "2013-05-14T09:35:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I have a question - for the OP and for anyone else who has seen meteors, especially bigger/longer events… > > When you replay the memory of the event in your head, does it now have sound effects? No. Meteors generally don’t produce sounds, not even bolides. The only sounds I might associate them with are those of the northwoods at night, and the voice of the person I was with. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/7 "2013-05-14T12:26:43Z")
The spectacular bolide I saw when I was a child was distinctly silent (at least from my distance). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/8 "2013-05-14T12:34:46Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > No. Meteors generally don’t produce sounds, not even bolides. Understood - I’m just interested to know if anyone’s memory has imposed a sound effect that wasn’t there. Same sort thing for fireworks - unless I consciously remember to think about the delay between sight and sound, I remember the sound being simultaneous - when of course it never was. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/9 "2013-05-14T15:17:39Z")
Holy crap I saw that. I was sitting on my couch watching tv and I noticed the light out the window and saw it just in time to fizzle out. At first I was thinking aliens were drunk and crashing their ships again but because it was green I figured it was a flare from a nearby military base. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/10 "2013-05-14T17:51:41Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > When you replay the memory of the event in your head, does it now have sound effects? Many years ago, while riding my bicycle home from work, I witnessed and absolutely massive fireball descending almost vertically. Its path was not quite straight, it seem to break up and jog left in its descent. To me (being somewhat stereoblind), it looked to be less than 10000’ up, a huge column of yellow flames in the bright morning sky. Then it was gone. Absolutely silent, and I was on a bicycle, so if there was a sound, I would have heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/11 "2013-05-14T18:07:28Z")
On two different occasions, since I moved into our new home 18 months ago, I have seen a very close-to-the-ground falling star. Several meters above the treetops was about where they were when I saw them. I only call them falling stars because I wouldn’t know any other term to use to describe them. They were extremely bright, perfectly white, and put me in mind of what fireworks look like before they explode, but without a streaming tail. Very slow moving, and I lost sight of them when they dropped below/behind the trees. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/12 "2013-05-15T03:55:37Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Holy crap I saw that. I was sitting on my couch watching tv and I noticed the light out the window and saw it just in time to fizzle out. At first I was thinking aliens were drunk and crashing their ships again but because it was green I figured it was a flare from a nearby military base. I am glad to know that someone else saw it too. Proves I was not drunk or something … ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/13 "2013-05-15T04:22:30Z")
> [@For You](#): > > Just stepped outside for a minute and saw a nice little meteor, tracking west over the Pacific at about 47N. It was burning green with a red tail, followed it for over half a second before it burned up. > > I mean, how much more Mundane and Pointless a post can one make? That’s not mundane OR pointless! Bright, pretty meteors don’t come along every day, so they’re hardly mundane, and your post made me smile, so it certainly wasn’t pointless. 🙂 Isn’t it amazing the lovely things we can see if we just bother to look up? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pretty-little-meteor/658295/14 "2013-05-15T05:01:34Z")
> [@artemis](#): > > Isn’t it amazing the lovely things we can see if we just bother to look up? Or down, I sometimes see amazing things when I look at the ground. Or over there, just to the right of… hey watch out for the – :eek: 🙂