Flash reported in East Coast sky consistent with meteor shower, NASA says

[Poll_Blind]

Flash reported in East Coast sky consistent with meteor shower, NASA says

East Coast residents were buzzing on social media sites and elsewhere Friday night after a brief but bright flash of light streaked across the early-evening sky --in what experts say was almost certainly a meteor coming down.

Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environmental Office said the flash appears to be "a single meteor event." He said it "looks to be a fireball that moved roughly toward the southeast, going on visual reports."

"Judging from the brightness, we're dealing with something as bright as the full moon," Cooke said. "The thing is probably a yard across. We basically have (had) a boulder enter the atmosphere over the northeast."

He noted that the meteor was widely seen, with more than 350 reports on the website of the American Meteor Society alone.

"If you have something this bright carry over that heavily populated area, a lot of people are going to see it," he said. "It occurred around 8 tonight, there were a lot of people out, and you've got all those big cities out there."

This is a "heat map" of the sightings, of which there have (apparently) been plenty:


THIS page has links to two videos. That object is moving at a very quick pace! Even quicker than the Russian meteor, IIRC.

Could the following be related?

Boom shakes windows in several counties (in Florida)

Looks like this thing might have zipped right up the East coast heading North before (whatever).

PB

[shraby]

1. Were there two of them? One report says it was headed toward Canada and Nasa says it was headed

southeast.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Dunno. Odd for two meteors to be seen at the same-ish time, but going in...

...different directions. However, that's what happened with the meteorite that crashed in Russia and the one everyone watched with telescopes. The odds seem astronomical- but then again, they do call it astronomy.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

5. Not sure, I think the movement was SW to NE, but the swath it was...

...visible was so wide it may have introduced some confusion about what direction it was traveling in. That's just conjecture on my part. I believe the same event is being described.

PB

[jberryhill]

2. Stupid Fox Headline

Golly they are some dumbfucks at Fox. The story says this is a single object, but they are too goddamned stupid to know what a "meteor shower" is, in contrast to a single meteor event.

[Tx4obama]

4. East Coast meteor seen in at least 13 states, DC, 2 Canadian provinces, says American Meteor Society

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A meteor bright enough to be classified as a fireball lit up the night sky over eastern North America on Friday, providing a spectacle witnessed in at least 13 states, Washington, D.C. and two Canadian provinces, the American Meteor Society said.

The society verified more than 300 witness sightings from Ontario and Quebec down to the southern U.S. state of North Carolina with more than 100 reports yet to be reviewed, said Mike Hankey, an observer for the American Meteor Society.

"This was most certainly a fireball seen over a good portion of the eastern states," said Robert Lunsford, the society's fireball coordinator.

"It happened at a good time, around 8 o'clock on a Friday night, when a lot of people were out to see it," Lunsford said.

-snip-

Full article here: http://news.yahoo.com/meteor-lights-night-sky-over-eastern-united-states-032115107.html

[VanillaRhapsody]

6. it is 2013 after all....

Maybe the Mayans just thought 2012 was the last year left?

[MzShellG]

10. You might be on to something here. nt

[alphafemale]

7. They are awesome things to see.

I saw a spectacular bright blue fireball just north of Columbia SC once and what I later learned was probably a space junk reentry and flame-out at another.

[Peter cotton]

9. I once saw a bright green fireball in the middle of nowhere in Arizona

It was about as bright as a full moon. Pretty cool.

[malaise]

8. Nice pic here

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1112809229/social-media-buzzing-over-meteor-reports-in-the-eastern-us-032313/