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 Forum Index > Observing > Astronomy from Your Backyard New Topic Post Reply
 Nov. 9 Fireball and Sonic Boom
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bobmoody
 Monday, November 10 2008 @ 07:09 pm EST (Read 5227 times)  
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According to television news reports from November 10, 2008, a fairly large number of people heard the big boom the evening of November 9, and some may have seen a fireball that produced it. Meteoritic fireballs are usually very brief, lasting from a few seconds to as long as 30-45 seconds. Sonic booms from these fireballs lag behind the bright flash of light generally by at least a minute or two.

I'd appreciate anyone who either saw or heard this event to post their experiences here as soon as possible. Sonic booms are, since the early 1970's, usually only produced by deep-penetrating meteors entering our atmosphere at several thousand miles-per-hour (mph). Before about 1970, I can remember sonic booms being semi-frequent, with the double-barreled "boom-BOOM" coming at just about anytime during the daylight hours. These, of course, were always produced by jet aircraft passing 750mph and breaking the sound barrier, whereby the double boom would be created. Super-sonic flights were banned over the US since the early 70's.

The fireball and sonic boom from last night means that whatever produced these effects actually penetrated much deeper into the atmosphere than the vast majority of meteors that enter our atmosphere daily. Should enough sightings be reported, researchers can sometimes calculate whether there may have been a meteorite* produced by the event, and in more rare cases, can estimate where the object(s) might have landed. THIS IS RARE! The fact that the sound barrier was broken by some object that created a bright fireball is a marvelous sight to behold, and should a meteorite have come from such an event it would be the first known from the Ft. Smith/Van Buren area. I would be very interested in hearing about your reports, and I prefer that all reports be posted here to allow the readers of our forum to share your experiences.

*meteorite- a stone or iron fragment (usually originating in the asteroid belt) which has survived a fiery entry into Earth's atmosphere to land on the ground.

Bob Moody
Director and Caretaker,
Coleman Observatory
Van Buren, AR


Leonid Fireball from November 18-19, 1998 - Here's a link to my picture album in our AOAS Gallery of a fireball I captured the night of November 18-19, 1998.

http://www.aoas.org/mediagallery/media.php?f=0&sort=0&s=20081110222952462


Bob Moody
 
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Brian Emfinger
 Tuesday, November 11 2008 @ 01:49 pm EST  
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Hello All!

I have had my camera out every night since the 6th trying to get some of those Taurid Fireballs. I saw the report on Spaceweather.com of the fireballs seen from Spiro, Oklahoma on Sunday Night around 7:30PM and so I immediately rushed out to get the cf card out of my camera to see if I got anything. Sure enough at the exact time as the reports I got this:



I didn't hear about the reports of the boom till I read this article here last night. Its not likely the meteor I got is the exact one that caused the boom but certainly its possible its associated with it. The report on spaceweather mentioned it looked like it had broke up.

Its shot with a digital rebel xt with a crappy fisheye so the quality isnt the greatest..especially being near the edge. (the exif data on the pic shows 8:25 PM because I forgot to set my camera clock back and hour) The picture was taken in the middle of a clearing surrounded by tall trees so the horizon is actually much lower than it appears in the pics. The direction at bottom middle is looking northeast so the meteor was about NNE.

I have all the meteors I have gotten over the last week on my website here -
http://www.realclearwx.com/1108meteors.htm

Brian Emfinger
40/29 TV Photographer
www.realclearwx.com


 
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bobmoody
 Wednesday, November 12 2008 @ 02:56 am EST  
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Hi, Brian.

Congratulations, I DO believe you've caught the culprit! I've taken thousands of pictures trying to catch even one small streak from a meteor, and I've caught only a couple of these in many years of trying. This is easily the brightest meteor I've seen from any local amateur astronomer, and somewhat brighter than my approx 7th mag fireball above. Along with the effects from the all-too-bright moon added into the equation, I'd estimate this as easily a 9th or 10th magnitude meteor that would have caused a LOT more people to notice it had it been in a dark night setting without any moonlight. I may be estimating a slight bit low here, but I don't think I'm off by more than 1 or 1.5 magnitudes and that's still a very bright meteor any way you look at it. The moonlight probably kept the number of eyewitness reports down, if we get any at all.

The image itself also reveals some interesting features. It appears as if the direction of travel was from left-to-right, where it began as a relatively bright meteor, then flared and began to fragment immediately. The slight narrowing of the flare then brightening again and the abrupt end to the right side looks, to me, like this was a break-up into a number of remaining pieces along with some amount of dust that then was mostly consumed by the atmospheric friction from hyper-velocity flight. The dim streak emanating from the terminal burst MAY have been a small piece still glowing from friction that finally was consumed by friction before disappearing completely.

I suspect that the nearly level flight seen in your picture may have been much more inclined to the horizon if we'd seen another shot of it from approximately 70 -to-90 degrees either side of the view captured by your camera. If it had been a meteor that burned up during a flat trajectory as it appears, it should NOT have penetrated deeply enough into the atmosphere to have created a sonic boom. If it had instead been coming more AT YOU than across from you, its flight would naturally appear more flattened and that would also have increased the amount of time involved in how long the meteor lasted, too. With a fisheye lens, you probably caught a streak of maybe 30-40 degrees in length, but I wonder if from a different perspective, it might not have been much more inclined and much more lengthy as well. Another report from an eyewitness or from other imagers that night who might have been in the Little Rock-to-Columbia, MO, or from the Tulsa-to-Topeka or even the OKC-to-Wichita area might be very helpful here.

I don't claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination even though I've studied reports of the Great Fireball from June 9, 1920 very carefully, but I think what you captured here is most likely the object that created the sonic boom from Sunday, November 9, 2008, at approximately 7:30pm. GREAT JOB!!!


Bob Moody
 
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bobmoody
 Thursday, November 13 2008 @ 08:06 pm EST  
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I've been taking several reports of eyewitnesses to this fireball and sonic boom. Please try to post your reports on this discussion forum topic so everyone can share them.

One of the reports came from Barbara Smith who wrote the following account of her sighting.


I witnessed a fireball on Sunday night, 11/9/2008, at approximately 9:41 CST. I was driving south along AR Highway 279 which is west of Centerton, AR. I was about three miles north of AR Highway 102. Appearing at the top right corner of the windshield was a ball of fire slowly arcing toward the horizon.

It appeared to be as large as a motorcycle headlight would appear when seen from 100 feet away. It was bright lemony yellow with a ragged circumference. It had a neon greenish trail behind it that was slightly longer than the fireball was wide. The spiked tail was as wide as the fireball on the touching side and it tapered jaggedly at the end.

The fireball moved across the sky from the right to left which would have been from west to east. My impression at the time was that it moved from slightly northwest to southeast. That highway is curvy so my directions may off by a few degrees.

The fireball moved in a slow arc from the top right hand side of the windshield to the lower left hand third of the windshield. It moved in a definite curving path rather that in a straight line. It seemed to disappear before it hit the horizon. It could have disappeared behind trees but since it was nighttime, I didn’t register whether the horizon was heavy with trees or not. (Perhaps I should go back and look at the area in the daytime.)

I watched it steadily for about ten seconds. The night sky was clear and there were many stars visible in the background.


////////////////////////////////

I'm going to add several other accounts given me by Garrett Lewis of TV5. Garrett had these reports sent to him by listeners after he mentioned the fireball on the Monday night weather cast. I've either used the "anonymous" used by Garrett or have hidden the names of those who made the following reports....


Hi Bob...

Here's a list of some of the comments that were made about the meteor..

saw two meteors last night somewhere around 8:00 PM as I sat out on my back deck in Southwest Rogers. Both were in the Southern sky. The first was a typical fast-moving "falling star" but the second was by far the largest meteor I've ever seen. It was visible for several seconds, was quite bright, and had quite a "tail" with at least one very visible bright "chunk" that fell off as it moved across the sky. It was really awesome. It was so large and bright that I was able to get my wife's attention and point it out to her as well. Normally meteors don't last long enough to point out to others. I didn't hear any sound but perhaps I was too busy talking to my wife and gesturing skyward to notice!
10:04 PM

Anonymous said...
I was on my break in Ozark..A friend sat down to talk,and we both looked up and seen this meteor looking thing pass above,,It looked so low to us..We couldn't believe it..then it just fizzled out..This was about 8:0 to 8:45 pm last night..Nov..9th..
10:29 PM

Anonymous said...
I'm sorry but I don't know the time I saw or heard the fireball. I lasted onlt a few seconds and it looked like it divided into two parts that were side-by-side. I live by the high school in Van Buren.
10:46 PM

Danielle "R" said...
I am the woman quoted in tonight's newscast who said my house shook after I heard the explosion. I live on South T in the Park Hill area off Dodson & 23rd. My son & I were sitting in the living room. We heard an explosion. My dog jumped to her feet & started barking. Immediately after the explosion, the house started to shake. The shaking lasted several seconds. At first I thought it was an earthquake. (I'm from Southern California)But I realized it couldn't have been because of the explosion. We walked out on the porch immediately afterwards but saw nothing. I'm not sure of the time but think it was about 7:33 or so.
12:11 AM

Anonymous said...
40/29 news photographer has a meteor picture on his website from the exact time (7:26pm Sunday Night). You can see it on the 40/29 Weather Blog or on his website at www.realclearwx.com.
1:35 AM

Courtney said...
We were on our way home from church, between Wister, OK and Heavener, OK probably around 8:30. I'm not sure. I saw what looked like a falling star (it was heading down). It was ENE (like if we were looking toward the direction of Ft. Smith). It almost looked like it had something red flash in it. We were approx. 1-2 miles from our house and as soon as we got home and out of our vehicle, I heard a distant boom.
12:45 PM


I'd still like to emphasize that there are likely MANY more eyewitnesses to the event. I urge everyone who saw it to click on "Post Reply" below and leave your accounts. You do not have to use your name, and we'll respect everyone's right to privacy if you so choose.

Thanks
Bob


Bob Moody
 
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Brian Emfinger
 Sunday, November 16 2008 @ 02:57 pm EST  
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I had my camera setup to take continuous 30 second pictures and it was up from just after sunset to 1:30AM. I have looked through all of the images very carefully and didn't see any other meteors or signs. I even looked for any change in shadow/brightness that might have hinted at there having been a bright meteor that was out of the field of vision of my camera...but I didn't see anything at all but the moons brightness certainly could have washed out any signs.. Here is the full version of the meteor with constellation lines thrown on to show location/scale.


 
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