Fireball!

As the days get shorter the "opportunity" to drive down the road in the dark presents itself to the farmers a bit more often.  For most of the year, we don't actually drive when it is dark all that often because we typically get our travels done in time to arrive at dusk and perform our poultry chores.  Now that we only have hen flocks, it is a bit less of an issue, though we still have to get back early enough to close them up before the predators figure out the door is still open!

Well, it turns out we had an eventful drive this past Saturday - and I mean that in a good way.

Photo by Dan B and shared on AMS site

Somewhere in southern Minnesota, Tammy got to see a meteorite or "falling star" as she was driving and I was able to see a little of it.  That's the funny thing about meteor showers, you can be with someone else and one of you is looking at just the right direction and the other isn't at the very moment it occurs.  If you're the person that missed really seeing it, you can't help but feel a little bit cheated all while feeling really happy for the person who got to see it well.

Well, surprise, surprise!  At some point north of New Hampton, Rob got to clearly see a meteorite that would be classified as a "fireball."  Tammy also saw some of it, but I don't think she saw this one as clearly as I was able to.

This one was more than the usual meteorite as it was much bigger and brighter.  I could actually see a green coloration and the shadow of the central object surrounded by the material that was burning off as it entered the atmosphere.  It was definitely a "WOW" moment.

After we got home and completed chores and got ourselves into the house, I decided to do a little looking to see if I could learn more.  I found the American Meteor Society's website and started doing some reading, learning that we had probably witnessed a brighter meteorite that is classified as a fireball.  In fact, they actually encouraged reporting of this sort of event.

Well, I figured other people must have seen this thing because so many were out trying to see the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) that were predicted to be visible Sunday night (none were observed).  But, I had no way of knowing whether or not others knew about the AMS site and the opportunity to make these reports.

Well, if you look on the map, you can see that there were plenty of individuals who not only saw the fireball, but they also reported the fireball!

As of November 1st, ninety-four (94) observations were reported.  And, to top it off, a few people actually managed to have a camera pointed in the correct direction.  The first photo in this blog comes from the AMS site.

The observer, a Dan B, is apparently an experienced observer and frequently takes photos of the night sky.  Here is the text he included with his observation:

"This was a stroke of luck for me. I was out shooting a few test shots to see if they were going to pick up the possible auroras this evening. I just happened to be taking a 15 second shot (24mm lens at f/1.8 ISO 1250 Nikon D750 Camera) and the meteor streaked through the frame perfectly centered but fairly low on my Northeastern Horizon. I was also looking right at it when it happened which is a first for me because all my other meteor reports were taken with an automated meteor surveillance camera and not witnessed by myself in person. The colors of this meteor were incredible going from white to purple to green. I have not seen any auroras yet but this was enough for me. My backyard amateur roll-off-roof observatory can be seen in the foreground of the shot. That's a 20" Obsession Telescope aimed at the sky. The fall colors in the trees lit up by the surrounding street lights added to the amazing colors of the meteor. WOW!!!!!!!!!!"

While I don't think I'll worry too much about adding sky photography and a roof observatory as a hobby, it is always neat to hear the enthusiasm an experienced observer has for an event such as this.

The cool thing for Tammy and I is that our report and its connection to all of the others takes what we saw a bit out of the "did I dream that" realm and more into that of reality.  We really DID see that and it really WAS pretty awesome.

From AMS site on Nov 1, 2021

One of the joys of living in the country is that we can observe the night sky with much less light pollution than most of the population.  But, it is pretty amazing exactly how much even small towns such as Tripoli and Frederika can obscure parts of the heavens with their lights.  Even though we are a decent distance from Waverly and Waterloo/Cedar Falls, we can't see much beyond the brightest stars in the lower skies to the south.

And, because we farm and are outside frequently, we do take the time to look up to those heavens to see the stars winking their greetings to us.  The constellations of Orion and the Big Dipper are familiar and we take delight in observing the moon as it goes through its phases.  We often have discussions about which planet we are observing and probably get it right much of the time.

And sometimes, we get to see something that makes us exclaim - "WOW!"

picture by Annika S in Wisconsin

Another cool thing about these reports is that the different perspectives help to figure out exactly where the meteorite was traveling.  The photo at the right (from the AMS site) was taken in Mineral Point, Wisconsin.  

I like this photo because, if you click on it to see the larger version, you can see the trail for a long time in the sky, but the brighter portion that I was able to see is low to the horizon for this viewer.  The first photo was west of the meteorite and also near the horizon.  But, they were closer to our latitude, so angle appears to be less steep.

We were pretty much a close to being directly under this fireball as anyone could be.

The other amazing thing about this fireball was the strength of the colors.  While we only saw green before the meteorite ceased to be visible, the first photo clearly shows some beautiful purple or violet shades.  

It is my understanding that much of the color comes from vaporized atoms from the object entering the atmosphere.  The colors can tell us something about some of the elements on the object as they "burn off." I only know the tiniest bit about spectroscopy, but reading on the AMS site tells me the green may have come from nickel or copper.

There you are, I've learned a few new things and I know there is so much more to learn.  I hope you enjoyed a little exploration into something new (for me and maybe for you).

Update Nov 2

The number of observations has grown to 101 at the AMS site and the NASA Meteor Watch on Facebook included additional information as follows below:

A bright fireball was reported by many eyewitnesses in the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri last night at 8:34 PM Central Daylight Time. Analysis of their accounts, combined with duration information from a couple of publicly accessible cameras, indicate that the meteor first appeared 60 miles above the Iowa town of Reinbeck, moving almost due south at 87,000 miles per hour. It disintegrated 44 miles above Oskaloosa, having travelled 73 miles through the upper atmosphere in just under 3 seconds.

Let me say it again.  Wow.