Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Utah Fireball

Last night at approximately 12:20-12:30 a.m. a huge fireball exploded over the state of Utah. The flash was so bright that for a moment it appeared as bright as day! Astronomers say the meteor was about the size of a washing machine and exploded with the equivalent of a thousand tons of TNT!

I saw the white flash through my blinds as I was on the computer. I looked over and thought to myself, "Hmm, that's kind of odd. Usually car headlights aren't that bright."

The following picture was taken at the height of the explosion - in the middle of the night!
Photo courtesy KSL.com

Check out the local news station's report to see some incredible videos, including the video the above frame was taken from:
Meteor the size of oven lights up the night sky, alarms Utahns

Coincidentally the annual Leonids meteor shower hit its peak yesterday, although spaceweather.com claims that this fireball had nothing to do with the shower.

3 comments:

Hewett Gardeners said...

Argh!! I was "awake" but drowsily listening to a story. if only i had been out weeding or something :)

thanks for the heads up. out of curiosity, what would have happened if it had hit a city? what kind of size is a meteor like that once it reaches the ground?

Rachel said...

I find it kind of ironic that such a celestial phenomenon happened over the most Mormon saturated city in the world! Is anyone running around declaring the end of the world yet?

dbc said...

Has anyone found this thing yet?