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Mawthook · Mar 26, 2009, 06:03 AM

I saw a very bright streaking light in the south (south/ southwest) sky early this morning at about 12:25 am. I am located in central Nova Scotia. It was much larger and much brighter than a shooting star. It was larger enough and bright enough to catch my attention through my french doors in my bedroom while I was watching TV. Did anyone else see it and can you tell me what it was?

ebaines · Mar 26, 2009, 07:01 AM

Can you describe how fast it was moving? Also, when you say it was "much brighter than a shooting star" are you saying that you don't believe it could have been a meteor? Why not?

Mawthook · Mar 26, 2009, 09:19 AM

It was only visible for about a second through the small visible portion of the sky that I could see through the french door; very small window of visibility. My bedroom was lit only by the TV but it was bright enough to catch my attention while my eyes were on the TV. The door is about 7 feet away from the TV. I suppose it could have been a meteor but it was larger, brighter and probably slower than any shooting star I've ever seen before but I'm not expertly experienced in meteor sighting. I'm used to shooting stars being tiny points of light streaking across the sky very quickly. This was not like that.

Capuchin · Mar 26, 2009, 01:54 PM

Meteors can be fairly bright

Absolutely breathtaking

asking · Mar 26, 2009, 06:40 PM

A big bright shooting star is called a bolide.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...-8&sa=N&tab=wi

How slow it seems depends on the angle it's coming in at compared to where you are standing. So if it's coming almost straight down towards you, it will look fast and short. If it's going across the sky at more of a right angle it might last a lot longer.

Another possibility, depending on where you live, is some rocket part reentering the atmosphere. I've seen Vandenberg rockets taking off and one time a Russian rocket reentering. Spectacular!

FlyYakker · Mar 27, 2009, 02:49 PM

Even the speed across the sky can be faster or slower depending on whether the meteor is running into the earth from behind , from the side or from the front as the earth is moving around its orbit. Obviously two object running into each other from opposite directions will have greater relative speeds than two object moving in the same direction but at different speeds.

asking · Mar 27, 2009, 03:06 PM

Ah! FlyYakker, You are right. I knew I was forgetting something important about apparent speed. It was nagging at me.

asking · Apr 4, 2009, 11:39 AM

Any possibility that Mawthook saw this rocket launch?

The Sky This Week 3/26/09

Thursday, March 26

Soyuz TMA-14 with three crew members aboard are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 6:49 a.m. on a mission to the International Space Station.

FlyYakker · Apr 6, 2009, 04:20 AM

Asking, I doubt it. Kazakhastan a very long distance away and the Soyuz would have been headed East as well. There is also a eleven hour (give or take) time zone difference so the times don't really match, even without the within-the hour 25 minute difference. Most likely your bolide theory, or simply a honking big meteorite fit the bill.

JimGunther · Aug 15, 2009, 04:10 AM

In addition to all of the above, most people don't seem to be aware that tons of matter from space falls on the Earth every day. Seeing something like that might not be as unusual as people think. When I worked for NASA, I was showing some kids around the Visitors' Center at Goddard when one of them asked about the moon rock we had there at that time from some of the Apollo missions. The kid asked me, "Can I see some of that stuff that came from space?" Sure, I said, and picked up a handfull of gravel from the sidewalk. I told the kid a truism that many forget-every grain of sand and drop of water on this planet fell from space at one time or another...