Something hot and bright came speeding down from the sky after 10:30 p.m. Monday night. While nobody knows exactly where or even if it hit the ground, many observers across the Pacific Northwest watched its fiery descent in amazement.
Reports of the fireball flooded into the American Meteor Society overnight, according to Jim Todd, the director of space science education at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. While most eyewitnesses were in the Portland-Vancouver area, many reports also came from as far away as Seattle, Eugene, Ore., Boise, Idaho, and San Francisco.
There were 135 eyewitness reports in all, according to a searchable database maintained by the American Meteor Society. (Staff at the nonprofit scientific agency screen every incoming report to make sure the object wasn’t actually a satellite or other misunderstood phenomenon before posting to the database.)
“It looked as bright as a sun, and huge,” reported one Vancouver witness, identified in the database as Carlos P. “I shouted to my wife as I ran to the sliding door to see if it could be seen anymore, frantically telling her about what I just witnessed and then showed her the smoke trail.”
“This was different from anything I’ve witnessed. Brighter and larger than any meteor I’ve seen,” reported Shelley O. of Vancouver.
“It was magical — seems unreal. A super large bright green ball shining falling from the sky straight down,” reported Elizabeth J. of Vancouver.
It may have been magical, but it was a “typical fireball — quick and bright,” Todd said.
“Fireballs are caused by space rocks that enter the Earth’s atmosphere and are slowed down and heated by friction,” he said. “Objects that cause fireballs can be larger than one meter in size.”
While it’s rare for a meteor or meteor fragments to hit the ground, it’s not unheard of. That’s why Todd urges anyone with eyewitness information and especially with security or dashboard camera videos to send what they’ve got to the American Meteor Society’s Fireball Log.
There’s always a lot more meteor and fireball activity overhead than you can see, according to the American Meteor Society. Several thousand fireballs hit our atmosphere every day, but the vast majority are masked by daylight or unseen because they’re over oceans or unpopulated places.
Fireballs can have two types of trails: trains and smoke trails. A train is a glowing line of ionized air molecules left behind after the passage of the meteor. Most trains last only a few seconds, but on rare occasions a train may last several minutes and change shape in the wind. Trains are usually high in the upper atmosphere and seen only at night.
A fireball that makes it all the way down into the lower atmosphere may put off smoke that looks like an aircraft contrail. Unlike a train, a smoke trail is not luminous.
The reliably biggest, brightest annual meteor shower has already ended for this year. That’s the Perseids, which we can see when the Earth passes through the trail of a comet every August. However, plenty more meteors may grab your attention this season. About to begin are the Southern Taurids (through November, peaking in early October), followed by the Oronids (peaking in late October), the Leonids (peaking in late November) and the Geminids (late November through mid-December).
Your best bet for meteor viewing is usually as late as you can stand to stay up: after midnight and before dawn.
