NASA tracked wild 'earthgrazer' meteor fireball for 186 miles through the air:
Some meteors are fancier than others. Lucky skywatchers in the southeastern US were treated to a fantastic fireball on Tuesday night. Data from NASA shows it was quite a whopper, traveling 186 miles (300 kilometers) through the air.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama tweeted images of the fireball as captured by NASA meteor cameras. A map shows the trajectory stretched across Georgia and into Alabama before ending above the town of Lutts, Tennessee.
NASA Meteor Watch, a group that brings together the work of meteor experts and amateur meteor watchers, gave an update on the fireball on Facebook on Wednesday. "Last night's fireball over Georgia and Alabama was what we call an earthgrazer, in which the meteor's trajectory is so shallow it just skims across the upper atmosphere for a long distance."
The group described the event as "a rare meteor for those fortunate enough to see it." A video from a meteor camera at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, shows part of the fireball's path.
We're currently in a good fireball-watching season as the Taurid meteor shower is underway. The Taurids are caused by dust and debris from an ancient comet. When those little bits hit the atmosphere, they can burn up into bright "shooting stars."
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 19 2021, @11:02PM
just, dont...
(Score: 2) by Kymation on Friday November 19 2021, @11:10PM (3 children)
George is not a state.
(Score: 1) by Frigatebird on Saturday November 20 2021, @12:23AM
He's nearly big enough to be one, tho.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @01:02AM
also apparently there are 1.5m people named George in USA, so pretty good chance it was not factually incorrect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 20 2021, @03:51PM
all these people saying that George is not a state.
George is getting upset!
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Friday November 19 2021, @11:16PM (2 children)
I didn't read TFA but TFS sounds like it has escaped Earth's gravitational field after its pass so it has gone back to space after crossing our atmosphere. It would have been insightful to get that information in TFS.
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 19 2021, @11:30PM (1 child)
took the FS to mean it was never going to touch down even if it did not burn up.
(Score: 2) by ls671 on Saturday November 20 2021, @12:56AM
Well if it didn't completely burn up, since it was visible at night, chances are it might have been deviated enough to head toward the Sun. This would cause it to eventually burn up for sure if it isn't deviated again by another celestial body, unless it is an intergalactic body which has enough speed to escape even Sun's gravitational field :)
Everything I write is lies, including this sentence.