Green light in jozi sky

Here's another one. From dimity123's twitter stream. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UOcRCSxeS4[/ame]
 
A while back I was driving on the N2 in Durban. Suddenly there was a bright bluish white light and then it went dark. I got a picture somewhere around to prove it along with a R200 receipt for doing 120 something in a 120km zone.
 
I am an astronomer trying to work out the path of this meteor. I would like to know from people who actually saw the meteor (not behind clouds) to let me have some info. Your exact location, was the meteor east or west of you, altitude("very low", avout 30 deg","about 60 deg", "almost overhead") and whether you heard an explosion or felt a shock wave. please reply to [email protected]
 
While impressive to the human eye, the meteor is actually quite small by historical standards, would probably have broken up in the atmosphere, and is unlikely to have made a crater on landing.

In any case the likely landing zone is probably a huge area (20,000 km2), and rocky bushveld, so the chances of finding anything are quite low.

Most meteorites have been found in level, featureless areas such as the Sahara Desert or Antarctica, where they stand out clearly from their surroundings.
 
The problem with trying to find where this meteor fell is that is travelling at a few thousand kilometres per hour and the ground it covers in a matter of seconds is huge. Another thing to remember is the meteor will look like any other rock lying around, only the impact crater will betray its location.
 
According to reports it came down in Botswana ( unless it completely burned up ).

If it fell into swamp/water then I guess it's not ever going to be located.
 
Could also be misquoted as 90,000 km/h, which is 25km/sec, and more typical of meteors.

I don't think 90km/sec is likely for an object in the solar system, nor is it consistent with the trajectory in the video footage IMO.

Correction Nazi: This would be a factor of 3600 seconds per hour, not 1000 meters per kilometer.
 
Warp

Gordon_R said:
Could also be misquoted as 90,000 km/h, which is 25km/sec, and more typical of meteors.
I don't think 90km/sec is likely for an object in the solar system, nor is it consistent with the trajectory in the video footage IMO.
Correction Nazi: This would be a factor of 3600 seconds per hour, not 1000 meters per kilometer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the correction -- I did put a question mark after my "correction"

Must have got this thread confused with the Star Trek one :D

( As explained by your space-time warp )


MW
 
Well the speed could be correct. Depending on the angle of entry these meteors get slowed down considerably. That's why people managed to survive getting hit by smaller meteors.
 
Aurora

daveza said:
According to reports it came down in Botswana ( unless it completely burned up ).
If it fell into swamp/water then I guess it's not ever going to be located.
Click to expand...

See my other thread ( the hijacked one ) :D

The UFO actually "LANDED" at Thebe Phatswa :erm:

What everyone in Bots heard was the --> Sonic Boom --> generated when decellerating into landing mode. :D

MW
 
There are many references on the web that explain solar system orbits, and explain why meteor impact speed is limited to a range of 12-70 km/sec. Speeds in the evening are lower than early morning speeds, due to the relative positions of the earth and sun. For comparison the earth's orbital speed is 28km/sec.

One good summary explains that bright fireballs are called 'bolides', and are often accompanied by sonic booms:
http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/ross/phys2081/meteor.htm

This article also states that only about 500 meteorites land on earth each year, and most are not recovered.

Oh, this is a broadband forum. Sorry, I confused it with a science one ;-)
 
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