Loud explosions, lights in sky reported from Maryland to N.C

[george_r_1961]

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/mysterious-loud-explosion-heard-hampton-roads


I heard what sounded like thunder and did see a flash thru my window. Thought for a second it was a stray thunderstorm but I guess it wasnt.

Im guessing it was a meteor. That was WAYYYY too close for comfort

[abajan]

REPENT! THE END IS NEAR!

On second thought, it might just be asteroid.

[Squarethecircle]

Aww, I didn't hear anything...

[JonathanBelles]

Being too close to be a meteor, and that two colors were reported..could ball lightning be a cause. Either sonic booms or thunder sounds likely here.

[TexasSam]

I forwarded that to spaceweather.com

[george_r_1961]

I forwarded that to spaceweather.com

Thanks!

As far as I know there is no damage and no injuries.

[vbhoutex]

Being too close to be a meteor, and that two colors were reported..could ball lightning be a cause. Either sonic booms or thunder sounds likely here.

Seen this/heard this too many times in my life living near Eglin AFB and Pensacola NAS. That would be my guess-possible testing of some sort, though I am surprised that it would be on the East coast.

[JonathanBelles]

I've heard sonic booms from MacDill here too.

[Ptarmigan]

Last night I was starwatching and I did see a meteor streak by. It was yellowish and quite bright.

[george_r_1961]

From NWS Wakefield VA


NUMEROUS REPORTS HAVE BEEN CALLED IN TO THIS OFFICE AND INTO LOCAL
LAW ENFORCEMENT CONCERNING WHAT APPEARED TO BE FLASHES OF LIGHT IN
THE SKY OVER THE SUFFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH AREA. WE ARE CONFIDENT IN
SAYING THAT THIS WAS NOT LIGHTNING...AND HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH
MILITARY AND OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES TO DETERMINE THE CAUSE. SO
FAR...WE HAVE NOT SEEN OR HEARD OF ANY DAMAGE FROM THIS AND WILL
CONTINUE TO INQUIRE AS TO THE CAUSE.

[george_r_1961]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511501,00.html


Naval Observatory reports it was most likely a Russian rocket reentering the atmosphere.

[Stephanie]

WOW! How cool is that?

[abajan]

Okay, I'm now a bit more concerned because about 40 minutes ago I saw a pretty bright meteor in the western sky. I haven't seen one that bright in years. I don't know much about astronomy but is it possible that the earth is passing through a region having a high density of asteroids or something? Or could it have been part of the same Russian rocket mentioned in the FoxNews report?

[Stephanie]

Okay, I'm now a bit more concerned because about 40 minutes ago I saw a pretty bright meteor in the western sky. I haven't seen one that bright in years. I don't know much about astronomy but is it possible that the earth is passing through a region having a high density of asteroids or something? Or could it have been part of the same Russian rocket mentioned in the FoxNews report?

Maybe it was some leftover pieces of the rocket. Here's a cool astronomy site that lhas a calendar of celestial events for 2009 and beyond. There is nothing significant listed for the end of March. http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astrono ... _2009.html

[RL3AO]

Those UFO freaks will be all over this.

[abajan]

...Here's a cool astronomy site that lhas a calendar of celestial events for 2009 and beyond. There is nothing significant listed for the end of March. http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astrono ... _2009.html

Nice site, Stephanie. Some of the software that can be downloaded looks interesting too.

[Stephanie]

It does look like an interesting site. I'll have to look into it a little further sometime.

There was a term "fireball" that I saw come up in other websites dedicated to meteors. Here' the definition from the link;

Fireball
An extremely bright meteor. Also known as bolides, fireballs can be several times brighter than the full Moon. Some can even be accompanied by a sonic boom.

Some of the other sites I looked at had people report fireballs. Perhaps this is what you saw?

[RL3AO]

There is the virginids shower going on. Its a moderate shower but Virgo is in the eastern sky in the evening, not the western sky as abajan said.

It was probably a random fireball that go through the Earth's atmosphere all the time. They aren't as uncommon as people think, its just about half of them occur in the daytime when you can't see them and about 70% of them occur over oceans which means about 1/3rd of them occur over land at night (.7x.5)

Not to mention some of those 1/3 that occur over land at night happen over low populated areas (say Siberia or northern Canada) in the middle of the night and aren't seen by more than 10 or 20 people.

[george_r_1961]

Now it appears it was a meteor


http://hamptonroads.com/2009/03/firebal ... enter-says

[Stephanie]

Wow George!

Now I really think that is what abajan saw as well.