Expert: Tom Whiting - 6/7/2006

Question
Dear Tom,
I hope you can help me with this puzzle.  Last night, around 1:45 AM PT, I went out on my deck to try to catch a breeze.  Suddenly, the sky lit up as it does with a lightning strike.  I whipped my head around to the east to see what it was. I saw, very briefly, an extremely bright ball of light.  Fortunately, I was actually wearing my shoes and ran down over the gravel to the end of our trailer to see whatever else I could. There was absolutely no indication that anything unusual had happened.  No trail, no vagrant sparks, nothing. Here in east central NV, I am accustomed to seeing "shooting stars", and this was unlike any I have ever witnessed.
Either this was the brightest, closest meteorite I have ever seen, viewed head-on, someone's plane suddenly exploding without residual sparks, or ET accidentally leaned on the searchlight button.  First the flare, then the lighting of the sky disappeared, and then the ball just extinguished.(and it was a perfectly circular ball, not just ball-like)
I am hoping that you know of some event, astonomical or of terrestrial origin, that can explain what I saw.  And no, I am not a UFO nut, although I would dearly love to see one!

Thank You,

Judy N. Dunigan

Answer
Hi Judy,
Yes, I am no UFO nut either....in fact, 99.99% of us astronomers do not buy into astrology, Alien visitations, ghosts, goblins, numerology, UFO's, or any of that other occult stuff....as we know better.

Well, I'm afraid to tell you that what you saw ......
(odds on favorite) was just another meteor entering the atmosphere.  (But yours was very special due to the extremely high brightness level)!
They come in many varieties....point-source meteors, a meteor
coming right toward the observer,  are kind of rare, but not unique....I've seen a couple in my lifetime, but not of any
major brightness like you just did.  So yours was very rare.
In fact, what you probably saw could be classed as a "head
on fireball".  Bright, yes, but not close....you report no sounds of any explosion noise nor any sound barrier shock wave sound...crack... a few minutes later....(which I'm sure you are familar with living out in central Nevada) , which would indicate low altitude of 20 miles or less.  All meteors burn due to air friction from 100 to 60 miles high, and most are extinguished by 40 miles high.
(I know, they look a lot closer than that, but they are not.....
you can see headlights of an aircraft at night for over 100
miles, yet it looks like it's just over that hill on the horizon....
a single light a night is very deceptive, distance wise...as you
probably know, living out where it is really dark at night;
look how bright the stars are, and they are trillions of miles
distant!)

The typical naked eye meteor is just a grain of sand, but what you saw was probably the rarer marble-sized or walnut size....they produce the bright fireballs we see lit up for a second or two, and can light up the entire night scene for just a second or two, just like a long flashbulb going off.  And since it didn't move in the sky, or you saw no remaining trail of ionized gases (which can persist for several minutes if they are across your line of sight)....it had to be head on from your
location.  Some head on's can even persist for 4 or 5 seconds,
maybe longer....just a point of light, unmoving, in the sky.

Oh, and it was a meteor, not a meteorite....the word meteorite
is used only after it impacts the surface.  In fact, it's only a
meteor while burning and giving off light and heat due to
air friction.  Prior to entry, it's called a meteoroid.
And we try to avoid the terms "shooting or falling stars"...as they have nothing to do with stars.  (So always use the term
"meteor" (especially around astronomers)! ;-)

Ironically, it's not the size that creates the high brightness....
it's the velocity.  Recall your kinetic energy (KE) formula from
high school algebra, KE  = 1/2 m v squared, so it's that
velocity squared factor...that produces all the light energy,
and not m, the mass of the body.....unless of course, we
ever get hit by a one mile wide body, or larger.
And most meteors are traveling anywhere from 20 to 100
miles per second, relative to the Earth, so they are very
high velocity to begin with.
So that's my best guess.

I've been out traveling thru the Winnemucca, Eureka, Ely-
region several years ago...beautiful country out there.
Unfortunately, I didn't have my portable scope with
me to enjoy your very dark skies out there.  Back east here,
we only have 2 locations with totally dark non-light polluted
skies now.....Spruceknob, W. VA, and Cherry Springs State
Park here in Pennsylvania...the latter one is the one I visit
every new moon weekend along with about 100 amateur
astronomers on those special no-moon, dark, weekends.

We don't buy the UFO either because of the tremendous
energy requirement to travel those trillions of miles from
star to star....no creatures in their right minds would take
20-40 years for a trip, expend all that fuel, energy, time, and money, then just make one pass over ....Steptoe Valley, then say,  "OK guys, pack it in...time to head home....."  NO, they'd
land, explore for a while, etc.  When we eventually go to
Mars, taking 6 months or a year to get there, are we going to fly over the highest mountain on Mars, and then say, "OK, pack it in....time to leave?"  Of course not.
And it does not matter how advanced you are....coal into
a furnace or anti-matter ion drive conversion units...it still
takes the same amount of enormous energy and time....to travel from....point A to point B. ...not even to mention the
ultimate limiting factor..... the speed of light itself.

Well, I've rambled long enough, but for some great pictures
of my newly completed 30 inch portable scope, see our club
website at
http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting
and punch on pictures of the 30 inch scope.
And if you have any other sky observations to report, feel free to contact me directly at bwhiting@velocity.net
as I am retired USAF pilot and have lots of free time on my
hands.
Clear Skies, and hope all this helps you,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA
Pres...Erie Co. Mobile Observers Group