Thursday, November 08, 2012

Shooting stars and meteors

I saw a shooting star on August 31st and two Octobers ago.  

And probably other times but those are the most significant ones to me.

And I saw a meteor tonight.

It was a huge ball of white arcing fire shooting through the sky in my town.

I found this interesting:

"Our best estimates of the total incoming meteoroid flux indicate that about 10 to 50 meteorite dropping events occur over the earth each day. It should be remembered, however, that 2/3 of these events will occur over ocean, while another 1/4 or so will occur over very uninhabited land areas, leaving only about 2 to 12 events each day with the potential for discovery by people. Half of these again occur on the night side of the earth, with even less chance of being noticed. Due to the combination of all of these factors, only a handful of witnessed meteorite falls occur each year.

I ran back in to my work to tell them about the fireball I saw and they said "You saw a meteor?  Maybe your luck is going to change!"  Fingers crossed.


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