Meteor changing direction last night?

[GazOC]

Gary!!! Thank God someone else has seen something similar!!

Jam: It seemed pretty uniform in speed, certainly until it went off on the angle. It wasn't a really fast meteor, same sort of speed as the fireballs that seem to move a little slower than most meteors. Too fast for a sattelite though and didn't make any noise to be a low flying aircraft.

AAF: Thats some contrail!

Thanks for the input and theories guys. I didn't want to come across as a UFO nut (or a Santa nut for that matter!)

Edited December 6, 2012 by GazOC

[scoobee]

take your pick, santa, UFO or prince Harry in his helicopter after celebrating ?!

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm going to back Gaz up here and say that i have also seen what appeared to be a meteor changing direction. It happened a couple of yrs ago during the Geminid's shower. Some good explanations here as to the cause.

[Cath]

I'm going to back Gaz up here and say that i have also seen what appeared to be a meteor changing direction. It happened a couple of yrs ago during the Geminid's shower. Some good explanations here as to the cause.

Well, if we're going round the Sun at 60,000mph, and we plough into a meteor shower coming the opposite way, that would mean the meteors speed through our atmosphere is going to be far more than 60,000mph. How does anything we know about travelling at such speeds make such an extreme sudden turn like that? .. the amount of energy needed would be I don't how much, but must be lots?

Even if the meteor shower is going our way, I guess it's speed through the atmosphere could still be more than 10 or 20,000mph?

I guess if you guys are seeing these things then they are there, but how on earth could a meteor make such a maneuver?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Cath, to be honest i dont think they are actually turning in a different direction. The explanations above go a long way to explaining closer to the truth as to what is happening.........ie 2 meteors crossing paths a fraction of a second apart and our brains seeing them as one meteor changing direction. During the Geminid shower a couple of years ago,i saw what looked like a meteor going in one direction and then it seemed to go back in exactly the same direction that it just came from. Obviously it was 2 meteors heading towards each other from my perspective and as soon as the first one vanished the second one hit the atmosphere and went in the direction of the first. It REALLY looked like a single meteor doubled back on itself.

[allcart]

explosion doesn't seem logical to me. There would have to be a significant burst of energy to fragment a meteor (visible to the naked eye) and although it might break up, surely the fragments would still travel in the same general direction and then burn up like a shower of sparks.

Two meteors travelling in opposie directions....slightly possible.

Bouncing off the atmosphere might seem more plausible.

Aliens........NO. even alien spacecraft cannot turn at sharp angles. handbrakes do not work in space.

[Sean Burton]

Hi  I looked up into the sky last night and saw a faint object moving slowly it looked high altitude and had the appearance of a distant star then to my amazement it started to turn left then accelerated at high speed across the sky I then lost sight of it , I’ve looked at possible meteor breaking up explanations however this was strange and amazing 

Sean Burton , Aston  

[mattjanes100]

An explanation that hasn't been suggested yet, and possibly the most simple, is that this sighting is the result of an optical illusion.

We know that physics won't allow the true direction change so most likely this was a 'skim' off the denser atmosphere which was viewed from an acute angle, giving the appearance of a sharp turn. 

[Sean Burton]

I saw similar Friday night around 8.30pm I’m not familiar with areas of the sky this object looked like a faint distant star moving slowly looked nothing too interesting however it then turned 90 degrees and accelerated away at high speed  , most theories explain meteors breaking up this looked something different  

[Sean Burton]

Sorry Mattjane 100 I’m new at this just saw your reply to my sighting just seen your post thank you  😎 I often look up at the sky at night and previously just seen the usual but this was something different I didn’t take my off of it for a split second , I would tend to agree with yours and other explanations purely based on the fact that our position in the universe would almost make it impossible for any alternative life form to travel to our planet and visit in the brief window that man occupies earth 

[barkis]

I can add another tale to this phenomena.
In 1958, I was stationed at a trade training camp in Great Malvern in Worcesteshire. I was doing an electrical  course 
at a camp called Blackmore One, which was an Electrical training Workshops.  Another camp, Blackmore two, was used to 
train Vehicle Mechanics. This camp was empty of personel from  1800 hours, until 0800 the following day.
Being empty, and with lots of equipment stored in the workshop, the place had to be guarded overnight.
It was one of those stags I was on myself, one cold night in November 1956. It was damned cold, and it was a two hour stint.
The night was very clear, with no moon, but ablaze with stars. I remember looking at nothing in particular, but I saw two star like objects
moving in tandem, about  two moons widths apart. It was difficult to judge how fast they were moving, and I'd no Idea about their height.
The thing that threw me, was after a while their movement stopped, and shortly after, they moved again, but this time at a right angle to their
previous direction, side by side. I figured it being an aircraft, but the silence at that place was absolute, and I'm sure an aircraft engine noise
could have been heard. This was no figment of imagination, and it has puzzled me since that very night. 
Sputnik was launched in 1957, but I know of no other artificial objects man made that could have accounted for what I saw.
There will be an explanation, but it beats the hell of of me what it was.
 

 

Edited October 20, 2019 by barkis

[xtreemchaos]

ive seen many strange things over the years, things ive thought where satilites going across the sky that make a sharp turns sometimes suddenly start going backwards what thay are I havnt a clue but theres one think for sure do,do happens you only have to watch and over time your going to see something that makes you think. if your going to laugh laugh kindly 😀. charl.

[maw lod qan]

Seeing something move in ways we cant imagine it moving, leaves us all scratching our heads. 

Maybe some day the militaries of the world will owe up to their incredible secret vehicles, but till then, I'll still believe in alien visitors