Beautiful disintegrating meteor

[Victor Boesen]

About a week ago when I was out looking for C/2020 F3 NEOWISE I was in the middle of packing up my kit when my attention was suddenly drawn towards a bright light moving across the sky. It moved fast and kept its brightness for a while so if I hadn't seen the ISS about 15 minutes before I'd probably have though it was the ISS, but after following the light for a little my jaw dropped... The bright light suddenly split into what looked like a little less than 10 pieces (didn't count but I have to be at least a little scientific) and some of them lacked a little behind others which continued a little further across the sky.

I was blown away by this and I have never seen anything like this. I can only recall one other experience where I saw a meteor light up in an obvious green color and leave a smoke trail behind it, but never have I ever seen a meteor break up on entry. Unfortunately I was wearing headphones with music (to keep me awake at 4am) so I didn't hear any burst, which I don't know would be audible? What was perhaps the second most surprising was how far the meteor flew before eventually finally burning up. The entire meteor moved somewhere about 30-45 degrees as a rough estimate.

This was a very different experience but I'd really like to hear if anyone else has experienced something like this and if they've "heard" the entry of a meteor.

Clear skies!

Victor

[John]

I have seen a meteor break up a few times but I've never heard any sound from one. Not yet anyway.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Yes, I've seen fireballs (bright meteors) break up / explode. You'd be unlikely to hear sound as they are generally still at 50,000 - 100,000 ft altitude and possibly up to 30 or 40 miles away - depending on altitude above horizon. Only the big ones (bollides and meteorites) get significantly lower (OK meteorites actually hit the ground). 

[Waddensky]

Wonderful observation, thanks for sharing! Do you recall the direction it was heading to? Could be a (very) early Kappa Cygnid, they are known for their bright, flaring, fireballs.

The actual sound of the meteor, comparable to the thunder in a thunderstorm, would take several minutes to reach you. I've read reports of a sizzling sound heard at the same time a bright meteor appeared, but these sounds seem to have a different - though interesting - origin.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Waddensky

[Victor Boesen]

9 hours ago, Tenor Viol said:

Yes, I've seen fireballs (bright meteors) break up / explode. You'd be unlikely to hear sound as they are generally still at 50,000 - 100,000 ft altitude and possibly up to 30 or 40 miles away - depending on altitude above horizon. Only the big ones (bollides and meteorites) get significantly lower (OK meteorites actually hit the ground). 

Thanks for the explanation!

[Victor Boesen]

2 hours ago, Waddensky said:

Wonderful observation, thanks for sharing! Do you recall the direction it wat heading to? Could be a (very) early Kappa Cygnid, they are known for their bright, flaring, fireballs.

The actual sound of the meteor, comparable to the thunder in a thunderstorm, would take several minutes to reach you. I've read reports of a sizzling sound heard at the same time a bright meteor appeared, but these sounds seem to have a different - though interesting - origin.

Thank you!! The meteor appeared roughly in SSE(about 25 degrees alt) and disappeared in SEE(15 degrees alt).

I actually didn't think about the time it would take for the sound to reach me! Thanks for explaining;)

Edited July 17, 2020 by Victor Boesen

[verreli]

The way you describe it, it sounds slow for a meteor.  Could it have been a satellite burning up on re-entry?

[Victor Boesen]

5 minutes ago, verreli said:

The way you describe it, it sounds slow for a meteor.  Could it have been a satellite burning up on re-entry?

I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually. It moved surprisingly slow compared to other meteors I've seen and it didn't leave a smoke trail nor did it flash at any point.

[Bruce Leeroy]

On 16/07/2020 at 23:51, Victor Boesen said:

This was a very different experience but I'd really like to hear if anyone else has experienced something like this and if they've "heard" the entry of a meteor.

I had a very similar experience last night, but I was hand holding 7x35 binos and seen the whole thing enter and break up filling the fov with bright colours and showers of debris, as you say it initialy looked like the ISS/large bright sattelite then burst open, jaw dropping for me😀, I didn't notice any audible noise, this was more or less just above Neowise.