Comet Thatcher--did you hear it this morning?

[SeaMaiden]

A little over an hour ago we were sitting here at home, chatting and having our coffee. All of a sudden we hear a massive, and I do mean MASSIVE, BOOM -- BOOM! Then more rumbles and booms. Sounded like an explosion to me, we jumped up because lemme tell ya, it was LOUD. Shook the hell out of the house, sounded like a sonic boom or an earthquake, except that we're in this teeny tiny pocket of almost zero groundshake in California and the house wasn't shaking even though the windows were shaking all to hell.

So I get onto the internets and find one of those sites for listening to the local scanner frequencies. Can't learn anything except that there are a LOT of reports of an explosion or series of explosions.

Now, a little over an hour later we learn via KCRA that the National Weather Service is reporting that the comet Thatcher hit the atmosphere over Tuolomne County. This explosion was heard by us, well over 50mi away by my guesstimation, and even further away by some friends up in South Lake Tahoe!

So, didja hear it? Didja see it? Woman phoned in from Ceres saying she saw what she thought was a "falling star" (hey, some people think hummingbirds are insects, what can I say?).

This explosion scared the living shit outta me. It's been decades since I've heard a sonic boom, grew up hearing them when dad was a Navy pilot in San Diego. But those are just two booms, boom BOOM. Not BOOM BOOM rumble rumble BOOM boom rumble rumble, for almost a full minute.

Dayumn...!

Btw, anyone have a good, reliable site for police/public safety personnel scanning and listening? There's a serious lack of traffic on the channels I'm listening to.

 

[mofeta]

Hi Seamaiden

Wow that is cool!

...the comet Thatcher hit the atmosphere over Tuolomne County.

It was actually remnants of the comet left in its trail, the so called tail of the comet. These remnants are pretty small, the largest are usually just a few grams. The one you heard was probably smaller than my fist. If the comet itself had actually hit Earth, even a glancing blow, we wouldn't be talking about it now.

Last night was the peak of the annual Lyrid meteor showers. The Lyrids are the result of the Earth passing through the trail of dust and ice left by comet Thatcher as it revolves around the Sun in an orbit that takes a little over 400 years.

Unlike the better known Leonid and Perseid showers, the Lyrids usually produce only about 10 an hour (Leonid and Perseid can produce >100/hr). But, the Lyrids produce more large "fireball" meteors, capable of casting a shadow, and sound, ranging from a hissing/crackling to a boom like you heard.

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

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[Hash Zeppelin]

That's crazy. I heard it. it shook my house to and made me jump. i thought there was a gun shot or explosion or something.

 

[mpd]

The guys from Meteorite Men will be all over this in a flash.

 

[hashcat88]

didnt hear it in Oakland....dang

 

[SeaMaiden]

I can't believe more people didn't hear it or see it.

Mofeta, thanks for that information, I was going off what was being announced on the news (I know, I know).

It's good to know that I still know a sonic boom when I hear one.

 

[vta]

 

[mofeta]

I can't believe more people didn't hear it or see it.

Mofeta, thanks for that information, I was going off what was being announced on the news (I know, I know).

It's good to know that I still know a sonic boom when I hear one.

Hi Seamaiden

I think a lot of people saw it, one lady in Reno even got some photos of it:

 

[mrcreosote]

We should be this lucky...

 

[flubnutz]

is that what they call a bolide?

 

[SeaMaiden]

Mofeta, I've been searching for photos or video of the thing, all I've been able to find are videos of people talking about. If anyone's got more they'd like to share, I would love to see.

 

[mofeta]

Hi Seamaiden

The only good photos I know of that are for sure of the one you heard are the ones taken by the lady in Reno that I posted above.


Looks like this was a big one, much larger than I thought. It was a very special thing that you witnessed. Here is what the JPL guys had to say:

NASA researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the midair explosion, centered over California's Central Valley east of the San Francisco Bay area, was the equivalent of the detonation of about 3.8 kilotons of TNT—about one quarter the energy released by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

"The meteor was probably about the size of an SUV," said Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. "This was a big one. An event of this size might happen about once a year, but most of them occur over the ocean or an uninhabited area."

SOURCE: WSJ-Meteor Produces Sound and Fury This is one of the better news articles about this.


Wow. Wish I had seen/heard it. You are lucky.

 

[russjcan]

I heard it here in Stockton but I thought it was just the normal gunfights.