Meteor or Not?

Carl Hergenrother, ,

Below are a collection of YouTubevideos of meteors and phenomenon that are mistaken for meteors. First some real, albeit very bright, meteors or fireballs.

Australia Fireball

1972 Daylight Fireball

1992 Peekskill Meteorite

Meteor Compilation

The next few videos are related to meteors but involve the re-entry of man-made spacecraft rather than small natural bodies.

Jule Verne Re-Entry

Russian Rocket Re-Entry

Shuttle Break-up

Shuttle Re-Entry

The final video is of an object going up into space rather then coming down. This is of a rocket launch from the USAF Vandenberg AFB in southern California. I have seen a few of these launches from Tucson.  Even though we’re 100s of miles away, launches can be easy to see if the lighting is right.

Rocket Launch

Published by Carl Hergenrother

I am a professional astronomer specializing in the study of comets, asteroids and meteors. This blog will focus on my professional and amateur work in this field.

3 Comments

  1. Just found you with 29 palms + meteor and wanted to tell you that I live out in Yucca Valley and just got up to let the cat out and saw my first meteor coming in from the west and burning out over what looked like 29 palms. Outstanding!

  2. Hi! I must have saw the same thing, I was parked waiting to meet my husband, and was looking to the north and a big ball of light was coming down towards the east, was large and bright, simply amazing! Wasn’t sure if it was a meteor, or what, but if it is what they call a falling star, it seemd real close. possibly 1-2 hours north of here. I live in Ramona, California and it was around 5:10am this morning.

  3. I filmed “Space Shuttle Night Reentry” (TheJediCharles on YouTube). It was a spectacular sight and I’m so glad I thought to video it and much later post it on YouTube for others to enjoy.

    Thank you for honoring it with posting it on your great blog! 🙂

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