desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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Given the numerous ways photos can be digitally fudged and fiddled with, I'm inclined to dismiss this as at best a strange illusion. (At worst, a minor bit of fraud.)
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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If the trail is a vapor or condensation trail, it is possible that it was left by a subsonic or supersonic object due to aerodynamic effects (high humidity, low pressure vortices in the object's wake, etc.). If it is the object, it must be supersonic to move so far during the exposure, which appears to be relatively short because the image, especially the foliage (not visible in the photo above, but can be seen in the original color photo that was linked), is sharp and the water is not smoothed out by wave action as would be indicative of a time-esposure (this is a photo from a time-elapse sequence). The trail is many hundreds of meters long at least, and if from a subsonic object, leaving a vapor trail or not, it should follow a curved ballistic trajectory. A straight trail denotes a high supersonic speed.
Again, we need the negative, assuming film was used to begin with.
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desertstars
Reged: 11/05/03
Posts: 41911
Loc: Tucson, AZ
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A few pictures following the impact wouldn't hurt the case, either.
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Thomas Watson
Author of Mr. Olcott's Skies. Available in paperback and ebook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
@desertstarsbks
Under Desert StarsEither Way, It's Reading
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MaritimeSky
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/18/04
Posts: 571
Loc: Nova Scotia, Canada
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I'd definately say it's possible - I am but one of MANY witnesses of such an occurance which happened back in the late 90's I believe, here on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia, approximately 30 miles east of Halifax.
From my home looking northeast out a large picture window (which happens to be directly behind the TV we were watching) myself and 3 of my friends witnessed a large fireball hurtling straight down out of the sky which glowed like one of those really luminous blue fireball fireworks, it was moving quite fast - not likely 30,000 mph, but likely in the thousands. A few seconds after it sunk below our local horizon there was a VERY loud boom which rattled the windows and shook the ground. Needless to say we were pretty freaked out to have witnessed this event.
As it turned out, the next day the event was covered by the local media on nearly every station - turns out we were but a handful of witnesses to the event, and the sound shockwave was even heard (and even felt by some) in Halifax/Dartmouth as well. I would estimate by the abruptness of the sonic boom from impact so soon after the object dropped below the horizon, that it was no more than 20 miles from us when it struck.
I do not believe the impact site was ever determined, although I may be incorrect. It probably struck one of the many shallow lakes in the area.
One thing I know for sure though, I feel very fortunate to have been a witness to this rare occurance - and not be one of those victims who drive up the odds of being struck by a meteorite. When the sonic boom occured, I couldn't help but get a sinking feeling that something could be terribly wrong here, but fortunately it must've been just a basketball or lesser sized chunk and we're all still here to tell the story. Many times I have wondered - what if that rock had been just a little bigger?
Scary stuff, but an awesome display of the tremendous forces which abound in our universe.
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Jamie D.
Antares 8" F/6 Dobsonian
Skywatcher 130mm F/5 EQ2
Antares 90mm F/5.5 achro AZ1
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70
Vortex Stokes Talon 8x42
Bushnell Legend 8x26
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Bill Grass
Prince Regent
Reged: 10/07/03
Posts: 11665
Loc: Baton Rouge, LA
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Wow!! That is pretty scary! Thank goodness it didn't hit a house or something else where there were a lot of people.
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MaritimeSky
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/18/04
Posts: 571
Loc: Nova Scotia, Canada
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Quote:
Wow!! That is pretty scary! Thank goodness it didn't hit a house or something else where there were a lot of people.
So true. Afterwards I had a very nagging urge to go searching for the site (it's all fairly remote wilderness with lots of access roads and logging roads) but never actually went out looking. On the news they said it was estimated to strike somewhere due north of Jeddore, in a very difficult area to traverse (not that many logging roads in that particular neck of the woods) so I never thought twice about looking for it after that, half expecting to see some aerial photos of the site taken by local recearchers/media once it had been located anyways. I never did hear anymore about it after that - no idea what was turned up. I guess nothing conclusive, because I can't even find mention of it on the web (maybe my searching skillz just *bleep*), no impact record or even observation reports. I'd love to learn more about the event if I could ever locate some more info.
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Jamie D.
Antares 8" F/6 Dobsonian
Skywatcher 130mm F/5 EQ2
Antares 90mm F/5.5 achro AZ1
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70
Vortex Stokes Talon 8x42
Bushnell Legend 8x26
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Cerberus
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 10/16/04
Posts: 2691
Loc: Kansas
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I saw a large fire ball once also, I must have watched for at least 20 seconds until it feel behind trees. No boom though! 
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And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Update: This made today's APOD, and Phil Plait has added the story to his main page. We've been discussing it over at the BABB as well.
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Charlie Hein
Postmaster
Reged: 11/02/03
Posts: 11211
Loc: 26.06.08N, +80.23.08W
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This photo made the APOD. The buzz is that this event is not as easy to explain as you might first think. For example, the lightpole that you can clearly see sparking and smoking shows no apparant damage... see the article for more info.
Charlie
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Weston CSC:
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MaritimeSky
professor emeritus
Reged: 11/18/04
Posts: 571
Loc: Nova Scotia, Canada
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Perhaps if it WAS a meteorite, it may have had a static charge from entering the atmosphere?? Maybe the effect in the photo is something like a highly localized lightning strike? It will be interesting to see what becomes of this.
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Jamie D.
Antares 8" F/6 Dobsonian
Skywatcher 130mm F/5 EQ2
Antares 90mm F/5.5 achro AZ1
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70
Vortex Stokes Talon 8x42
Bushnell Legend 8x26
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Bill Grass
Prince Regent
Reged: 10/07/03
Posts: 11665
Loc: Baton Rouge, LA
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I like the bug explanation on Phil Plait's site.
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dgs©
Postmaster
Reged: 03/29/04
Posts: 15091
Loc: West Monroe, Louisiana
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I was thinking the streak might be a spider web close to the lens and the flash was the instant the light bulb blew (they did say that it was out when checked later)... but then, that's a pretty big coincidence. 
Guess I need to give badastronomy.com a look.
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- david
8"Ø Newtonian on SVP, Moonlite CR2, Telrad
PST Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Orion Ultraview 10×50
Hand-me-down Sears Refractor (Discoverer) 60mm×900mm
"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world, remains and is immortal." --Albert Pike
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Tim2723
The Moon Guy
Reged: 02/19/04
Posts: 5762
Loc: Northern New Jersey
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Well, if nothing else, this guy has had his fifteen minutes of fame.
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Intes MK-66 Deluxe (6" f/12 Maksutov)
Celestron C-102HD (4" f/10 achromat)
Celestron C-102AZ (4" f/5 achromat)
Orion 6LT (6" f/8 classic Newtonian)
Orion Apex 90 (90mm Mak spotter/grab-n-go/little fun scope)
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