E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSTraveling at 33,000 mph, a massive meteor hit the Earth's atmosphere creating a giant shockwave that blew out windows of glass, injuring nearly 1,000 people and creating panic. On the same day, an asteroid half the size of a football field came within 17,000 miles from Earth. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
A fireball streaking across the Northern California sky Friday night brought a flood of witness reports -- the same day that a meteor exploded over Russia and an asteroid made a near-Earth fly-by.
The fireball was seen around 7:45 p.m., by witnesses as far north as Fairfield and as far south as Gilroy, NBCBayArea.com reported. It was also reportedly seen in Sacramento and Walnut Creek. NBC station KSBW of Monterey said the object was visible along California's Central Coast, too.
NBCBayArea.com said Candice Guruwaiya gave this account on Facebook of seeing it in San Jose: "I was leaving Safeway on Branham and Snell when I saw it. ... It was a bright green when it first appeared, then it went to a bright yellow. It was awesome!"
The fireball was seen about 24 hours after a meteor exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region and a 150-foot-wide asteroid came within 17,200 miles of Earth.
An astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland told NBCBayArea.com that Friday night's event wasn't related to the asteroid's passing:
Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at Chabot, said he did not see it, but based on accounts he thinks it was a "sporadic meteor," which can happen several times a day but most of the time happens over the ocean, away from human eyes. Sporadic meteors bring as much as 15,000 tons of space debris to Earth each year, according to McKeegan. He explained that meteors, which are hunks of rock and metal from space that fall to Earth, burn up as they go through Earth's atmosphere, which is what apparently caused tonight's bright flash of light.
He said it was likely smaller than another meteor that landed in the Bay Area in October, which caused a loud sonic boom as it fell, breaking apart and spreading rocks, called meteorites, in the North Bay.
More about the cosmic hits (and near-misses):
- Nuclear-like meteor blast injures 1,000 in Russia
- Meteor vs. asteroid? Terms can get tangled
- Meteor warning system ready by 2015
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, speaks to NBC's Lester Holt about the meteor and asteroid that approached Earth on Friday.
Leave a Comment:
Fireballs. Yum cinnamon.
That asteroid was a cosmic 'Valentines' gift, it was made of CHOCOLATE, doncha know! Scientists want to know it's composition? Well I'll tell you: DA 14 stands for Dark chocolate, Almonds.
So long, DA 14, thanks for not destroying the Earth! We are all vulnerable, any moment could be our last, so make the most of our life & our beautiful planet.
Wars kill people to save people,and wars don't end the killing,because they
teach killing people to stop killing people,and so it's a vicious cycle that's
entered into.Wars are violence,and violence begets violence,so wars beget
wars,and so wars can't end wars,they just lead to more wars,and don't make the
world safer as the politicians say,but make the world less safe.And having
former military men as leaders doesn't necessarily mean they are less likely to
take us to war,on the contrary they may be just as likely,possibly even more
so.Many former presidents and leaders have come from the military.The worst
dictator of the 20th century was a former military man,Hitler.
Several years ago there was an article about the doom sayers and Myan calender and how the arm of the our galaxy that contains our solar system would be passing through an area of space called the shooting gallery. This was because it was thought to be an area of high meteor activity and would pose a greater threat to the planets in our system. From all of the recent activity I am beginning to wonder if this hypothesis is correct. The problem is if the article was right it won't matter how deep a hole you dig if anything of a large size and mass hits us.
One rotation of the galaxy equals 1 galactic year which is approximately 225 million years.
1 galactic year ago
Permian–Triassic extinction event
0.26 galactic year ago
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
That is two extinction level events in a 65,000,000 year period so that would be two areas of of high meteor activity we pass through in the beginning and end of that period of time.
Clarification-
We are currently passing through the area of space that the Permian–Triassic extinction event that happened 1 galactic year ago (225,000,000 years). The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event happened 65,000,000 years ago and we will not pass through that area of space again for another 166,500,000 years.
Goodness gracious!!!! GBOF.
Hey - I thought only Firemen and their wives were allowed to play with Fireballs...
The "bugs" are shooting at us. Damn you Klendathu!!!
Where is Chicken Little when you need him? Okay I'll sound the alarm again. THE SKY IS FALLING!!!, THE SKY IS FALLING!!!!
That was no meteor, that was CNN's Wolf "flammer" Blitzer
like our government would ever tell us if a asteroid was really gonna hit. they will be busy getting themselves underground and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves. another perfectly good reason to be armed in this country due to Govt failure to take care of it's people in mass destruction or chaos.
your life is just sad. Hey...since everyone is out to get you, why not just kill yourself so they won't have the satisfaction? Plus, your mom will finally be happy.
geez what would they call it if the asteroid that was the size of a football field hit the City of Chicago??
1. Urban Renewal?
2. A gun confiscation Program?
3. A crime reduction Program?
LUCKY. Good riddence to trash. Maybe two more, one for chi-town and one for detroit.
You forgot. Wonderful........lol
It is probably inaccurate to call them unrelated. We are probably passing through a cloud of unknown objects, and these are just the ones large enough to observe.
Yeah...because you are smarter than they are. And after all..they were just using their VASTLY superior intelligence, plus the fact that they were travelling in DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS to come up with their (correct) opinion. And you were using nothing but ignorance,
Lets see here, one asteroid passes by after a 108 year hiatus, two meteorites enter the atmosphere, and this all happens on the same DAY and the puppets at NASA and the space junkie schools say they are NOT related????? That neal tyson jerk says it is a "Cosmic coinkiedink", NASA says they are NOT related, and they expect everyone to say "Oh, those are educated professors and such, they MUST be telling the truth". BS. They are telling the public what the Governments want them to tell you and I. 2012 DA14 was a lot bigger before it got tagged by some space rock and it was fragmented with many of the chunks sent our way. There is more of this out there and it will be here in the future. Just how big the "Mother Chunk" is, is any ones guess, but don't think for a minute this is all there is to this saga. What they didn't report is the content and direction of these space rocks, they ALL came from the same direction, from the same basic origin in space and were ALL traveling at the same speed. THAT folks is NOT a coincidence, THAT is fact. Cosmic coincidence my azz, too bad they are such panty twister's that they can't tell the truth. They are LIARS, period. 'Nuff said, replies are futile.
you are just an idiot. There is no other way to say it other than you are worthless to society and your own famly wants you dead.
This just in;
The bay area population is so high on pot they thought a plane landing at SFO was a meteor. After much reflection and prayer (not to a christian god) the citizens were thankful they had people like Barack Hussein Obama and Nancy Pelosi on their side.
Nancy gave a press conference and assured the people this was just left over karma from the Bush administration. A meteor bale out bill is in the works for $85 billion. Those legislators from other parts of the country better get on board.
No doubt the meteors were part of the Russian asteroid. A rock that size has smaller ones in tow invisible due to line of sight. Whatever friction experienced by "mother rocks" have less impact on stowaways, enabling them to stray under a host of conditions.
NASA assures us our technology makes us virtually impervious to global killer asteroids. Every badge there knows that's bogus. If we had as many eyes as there are stars to keep watch - billions and billions and billions of trillions of eyes all watching for trillions of years - detection would still be laughable. Point a toothpick at the sky and our entire scope is down that single line and not even very far. In our hunt for "global killers" we squint down it on the off chance the coordinates of a speck of light will change. This constitutes our entire early warning system. Only doomrocks that breach that pathetic line will be noticed.
That pathetic line is our bottom line. Tally everything above it and the inevitable result is that the odds of not scampering from a fireball are worse than every person winning the lottery every day until the end of time and getting struck by lighting at the claims desk.
Oh...no DOUBT! I mean..the people at NASA and Tyson are far smarter than you in EVERY way and they also have all the data to comeup with hteir conclusions that it is not. But YOU say they must be related. So surely they are.
And again, idot...these were coming from DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS. So no...not only is there not "no doubt" of what you said...it is IMPOSSIBLE.
I saw a program once on National Geographic where a tribe on an isolated island worshipped as their god a replica of an airplane because they have seen them flying over the island. I see the same worshipping getting traction in California with these flying objects as the population of that state become more and more math/science challenged.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_22509069/california-abandons-algebra-requirement-eighth-graders
Sh Sh Sh Sh Sh @!$%# for brains...
Is ESP real?
Why should you feel sorry for yourself slob...cause we sure do...
FOOL...
I'm not afraid to stand alone when I hit the water slob because a single tear drop can reveal the deepest and most profound truth -from the most perverted and sickening man kind has ever seen and forced to become a part of on one side to the most beautiful and spectacular man kind has ever witnessed on the other- and at the end of the day -one drop against the entire ocean doesn't begin to measure what eternity is so enjoy the rest of your long life slob on this side of life's stage because it will be over in a blink of an eye because this stage was set before the first page of history was put to paper and we did get the destiny we deserve...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHDQmw2VA9E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TcDHrkQYg (would have been a little cheap and easy)
Bye Hu because this was the most difficult tear to shed...
clink...
Indeed. Space doom is on. And weird things are going on in the seas - you see the story about the 100,000 dolphin pod? Bad stuff is going down...http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Thousands-of-Dolphins-Spotted-Near-San-Diego-191455121.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_BAYBrand
Based upon the report I would have to say that the dolphins are trying to tell us something. The article related to the dolphins coming from all directions to converge into one pod.
Survival in numbers is my best guess to the reason why they are podding like they are.
Coming from all directions....sounds to me like there might be a larger meteorite on its way where the smaller ones would come in first.....the dolphins coming in from all directions.....to form the larger image of the meteor that might be on its way.
Sea life such as dolphins have always been friends of humanity and are very keen to disturbances in space because they live underwater and or subject to the gravitational effects of the Universe that are constantly effecting the pull of Earths Oceans.
If there is problem heading our way that is not normal meaning that a very large object would effect gravitational waves the dolphins would be able to detect it.
Basically dolphins use sound waves to find their way through the water. Gravitational waves effect such navigation and if a very large object was disrupting such waves then the dolphins would know.
Think of the process like a large blizzard. The blizzard being the water. All of a sudden a few large holes open up in the blizzard and continue to move through the blizzard as a whole object. That is basically how dolphins see things underwater.
More studies need to done relating to dolphins and how they can sense things coming from outspace based upon the gravitational influence of such objects on the pull on the Earths Oceans which dolphins can sense.
Thanks for your expert advice. I think you are right...so you should probalby kill yourself quickly now before the painful slow death that is coming.
What we need to do is too reduce how much money politicians make to $75,000 a year across the board and put the rest of the money towards building space based systems that will protect us for such threats.
God will not protect us because our responsibility to preserve our own continuity of our species.
But Satan will try to keep us from doing such a things so that humanity will be destroyed so that humans will reach the state of divine creation by venturing out into the Solar System.
To colonize space is divine.
Where would politians and the media be without the power of fear?
Whatever the reason, most of your comments show how truly ignorant most people are. If NASA wasn't de-funded, what exactly do you think they would have done to these meteorites? Shot laser rays at it from earth. Used proton blasters to desintegrate it? You people are insane. We do not live on Battlestar Gallatica or in the Star Trek Universe. We live on Earth, where none of your delusional fantasies are real. If a meteorite hits, it hits.
Any strange sightings in Northern California is pretty much normal.
Lester Holt called this a near-miss.
GET IT RIGHT, Lester!
A "near-miss" is a hit! It is a hack-eyed journalistic expression that should be banned.
Same goes for a flag flying at half it's height. It is at "Half-staff" on land and "Half-mast" on ship.
Too pickey? Then you see no difference between "lightening" and "lightening-bug".
Fox News asserts it was Obama's fault. John Boehner concurs
Harry Reid helped
Wow California!!! What a place to live. Earthquakes, Meteors, High Taxes and Liberals. All will contribute to their economic collapse
They keep saying that the meteors and the asteroid aren't related. I don't believe in coincidences. 3 major events in one day are related. They don't know as much as they think they do, or else they are lying.