
Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57 - mpweiher
https://fireballs.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2019/1775?platform=hootsuite
======
acdanger
I saw this last night in NW Washington, DC (10:57 local time) while walking my
dogs.

It was very large and very bright. For several seconds after it had
disappeared, I expected a large "boom" to occur. Quite an unsettling moment.

edit: Looks like some dash cams caught it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXdL5YTu50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXdL5YTu50)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdGhRNg6h0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdGhRNg6h0)

~~~
CompelTechnic
Being in D.C., did you expect it to be an ICBM? I would have.

~~~
rorykoehler
Really? Out of the blue like that?

~~~
cgriswald
You know the bombs are coming and you have less than 30 minutes. Do you alert
the public or grab your family and get to safety?

~~~
rorykoehler
It's more a question of if you think anyone (in possession of icbms at least)
would take that risk in the current state of the world? Seems unlikely. That
said after I posted I was reminded of the time I woke up the sound of the air
raid siren in Latvia. That was disorientating to say the least.

~~~
vkou
Countries have quite happily committed suicide. Consider the attack on the
United States by Imperial Japan. Everyone in that government knew that the war
they were starting was unwinnable. They were right, and their empire and
government was dismantled in 1945.

You can't expect rational behavior from governments. In a time of crisis,
there will always be some idiot in power, who doesn't want to face reality, or
cares about their pet issue more then overall well-being, or feels that they
have no alternative options.

~~~
pnutjam
Excellent (and terrifying) read.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_2020_Commission_Report_o...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_2020_Commission_Report_on_the_North_Korean_Nuclear_Attacks_Against_the_United_States)

~~~
Udik
Interesting. But I doubt South Korea would attack the North, knowing perfectly
well their main cities can be razed to the ground by NK's conventional, not
even nuclear weapons. At the same time, I don't think North Korea would start
blasting off nukes over major cities, that would be pointless. In the worst
case, a single nuke over the ocean, but close enough to a target, would be a
sufficient signal of readiness to defend itself. Directing nuclear bombs to
major targets as a first move doesn't make much sense, you don't leave the
enemy any other option than obliterating you.

Note that the incident is started by North Korea downing a civilian jet, even
if by mistake, South Korea reacting, NK going berserk with nukes, US
responding with conventional weapons... Hmmm, a bit kind towards the West. The
US certainly come out as the level headed guys, which doesn't sound very
coherent with recent rhetoric and events.

~~~
pnutjam
In the book, the guy with the "Nuclear football" basically runs away at one
point, but yeah, I'm not seeing a non-nuclear response. Tit-for-tat is the
entire basis of MAD.

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francisofascii
“The preliminary 3D trajectory computed based on all the reports submitted to
the AMS shows that the fireball was traveling from North to South and ended
its flight in the Atlantic Ocean in front of Bethany Beach, DE,” the American
Meteor Society said. [https://wtop.com/science/2019/04/watch-fireball-streaks-
acro...](https://wtop.com/science/2019/04/watch-fireball-streaks-across-dc-
area-sky/)

~~~
jeffmould
I live about 4 miles south of Bethany Beach on the Atlantic. I was inside, but
the light lit up my house so much I thought either my house was on fire or a
car was about to crash into my home.

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silveira
Video: [https://imgur.com/MoKD67j](https://imgur.com/MoKD67j) from Reddit at
/r/nova.

~~~
kibwen
Giving a whole new meaning (er, a whole old meaning) to "nova"; took me a sec
to realize that was the subreddit for Northern Virginia. :P

~~~
dajohnson89
aren't novae stationary?

~~~
kibwen
I was thinking of the original etymology of "nova", which is derived from the
Latin term for "new star". Though to be insufferably pedantic, a real nova
within the bounds of Earth's atmosphere would not seem particularly stationary
to those unlucky enough to observe it from the ground. :)

~~~
dehrmann
> which is derived from the Latin term for "new star"

No, "nova" just means "new." Nova Scotia translates to New Scotland.

~~~
CydeWeys
The Latin term it was derived from is "nova stella", meaning "new star".

~~~
philipov
Guess what "nova" means ...

~~~
Bud
A show on PBS.

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edgarvaldes
The Chelyabinsk meteor[0] came to my mind. I can not believe it happened 6
years ago already.

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor)

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easel
I got the site to load but it was very slow and took a second try. I happened
to be standing outside in Reston, looking East and saw the whole thing. I've
never seen anything like it. Extremely bright with a green tinge, moving fast
like a meteor. It was visible long enough that I was able to tell people to
turn around and check it out.

Definitely a little unsettling. It was bright enough some folks that hadn't
seen the whole trajectory thought it might have been fireworks.

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makerofspoons
A fireball flying in from the north would scare the crap out of me if I lived
near DC.

~~~
craftyguy
I presume it's because a thing following a great circle from Russia would have
the thing coming in from the north?

~~~
makerofspoons
Right

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Liquix
Is there data on point of impact or suspected origin? Is this a relatively
common occurrence? Interesting, thanks for sharing.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>point of impact

Atlantic ocean off of Deleware.

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hokumguru
Looks like this site is already experiencing the hug of death. Anyone have a
mirror?

~~~
metamet
Appears to be working for me, but here're two links to the videos they have
listed, for those curious:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXdL5YTu50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbXdL5YTu50)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdGhRNg6h0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdGhRNg6h0)

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mises
If it's still intact, who owns the meteor (I assume it's a meteor)? The person
on whose property it landed?

~~~
toyg
Well, certainly the country it landed in. It fell in the sea, so i guess it
depends on nautical jurisdiction.

~~~
soulofmischief
It depends on if it's public or private land.

[https://www.space.com/18009-meteorite-collectors-public-
land...](https://www.space.com/18009-meteorite-collectors-public-lands-
rules.html)

~~~
toyg
If it's inside US territorial waters, yes. But if it's outside...

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tandr
Is it just me or do those events occure more often than say, 3-5 years ago? I
understand we observe more, record and report more, but there should not be a
significant difference from 5 years ago, right? I used to read about them and
it was one-off wow event, now I read about it and feels like everyday news...

~~~
rtkwe
There's been a huge proliferation of cameras in the last 10 years and more
recently as dashcams have come into increasing prevalence as camera costs come
down more and more.

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rhacker
If you don't own a dashcam (or 7) now is the time to get one. It can massively
help you (if you are a safe (read: slow) driver). /PSA

~~~
BrandonMarc
Which one would you suggest?

~~~
rtkwe
There's a thousand different reviews available but I've been a fan of
Wirecutter for almost anything they've taken the time to review and I've had
pretty good results so far.

[https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-dash-
cam/](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-dash-cam/)

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TheAdamist
another dashcam from here:
[https://twitter.com/stevechazin/status/1118354864214614016](https://twitter.com/stevechazin/status/1118354864214614016)

~~~
swiley
Last time I checked <video> worked fine without javascript >>

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apo
Site down. What's the gist?

~~~
SketchySeaBeast
Rock fell, no one died.

------
smoyer
It was simply ULA trying to land one of their boosters like SpaceX does.

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RickJWagner
Cool site. It adds legitimacy to sightings, I like that.

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fisherwithac
Tis a shame I started to go to bed earlier during the weekdays recently.
Otherwise I may have been able to see this outside my apartment window.

Personal grumpiness aside though, I'm relieved that it didn't end up making
landfall considering how close it was to some pretty major cities. I wonder if
there's any hope for recovery of the meteorite itself since it appears to have
fallen in the bay/ocean. Is it possible that it's close enough to land that
they could find even a few parts of it?

Either way, I'm hoping more footage of the entry event starts coming in.
Preferrably with audible reactions.

~~~
sk5t
It would be neat to find, but--who is going to go scouring the seafloor off
the coast of Delaware for a not-very-large magnetic rock?

~~~
ip26
Depends on whether the DoD believes it was a rock. Delaware is pretty close to
D.C.

~~~
elil17
We have other ways to determine the nature of a falling object. Much can be
assertained from its trajectory, deceleration, and luminance. It’s trivial to
determine that this was not a reentry vehicle.

~~~
craftyguy
Exactly. If that was a vehicle/projectile, even watching the dashcam videos of
it, it's quite obvious that parts of it underwent rapid, unplanned
desintegration. So it likely would't have done anything significant if it was
(it was not.)

