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Lisa Warren / NASA-JPL via AP
An image provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows a meteor over Reno, Nevada on April 22, 2012.
NASA has released a photograph of a flaming meteor that unleashed a powerful sonic boom Sunday morning, rattling houses in California and Nevada when its disintegration released energy equivalent to a 5-kiloton explosion.
The former space rock entered Earth's atmosphere around 8 a.m. PT on April 22 and exploded over California's Central Valley, according to NASA, which pinpointed the location in a map posted on its website.
According to space.com, several witnesses initially thought they had experienced an earthquake.
"An event of this size might happen about once a year," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. "But most of them occur over the ocean or an uninhabited area, so getting to see one is something special."
Sergei Remezov / Reuters
The Month in Space: Take a look at zero-gravity antics, rocket launches, planetary views and other spaced-out pictures from March 2012.
NASA space photographs exhibit at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. KNBC-TV's Cary Berglund reports.
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To bad it missed the Watts area of LA.
Or your house. Which would have been even a better hit.
Why's that, Raymond?
Raymond
Watch what you wish for others, because what you're wishing for them you are wishing on yourself!
Bet you though you where being funny...not
Peace!!
What in the world is all the animosity for? Some guy says he wishes it came through his area so he could see it and people attack him and then collapse his comment?
Are you purposefully being obtuse, Alan?
My buddy and I were fishing on Lake Mead and I missed it because my back was facing it, but he was on the other side of a jetty and saw it and shouted over to me what he saw. We were camping in the Valley of Fire all weekend and we saw the meteor shower the night before. Was pretty awesome.
Well I think Alan's coy little comment is just adorable!
I was driving one night about 3:00 and saw a big meteor that split into two metreors. No sonic boom, but pretty cool.
Not intentionally, no. When I read his comment, I was thinking to myself that this would have been really neat to see over Ohio, and his comment sounded pretty similar to my thoughts.
I guess without context you could just find the worst in people, but that's not the direction my mind went. I guess it's the difference between people looking for fights and people looking for civil conversation.
ALAN.... you are correct.. lately so many American have been "living on contention" that they have become addicted to adversarial encounters, they only go to place where they can find an adversary to hammer on....some how this seems to make them feel better about themselves.. pathetically so .
EVERYONE wants to be recognized as a POLITICAL EXPERT when the truth is that
MOST OF THESE PEOPLE NEVER EVEN VOTE !!
They just "get-off" on being MOUTHY PARTISANS who enjoy displaying their ignorance in pubic on the Innerwebtubes .
Would have been a spectacular view. There is so much smog in the LA area you cannot even see a plane.
Did we see this coming?
It was probably too small to pick up or to be worth the effort of trying to track. The really try and concentrate on finding and tracking objects that would be large enough to do damage.
What a crabby bunch of people on the internet this morning. Not enough sleep last night?
Or just hump day anxiety?
I live in the area.
No, we didn't see it coming; no warning. Rattled our windows; broke some neighbor's windows. Loudest BOOM I've personally ever heard.
Local news said when it entered the earth's atmosphere it was about the size of a mini van. By the time it exploded it was the size of a washing machine.
Agreed Rusty... Amazing photo, wish I could have saw it in person!
I live in Glenbrook up at Lake Tahoe.... the sonic boom set off car alarms, shook the ground and scared the hell out of our dog and cat! It was louder than a B1 bomber could make at a Forth of July celebration!
Not quite another Tungunska, but still pretty cool.
That there's a frozen chunk of poopie! Call 'em "Boeing bombs." See the peanut? Dead giveaway.
.
awesome reference...
"Dude, you ate off it!"
How rare to capture an image like this. Some information on who/how would have made this more interesting. Great shot!
That's what I was thinking, too; they've must've been out, taking photos of the landscape, etc.. anyways. Still, very remarkable as very few seconds to react... I doubt my camera would've snapped in time!!
Ah then you're in luck, because I've got the witness' description of the event. As I mentioned before, NASA did NOT release these images. Here's the link to the originals: iwitness. ktvn. com/Media/View/2320048
And here is the witness' description:
My husband and I were out walking when he saw something in the sky. I had my camera and started snapping pictures. I only manage 3 before it burned out. It was extremely bright.
NASA will say they 'can't see that small an object', but come on folks do you really believe that someone with a high quality camera from NASA just happened to be outside, walking around, having a smoke, when this object came into the atmosphere??? I think not,... they knew it was coming and don't want anyone to know they can track tiny (read enemy??) satellites.
Well, we know it wasn't a UFO. It's too clear - not blurry enough.
Sheilaaliens is correct.
The photo was taken by a local couple out for a walk on a Sunday morning.
The same photo was on the front page of our local paper, Reno Gazette Journal (rgj.com)
this same photo was posted yesterday on msn with text of photo taken on a cell phone by a lady out walking.
TonyInDallas
Too funny............
I wish I was there to see such an event! And also glad no one go hurt, it was very close to civilization.
too bad it does not hit one of the police state big brother drones.
what in the world are you talking about.
I believe he meant North Korea, et.al.
Awesome! Was it a rock meteor?
As opposed to what, a grass meteor?
It could have been an ice meteor markutk.
markutk - asteroids can be composed of many different combinations of rock and metals. Max was asking if this was a stony meteor (a chondrite), as opposed to a stone/iron meteor (pallasite) or metallic nickel-iron meteor.
Actually, I was thinking more along the rock vs. the ice meteorite difference. The ice meteorites sometimes explode in the air, not on impact like the rock or metal ones.
Stony and metallic meteorites also burst in air. When something is entering the atmosphere at ~20 km/s, it doesn't much matter what it's made of; the atmospheric pressure and friction will detonate most smaller meteors regardless of composition. The metallic ones are much more likely to reach the ground.
However, there is a chance this meteor may have been part of the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaked on Sunday. That shower is the result of the Earth passing through the path of the comet Thatcher, so there's a chance this may have been a piece of icy comet.
It appears to be a carbonaceous chondrite. The type of meteorite that contains organic compounds. It is a very interesting fall.
thanks for the info, guys... meteors are fascinating... I love watching them from the roof of my house at night, while sipping a good beer... life is good on nights like that... :)
NASA releases photo of meteor blazing across Nevada skies. NO! How many skies do you think they/we have? HUH? HUH?
NASA releases photo of meteor blazing across the Nevada sky. There it's fixed. Your welcome!
You're*
I don't think you should be playing the spelling/grammar Nazi role until you've at least mastered the your/you're distinction.
While we're on a correcting kick, NASA didn't release the photos at all. The woman who took them uploaded them to the local news station's website the same day it happened: iwitness. ktvn. com/Media/View/2320047 Nice fact checking, MSNBC.
Lisa Warren NASA/JPL has taken credit for the photo released by AP...Is her claim a boo-boo? I see no other attribution.
You're welcome. There, it's fixed.
Lisa Warren - the person you are referring to - took the picture and is credited below the picture. NASA-JPL via AP released the picture which means NASA-JPL (via AP) has consent from the author. Release does not imply sole ownership or origin.
Man, am I ever glad tha tit's fixed !
Wonder if any pieces made it to the ground?
You can bet that there's folks out there searching for any remaning chunks of it right now. (See post #18 below)
Cool picture, and yes either editors are extremely overworked or just careless. I can't count the number of stories I read here that repeat the same sentence, have a double word, or a misspelling.
BAHHHH a metor my ass..
WE ALL know its the aliens come to probe everyone.. The Sonic boom!! Please it wasnt a chunk of rock breaking up.. it was the Advanced Wpns said alien race posses.. Who knows what evil vile things the did to us yesterday.. They could of turned us into GASP liberal Democrats, or GASP Capitolist Republicans.. Ohhh the horrors..
/sarcasam incase your meter is broken.
Oh, I get it. You're one of those people who thinks he's clever, but really isn't.
DUCK!!!!
Ram!
"DUCK!!!!"
"..and proud of it!" Howard...where are you when we need you?
Yes, two meteorites have been found!
Why doesn't this ever happen over New York City?
new york city...
Do you believe NASA?
NASA-not another stupid answer
The asteroid came in from the direction of the sun so there was almost no way to detect it in space.
Cool. Got a link to an article?
yes please share, i'm not finding anything about that.
Please start the weird X FILES music ......
Where's Skully when you need her?
Special Agent Scully is actually very busy these days. You would know that if you watch PBS. She just played the role (brilliantly) of Miss Havesham in Dickens' "Great Expectations". I believe she also appears in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". Gillian Anderson has proven to be a very versatile actress. Don't go looking for Special Agent Mulder, either. Unless you can extricate him from Californication, where he appears to be having the time of his life.
Skully was/ is hot .....and how many times did she save Mulder's behind ? A bunch of times ....
If you're looking for something to fill the X-Files void in your life, I'd suggest Fringe. Great show and really carries on the paranormal/conspiracy torch rather nicely.
Sorry no article yet. Just e-mails from friends who are hunting for the rocks.
Here is a link to info about the meteorites: Sorry the link disappears. Search for astrobob and you will find the story.
Looks suspiciously like what is left of the North Korean rocket the mysteriously exploded. That should be enough to keep some of the conspiracy theorists going for awhile.
Only if the conspiracy theorists are idiots (which they usually are). The trajectory of this meteor is nowhere near what the orbit of the North Korean satellite would have been had it attained orbit. It's almost completely opposite the satellite's intended orbit.
Both of our kids were camping at nearby Davis Creek when this occurred and indicated that it was very loud (they did not see it) and at first thought there may be another landslide similar to the one in 1983 - it was that loud. Very interesting that MSNBC uses a photo that was originally posted onthe local CBS news station.... this gal must have licensed it to be used elsewhere. Wish I had been able to see/hear it.
Too bad it didn't crash into one of our many posters racist little hillbilly towns
Maybe Harry Stamper was on it!
roses are red,violets are blue, crud from the sky? that's nothing new;-)
One day there will be one a bit bigger and it will be aimed somewhere much more populated.
Then maybe we as a planet will get serious about detection and deflection. (no, our governments, the funders, are not taking this seriously)
Just a matter of time...sonic boom. That one is just a baby. Also, when it comes we will not be informed from the "Gvmt" or NASA.
yup...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efc7njKAfgo&feature=relmfu