Asteroid 7 Iris. Just watched it fly by...

[Westerly Wood]

No, it’s not the Coors Light.
my wife and I were sitting out in back porch.
I looked up in sky and saw this huge shape with a tail flying about 30 mikes above. I said to Nic, hey, that’s not a plane right?

She goes, that’s a comet! I am like, no way. But has to be.

So I go on web on iPhone, sure enuff, Asteroid 7 was supposedly passing across southern AZ sky tonight at 6:37.

it was like 5 minutes early.

I never seen one in my life. Holy cow. It was awesome to behold.

btw, it was heading northwest

 

[GGJaguar]

Glad it was cool to see. As long as it doesn't crash into the earth, I'm good.

 

[GAD]

Do you mean 2021 AV7 which is a piece of Apollo debris? If so, very cool! I'm jealous.

The only "Asteroid 7" I know if is Asteroid 7 Iris, and since that has a magnitude of 9 (higher positive numbers are more dim) you'd need 60mm binoculars at a minimum to see it. Also it's between Mars and Jupiter so it's very far and small.

 

[dreadnut]

Wow, I've never seen anything with a tail besides a comet or a meteor/ite.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Do you mean 2021 AV7 which is a piece of Apollo debris? If so, very cool! I'm jealous.

The only "Asteroid 7" I know if is Asteroid 7 Iris, and since that has a magnitude of 9 (higher positive numbers are more dim) you'd need 60mm binoculars at a minimum to see it. Also it's between Mars and Jupiter so it's very far and small.

well, then it could not have been Iris. I need to look on local news websites, or ask a friend of mine who is way into this kind of thing. it totally happened. it was not a plane. it lasted 2 minutes across the pre-dusk sky before it was gone.

 

[Westerly Wood]

NASA reported something over AR last night and that would coincide with the object I saw. when I saw it, it was still not yet a fireball etc....And I think I was wrong about direction it was headed, from the backyard of subdivision home, always hard to tell direction. most likely going northeast, which is correct re AZ to Arkansas.

I am 54 years old and never seen a full meteor in flight before it turns into a shower...like I only see them when they blip and are gone...

 

[Guildedagain]

You know it was out of our control if it was 5 min early ;]

 

[GAD]

Regardless of what it was I bet it was an incredible experience. A fireball or bolide is an amazing and rare thing to see, especially a long-lasting one.

I used to spend a lot if nights outside with a telescope and have seen a lot of meteor but the most amazing fireball I ever saw was when I was about 25 and driving. It turnout out to be this one: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peekskill_meteorite. I remember seeing the car in the museum years later and was kind of awed by the whole thing.

 

[Westerly Wood]

wow, that car is in Paris too. museum. how interesting. i got to go to YT now to find a video.

 

[Westerly Wood]

cool you witnessed this Gary!

The meteorite fell on October 9, 1992 – an event witnessed by thousands across the East Coast. Numerous residents of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. described the "huge greenish fireball." The meteorite broke up over Kentucky and passed over West Virginia and Pennsylvania on its north-northeast trajectory before striking a parked 1980 red Chevy Malibu at approximately 7:50 pm EDT. After traveling through space at a cosmic velocity of 8.8 miles per second (14 km/s, 31,600 miles per hour), the speed of the meteorite at impact had slowed to 164 miles per hour (264 km/h).

 

[GAD]

Edited my post because I succumbed to a common astronomy blunder:

Meteroid - small hunk flying through space
Meteor - A Meteroid seen burning up in our atmosphere
Meterorite - a Meteor that survives the atmosphere and impacts the Earth

Yeah, I remember I was driving west on Rt. 22 in Greenbrook or Bridgewater when I saw the Peekskill meteor (it wasn't a meteorite then ) It was a huge green fireball that was so bright I could see it while driving on Rt. 22. I saw it break up and I'm honestly surprised there weren't huge accidents. When I saw it and the car in the museum years later it wasn't cut in half like in the wikipedia article and looked like this:

 

[Cougar]

She goes, that’s a comet! I am like, no way. But has to be.

Comets don't move across the sky that quickly. They appear nearly fixed, but will change position from day to day. They're in orbit around the sun, similar to the planets, only in a much more elliptical orbit.

The only fireball I've seen was at a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Joni was opening for Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Just as Joni started her set, a fireball entered the atmosphere and broke up seemingly right above the bowl. The crowd went nuts and Joni stopped playing and asked what was going on. When she was told, she said "Far out" and went on with her set.

 

[Westerly Wood]

Comets don't move across the sky that quickly. They appear nearly fixed, but will change position from day to day. They're in orbit around the sun, similar to the planets, only in a much more elliptical orbit.

The only fireball I've seen was at a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Joni was opening for Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Just as Joni started her set, a fireball entered the atmosphere and broke up seemingly right above the bowl. The crowd went nuts and Joni stopped playing and asked what was going on. When she was told, she said "Far out" and went on with her set.

turns out it was a meteor that eventually crashed an burned over state of Arkansas. we saw it cruising that way about 6 or 630 pm last night.

 

[GAD]

turns out it was a meteor that eventually crashed an burned over state of Arkansas. we saw it cruising that way about 6 or 630 pm last night.

So cool!