It wasn’t a rocket. It wasn’t aliens. It wasn’t even Santa Claus.
While Long Beach’s rocket-show dreams were dashed yet again by another scrubbed rocket launch, California still got a bit of light show Wednesday night.
Reports of a squiggly, smokey, bright cloud hit social media from the Bay Area to as far south as Riverside at around 5:30 p.m. just as spectators were waiting for the launch of the Delta IV Heavy rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The launch was scrubbed last minute, but sky-gazers could still see a strange burst of light and a cloud following it.
They were from a ping-pong ball sized meteor entering the atmosphere at about 63,000 miles per hour, what NASA calls a “fireball,” according to Bill Cooke of NASA’s meteoroid environment office.
“We found out about it through social media,” Cooke said. “It turns out that social media is a good indicator that the sky is falling.”
https://www.facebook.com/LickObservatory/posts/1931414826905931?__xts__[0]=68.ARCIn6HkxsKd_M1kqyuTQ3WV2COh-kw2MB9HWCUnPzLOURaBpdJIJG2mC_HxNVcP9NNnX5RQql-TyhsHm465rQX4Xy1EnKnn-lwsOclqS-28O_somBdlTZvQ-yrNkENGI81rnHJy2b64NVMpJsDTniv0wiS0dyaBfQ6rCqw4XA4ZJR17SZZhycH6TbJTc-PTWh7xaI4uyEXfiHKFywtRgEPdZn65HY-t5mah0XzPb6oXrukYREIPik-RpaYs9dNPFZh7EJFpTMXY_g4ytNeDkxfZmYxsjpWQdBWpTemYqPWkzgQRECaFglUCe6pGfFE3pTWDmveXvICb2Y3wBX15YF3_xw&__tn__=-R
Once the meteor hits the atmosphere, it breaks apart and the resulting dust creates a smoke-like trail. The squiggly shape came courtesy of winds in the upper atmosphere curving and twisting the trail around, Cooke said.
Normally, we wouldn’t be able to see the after-effects of such a small meteor hitting the atmosphere, but because it happened right around sunset, the sun was at just the right angle to light it up, Cooke said.
But don’t worry, stuff falls from space all the time.
“We’re constantly under bombardment,” Cooke said. “A hundred tons of material fall on us from space every day, but they all burn up in our atmosphere.”
“What made it special was that persistent train, the sun that lit it up—the geometry was just right to light it up.”