The fireball mystery in the skies over California on Wednesday night apparently came from a meteor, according to a scientist who works with NASA, adding that spectators should report sightings to help their research.
“From the videos and the fantastic pictures that are out there, this was indeed a rock from space. This was a bolide or a meteor,” said Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer with the SETI Institute, a contractor with NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
The odd streak of light and contrail were spotted in the sky Wednesday night by many people looking skyward in anticipation of the Delta IV Heavy rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. However, the rocket launch was scrubbed because of a suspected hydrogen leak, leaving people to focus on the colorful contrail.
“In general, many more people saw it because the viewing conditions were just exceptional,” Jenniskens said, adding that the fireballs are rare, happen a couple of times a year over California and rarely at twilight.
Multiple people reported the sighting on social media with speculation spanning the gamut.
“The interesting question is where did it come from,” Jenniskens said. “I want to know where these rocks had their origin.”
To help get answers to their questions, scientists have set up cameras around California to get pictures of the sky at night, hoping to capture a meteor in flight, with the Allsky Meteor Surveillance.
Getting images of a meteor from different sites would allow scientists to triangulate and calculate where it might have landed.
“In this case, it was a little bit too early for the camera. It was still too bright out,” he said. “But for the viewers it was spectacular because you could see this cloud of dust in the sky for a very long time.
“The reason you could see it so well was because the sun had just set for us, but not for the dust particles up high in the atmosphere. They were still in true sunlight, and they were scattering that light for you, for your enjoyment.”
Scientists ruled out the object being space debris re-entering the atmosphere because of its speed.
“It was going way too fast,” he added.
A NASA Marshall Space Flight Center blog said that an analysis of the sighting indicates that the meteor first became visible at an altitude of 48 miles over the Pacific Ocean about 50 miles west of the entrance to San Francisco Bay. The meteor moved west at 63,000 mph before breaking apart at 34 miles above the ocean.
Despite his deep involvement in studying meteors, Jenniskens missed Wednesday’s show and was left to look at online pictures and videos from spectators.
“I’d love to have seen it,” he said.
In the future, anyone who sees a suspected meteor should note the sighting on the American Meteor Society website to help scientists trying to learn more about these objects and recover any remnants that survived, Jenniskens said. To report a fireball, click here.
“It’s really a puzzle we’re trying solve,” he said.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.