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Bad Astronomy
« Carnival of Space 130
HALlons-y »

Police camera catches Utah fireball

Just a quick followup on the fireball seen over Colorado and Utah last week: more video is being dug up, including ths phenomenal one from a dash-mounted police car camera:

Wow! I wonder what people not familiar with the night sky thought of this?

Tip o’ the Whipple Shield to The Grand Junction Sentinel.

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November 24th, 2009 7:05 AM Tags: meteor
by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff, DeathfromtheSkies! | 29 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

29 Responses to “Police camera catches Utah fireball”

  1. 1.   Magrathea Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 7:20 am

    Weird how the driver just doesn’t turn and just parks right there in the middle of nowhere. Almost looks staged if you ask me. Of course I’m not saying it is, just thinking out loud :)

  2. 2.   ND Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 7:26 am

    Awesome! I think we need more big brother cameras all over public spaces to capture more stuff like this ;-)

  3. 3.   Denise Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 7:39 am

    That is awesome. I have seen a few of the videos out there (I think there was one in Canada a week ago too) this is the best one.
    For those who will say it was something else they will always fall back on “well I know what I saw”, you know because experts are always agents of the government and not to be trusted.

  4. 4.   Romeo Vitelli Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:02 am

    Did the fireball get a speeding ticket?

  5. 5.   Andre Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:09 am

    We had one over Johannesburg, South Africa on Saturday night! Have a look and Digg http://digg.com/d31AwHn

  6. 6.   David W Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:13 am

    Do we know if it was an Autobot or a Decepticon yet?

  7. 7.   mr_subjunctive Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:15 am

    You’ll find out soon enough what people unfamiliar with the night sky thought this was. And then you’ll spend the rest of your days attempting to debunk it.

  8. 8.   PsyberDave Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:17 am

    Any day now we are going to capture video of space aliens abducting people…

  9. 9.   Dan I. Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:50 am

    “Wow! I wonder what people not familiar with the night sky thought of this?”

    Well let’s see:

    “I didn’t know it was 2012!”

    “It’s JESUS!”

    “It’s the RAPTURE”

    “Damn those vaccine side-effects!”

  10. 10.   Larian LeQuella Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 8:56 am

    Dan I.,

    Don’t forget all the UFO nutters thinking its “greys” coming to take them away.

    Isn’t there a wide field of view telescope that NASA, DoD, or someone is putting together to track near earth debris and the like that may have a chance to catch a lot more of this sort of stuff (and even PREDICT)? I thought I read something to that effect.

  11. 11.   Charlie Young Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 9:18 am

    Durned impressive shot of one ‘o’ them UFOS.

  12. 12.   mike burkhart Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 9:28 am

    this is spectaular it beter then the fireball I saw while wating for the bus one night the one I saw just streked thro the sky over some buildings it was a toltal suprise I had nothing to capture the image I have one question Was any debre recoverd ? or did it burn up? I dont know were the one I saw landed if it did also I hope grays are not coming to take me away to use a phrase from the 60 Hell no I wont go

  13. 13.   Douglas Troy Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 9:45 am

    I’m sure many thought they were being attacked, especially with what happened here on 911, I would think that would be a natural reaction for a person to have now.

    After the fact, however, one would hope that they would come to realize what it really was … the FSM touching Earth with his noodley appendage.

  14. 14.   JWB Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 9:53 am

    That. Was. Incredible.

  15. 15.   Damon Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 10:04 am

    Night turned to Day! That was bad-ass!!

  16. 16.   james Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 10:05 am

    I live in Utah, and am kicking myself for not staying up late to watch the light show, it was cold and I was tired. This video is one of the most impressive I’ve seen in terms of how *bright* the meteor was.
    http://www.flyingj.net/video/nslc2009-11-18_meteor.wmv

  17. 17.   John Paradox Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am

    Romeo Vitelli Says:

    Did the fireball get a speeding ticket?

    If Russel Pillsbury was on the job.

    J/P=?

  18. 18.   Robert Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 11:12 am

    In an interesting twist, I’ve heard people claiming that all these youtube fireball movies are faked and meant as an announcement for the next big Hollywood disaster movie.

    Any clear way to debunk this? Is there any clear data available on this meteor?

    (Of course NASA and any other respectable scientific institution cannot be trusted since they’re in the pay of Big Movie after collaborating on those Apollo films :P )

  19. 19.   AllNewsUtah.com Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 11:56 am

    [...] Police camera catches Utah fireball (Discover) [...]

  20. 20.   Brad Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 11:57 am

    Considering there was a big fireball in Alberta almost a year ago to the day, is it safe to assume these are both Leonid meteors, or is it just a coincidence?

    BTW, the Alberta meteor dashcam was much cooler:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBLhEoBTAnc

  21. 21.   Interesting Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    The spaceships have landed…the anal probes will be coming next

  22. 22.   David Says:
    November 24th, 2009 at 6:41 pm

    Dear ND,

    NO – We do NOT need more big brother cameras all over the place. Sure, it would be nice to catch more things like meteors and UFOs, but I’m not fond of the State (the gum mint) watching everything the sheeple (er, people) do.

    BE SEEING YOU!

  23. 23.   ausduck Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 1:13 am

    I wonder what the police officer thought of it! LOL – no wonder he just stopped!

  24. 24.   Grant Gordon Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 1:30 am

    Here’s a link to a video of the one over Johannesburg in South Africa caught on a street side cam, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UOcRCSxeS4 Happened at around 11pm on Saturday night. Unfortunately I was on the other side of the country :(

  25. 25.   Marius Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 4:30 am

    Awesome video. I wonder does the green color indicate copper in the meteor?

  26. 26.   LukeL Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 2:03 pm

    At first glance one would think it could be a plane going down, a military flare or missile exercise. Of course watching it over and over you know what it is, but in 3 seconds of fear and panic it could be anything.

  27. 27.   Michael Swanson Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    This is obviously the long-missing footage of the actual Roswell crash, as we have secretly had color video cameras in all government vehicles – thanks to alien technology – since SUPER-secret El Rancho Cucamonga flying saucer crash of ’39.

  28. 28.   John Paradox Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 3:46 pm

    8. PsyberDave Says:

    Any day now we are going to capture video of space aliens abducting people…

    Didn’t work for Heart and Dean.

    J/P=?

  29. 29.   KC Says:
    November 25th, 2009 at 9:22 pm

    >Considering there was a big fireball in Alberta almost a year ago to the day, is it safe to >assume these are both Leonid meteors, or is it just a coincidence?

    The chance that one or both were part of Leonids is just about dead nuts zero: they have completely different sources. The Leonids are specks of dust from Comet Tempel-Tuttle – this was a piece of an asteroid.

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