Comments on: Did a meteor plunge into the ocean near Perth? I'm thinking no.

By: xmundt

xmundt — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:23:34 +0000

Greetings and Salutations;
One thing that has not been mentioned so far is that all the meteors I have seen, and the couple of films of large, atmosphere-skimming meteors I have watched have never left a trail like this. The trails I have seen have been much smaller, so, I suspect anything from space big enough to leave a trail like the pictured one would have made quite an impact and noise when it hit either the ground or the really thick atmosphere close to the ground.
I have to say, though, that I agree that it is quite a striking picture.
pleasant dreams
dave mundt

By: Siderite

Siderite — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 09:23:22 +0000

Even if it was a meteor, it was a bus-sized one, yes? I understand this is the standard measuring unit for asteroid these days. Probably they said the same about the one that wiped the dinosaurs out; at that time buses had to carry dinos, see?

By: The Love of Lindsay

The Love of Lindsay — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 22:41:15 +0000

Come on you idiots…it’s obviously a dragon…gezuz!

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:53:41 +0000

It was a contrail. I was at the beach on a photography outing on Saturday evening, and saw the contrail before the sunset. At the time, it looked just like a normal contrail – white and unassuming.
Once the sun set, the contrail was lit up fantastically, and turned bright orange/yellow. I think it’s the colours that led many people to think it was the fiery tail of a meteor.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of the cloud before sunset, when it looked like a “normal” contrail. I have some more photos of the cloud on my blog:
http://martybugs.net/blog/blog.cgi/photowalks/Meteor-Off-WA-Coast.html

By: Blooper

Blooper — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:55:05 +0000

That’s no contrail… that’s a chemtrail.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:27:02 +0000

How about checking the airline schedules for a flight going over the area in question at that time? But then, maybe there are too many to obtain a conclusive result. Cool photo and story!

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:35:40 +0000

Did a meteor plunge into the ocean near Perth? I’m thinking no.

Well, I’m thinking yes – but probably not on this particular occassion! I’m guessing that over the millennia quite a few meteorites would probably have landed in the oceans off Perth, right?

*****

“The silt in a house’s eaves probably contains a minute amount of interplanetary material.”
- Page 70, ‘The Universe and Beyond’, Terence Dickinson, Camden House, 1992.

By: BCL1

BCL1 — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:35:48 +0000

When I first saw the picture and read that it was from a meteorite, my first thought was, “Can a meteorite leave a con-trail?”

By: William

William — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:34:08 +0000

And the tower operators who claimed that there was nothing on their scopes in the area at that time are all conspiracy theorists, too, eh? Besides, who cares if it was a meteor? The things come down all the time, and do, in fact, leave trails like this… but this one, if that’s what it is, hit a lonely patch of ocean. Why does anyone even care?

By: Redtail

Redtail — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 07:50:09 +0000

I saw this happening. I couldn’t see any aircraft as the trail had just hit the horizon. Immediately assumed it was a contrail and marvelled at its beauty.
The very next morning I was heading east at sunrise, and saw the exact same effect over the scarp. Very definitely a contrail that time. I could clearly see the plane generating it.