Meteor the Size of a Car Hits Bay Area
earthsky A bright fireball, reportedly with hues of red and orange, streaked across the night sky visible from San Francisco’s Bay Area on Wednesday, October 18, around 8 p.m. local time (3UTC on October 18). Many say they heard a boom, which was so loud it “shook their homes,” some residents said, making them think it may be an earthquake.
suisuncity Jonathan Braidman, astronomy instructor at Oakland's Chabot Space and
Science Center, said the meteor likely hit the Earth around the
Martinez Hills and was roughly the size of a car when it broke up over
the Bay Area.
Braidman said that hikers may be able to find small pieces of
the meteor, called meteorites once they land on Earth, in the hills
north of Martinez.
Meteors are hunks of rock and metal that have broken off
from asteroids and fallen from space, breaking up as they enter
Earth's atmosphere.
Braidman said that the meteors hit the upper layer of
Earth's atmosphere traveling 25,000 mph or more, but the atmosphere
slows them down and breaks them up so that when they hit the ground they
are only traveling between 200 and 400 mph.
Tonight's (Oct 18th) meteor appeared for about four or five seconds and
was traveling fairly slow compared to some other meteors, indicating it
was probably fairly large.
But the boom that residents heard was a sonic boom, caused by
the falling object traveling faster than the speed of sound, and was
probably moving at over 1,000 mph, Braidman said.
Braidman said that the meteor is not at all related to the
Orionid meteor shower expected to peak over Saturday night and Sunday
morning.
A meteor shower is actually not an accurate name for this weekend's
phenomenon, Braidman said, and that the "shooting stars" that stargazers
will see this weekend are in fact small pieces of comet.
The Orionid phenomenon is predictable because it occurs when
Earth passes through the trail of Halley's Comet, but tonight's meteor
sighting is far less predictable, despite that as much as 15,000 tons of
material falls from space each year.
"Even though this kind of thing happens often, it's pretty rare for people to see it," Braidman said.
He said that often such material may not fall in a populated area, potentially just falling into the middle of the ocean.
But stargazers can increase their chances of seeing a meteor or other
astronomical phenomenon by going somewhere dark, away from city lights.
The Chabot Space and Science Center offers two free public
star viewings weekly on Friday and Saturday nights starting at 7:30 p.m.
In addition to this weekend's Orionid shower, viewers can also catch
glimpses of Jupiter, the Moon and nebulae there.
The observatory is located at 10000 Skyline Blvd. in the Oakland Hills.
Sightings of tonight's (Oct 18th) meteor were reported throughout the Bay Area
from Santa Cruz to San Jose, Oakland, Pacifica, Daly City,
Sausalito, and even in Davis.
