Rocket Launch Delayed Again Mystery Light Spotted in Norcal
Rocket fans in California may take been disappointed past this evening'south scrub of a Delta 4 Heavy launch from Vandenberg Air Forcefulness Base, but they received a nice alleviation prize: a fireball that left what looked like a contrail hanging in sunset skies.
The bright squiggle in the heaven may have mystified some, but savvy folks who spotted the flash recognized it as the signature of an exploding meteor, as well known as a bolide.
Information technology was pure coincidence that the fireball flashed at v:34 p.1000. PT, only before United Launch Brotherhood called off the launch of a classified spy satellite known as NROL-71 for the National Reconnaissance Office, due to elevated hydrogen levels that were detected during the countdown.
Video views captured from cars traveling in locales including Sacramento, Stockton and the San Francisco Bay Surface area helped solve the celestial mystery. Here are a few of the best clips:
Sorry for the defroster sound , wtf was this , Meteor ? Rocket ? film.twitter.com/zNR4h5cPgP
— Richard (@Richifornia) December 20, 2018
The falling star (?) captured on my dashcam. movie.twitter.com/ylZBU0ZM3U
— ari c (@aririn) December 20, 2018
Expert dashcam video of the #Sacramento falling star!https://t.co/ozgax4mRfI
— Mario Billiani ? (@_starbase_) December 20, 2018
Did you come across that bright light in the sky? Here's the view from Westward Sacramento. motion-picture show.twitter.com/Q83JMy8PSg
— CBS Sacramento CBS13 (@CBSSacramento) December xx, 2018
And here are more than views from social media:
Didn't get to run into #NROL71 go, only a huge bolide appeared in the northwest sky and left a trail! It was nigh equally bright as Venus! Got some snaps of the trail on my DSLR. Definitely fragmented in a smash, which we did not hear, as it was traveling away, SE-to-NW. pic.twitter.com/iBmn7RHJPq
— The Well-nigh Random Bowl of Cereal (@jaredhead) Dec twenty, 2018
At to the lowest degree nosotros got to run across a huge fireball meteor just before the scrub. This is the sun illuminated trail about 5 minutes afterward the fall. picture.twitter.com/KxiX34eAs6
— D. Stamos/Helodriver (@SpacecoastPix) Dec 20, 2018
Then what the hell was this? movie.twitter.com/sAUUoJJ36d
— Austin (@agweeds707) December xx, 2018
#NorCalMeteor #SoCalMeteor Here's the high altitude clouds from the falling star that impacted over the Pacific Bounding main. The dust from the burnt upwardly meteor is lit up past the sun while the footing is in darkness creating a super cool consequence. motion picture.twitter.com/zjfazoym9b
— Oliver Pelham Burn down (@opbphotos) Dec xx, 2018
Alien invasion above San Francisco? Don't panic that'south probably the exhaust of an aeroplane even so illuminated by the sunday high in the atmosphere. Just that'due south pretty and intriguing. Thank you for your emails. #seti picture.twitter.com/EEzvSShEJr
— Franck Marchis (@AllPlanets) December 20, 2018
SETI Institute senior planetary astronomer Franck Marchis was wrong about the plane exhaust, but he was correct most the intriguing nature of the meteor trail. German language scientific discipline author Daniel Fischer pulled together a lot of the imagery — and pieced together a sensible explanation:
Non a particularly bright bolide then – but it left an unusual bright "glowing" train hanging in the sky (my timeline is full of pictures of it). My hypothesis: it'south debris particles it left high in the atmosphere, yet lit by the Sunday. Would accept been merely perfect timing.
— Daniel Fischer (@cosmos4u) December xx, 2018
The NROL-17 launch had to be put off until December. thirty at the earliest so that United Launch Alliance could address the Delta 4 Heavy rocket's aggregating of backlog hydrogen.
SpaceX's scheduled launch of an Air Force GPS III satellite from Florida was as well postponed today, due to weather, and it may be postponed once more on Thursday for the aforementioned reason. But today wasn't a total washout for rocket fans.
India sent upwardly a GSLV rocket with the Indian Air Force's GSAT-7A remote-sensing satellite, while Arianespace launched the French CSO-1 spy satellite from its spaceport in French Guiana with a Russian-congenital Soyuz rocket.
Who knows? Perchance there'll be some other sunset fireball to celebrate a successful Delta 4 Heavy launch — after what are now four postponements.
Fireball sighting reports tin can exist filed with the American Shooting star Order, which has already received more than 100 reports (and scores of photos).
Source: https://www.geekwire.com/2018/rocket-launch-scrubbed-boo-meteor-flashes-southern-california-yay/
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