Hundreds of New Jersey residents notified the American Meteorological Society (AMS) of two fireball sightings that soared through the state’s skies. The first event was recorded on Wednesday and the second on Saturday, but what is this astonishing phenomenon all about?
According to the AMS, some 500 people observed the incandescent object last Wednesday and immediately called the agency to report the strange phenomenon.
The Space X crew even observed the fireball also during its Nov.10 liftoff to the International Space Station, it reported. Space.com.
According to a statement from the AMS, the first reports of the fireball arrived on Wednesday at 9:12 pm The agency clarified that it was not a contrail generated by the SpaceX rocket, but an “incredibly bright Taurid fireball” that crossed the skies .
The Southern and Northern Taurid meteor showers are known for their exceptionally bright fireballs or meteors. The astronomical phenomenon caused quite a stir in 2015, when the AMS received thousands of reports and photographs of Taurid fireball sightings. The highest rates of Taurid fireball sightings appear to occur in seven-year cycles. In fact, mass fireball sightings took place in 2008 and 2015, although elevated levels of fireballs were not seen in 2020.
November is the month to look up to the sky for the amazing spectacle. Nominal peak night for the Southern Taurids is November 5, while that of the Northern Taurids is about a week later, On November 12.
The highest sighting is possible from late at night until dawn, but the highest viewing occurs just after midnight. In general, the Southern Taurids offer around five meteors per hour at their peak, but the Northern Taurid shower can bring in higher numbers of meteors.
The amount you can see will depend on how far you are from urban lights, and how bright the meteors are. If they are bright enough, like those seen on Wednesday and Saturday, then they can be seen even with light pollution.
Taurid meteors radiate from the constellation Taurus, but will appear everywhere in the sky.
The Taurid meteor stream consists of an extremely wide causeway of distant debris left behind by Comet 2P / Encke. As Earth travels through this debris belt Comet 2P / Encke smashes into the upper atmosphere to vaporize as fairly slow-moving (28 km / 17 miles per second) taurid meteors.
The original taurid current has been disturbed by Jupiter in two branches: the southern and northern taurids.
AMS reported that some people who came to watch the SpaceX launch were lucky enough to see both the fiery Falcon 9 rocket flying into space and the fireball.
The phenomenon was seen primarily in North Carolina, but also in 13 other states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The AMS experts analyzed not only eyewitness accounts, but also from a NASA camera located in western North Carolina that revealed that the meteor first became visible 48 miles (over Greenville, North Carolina and moved northwest at 33,000 miles per hour).
On Saturday, November 13, 58 observers reported seeing a fireball between 4:30 pm and 4:50 pm, from locations throughout the Garden State. The reports came from Atlantic City, Fort Lee and Newton, among other cities, according to the AMS site.
That fireball was also seen in New York’s Hudson River Valley and in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, according to AMS.
The fireball lasted only 3.5 seconds before disintegrating 28 miles above the ground. At its brightest, its splendor rivaled the full moon, which AMS experts say was caused by an object about 45 pounds and 10 inches in diameter. The slow speed could imply that it was part of an asteroid.
Those who observed the fireball saw something odd, experts say. The brighter the fireball, the rarer the event. That’s because several thousand fireball-magnitude meteors penetrate Earth’s atmosphere on a daily basis, but most phenomena occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions and during daylight hours.
Those that occur at night also have little chance of being detected due to the relatively low number of people outside to see them, AMS experts said.
The last fireball seen burning in the skies of New Jersey was seen just over a year ago, on November 10, 2020.
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