Asteroid Streaks Across Western US Skies

got this in e-mail ..went searching

Asteroid Streaks Across Western US Skies
19-Nov-2009

2nd large meteor in 6 weeks. -

As if the world wasn't already dangerous enough: A small asteroid or meteor entered earth's atmosphere over the western US Wednesday night, traveling at a surprisingly high speed of about a hundred thousand miles an hour.The object exploded with the force of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. It was so bright that it turned the sky blue. Shock waves shook the ground from Colorado to Utah when it exploded. The explosion took place just after midnight in the area. Although the Leonid meteor shower is underway, the object was not part of it.
Six hours after the fireball, noctilucent clouds appeared in the dawn sky. There had been no reported rocket launches, which may mean that the clouds were connected with the meteor.
A number of asteroids and other large objects are moving through the solar system at this time. Since July, large impacts have been recorded on Jupiter, in one of the rings of Saturn and possibly on Venus. Earth has experienced two near misses in the past few weeks, and one airburst of an asteroid over Indonesia on October 8. Like the Indonesian object, there was no warning of the incoming western US meteor. Let's hope we start getting warnings about these space rocks before it's too late!
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found the following at http://spaceweather.com/

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ASTEROID CLOUD: The electric-blue "mystery cloud" seen twisting over Colorado and Utah at daybreak on Nov. 18th is no longer a mystery. It was asteroid debris. Consider the following images:



On Oct. 7, 2008, asteroid 2008 TC3 hit the atmosphere and exploded over Sudan, creating the cloud pictured left. On Nov. 18, 2009, a similar-sized asteroid hit the atmosphere and exploded over Colorado and Utah in a flash of light that startled onlookers across at least eight states. Hours later, daybreak revealed the "mystery cloud" pictured right. It looks just like the debris from 2008 TC3.

Both clouds resemble icy noctilucent clouds that form naturally around Earth's poles during summer or in the aftermath of rocket launches. Researchers have long suspected that space dust can prompt the formation of noctilucent clouds by acting as nucleation points for high-altitude ice crystals. Dusty debris from exploded asteroids may serve this purpose quite nicely.

The explosion of 2008 TC3 in Oct. 2008 produced meteorites that were later recovered. The asteroid-blast of Nov. 2009 probably produced meteorites, too, although researchers aren't yet sure where they fell. Stay tuned for updates.

more images: from Lisa Cain of New Castle, Colorado; from Don Brown of Park City, Utah; from Daniel Owen of Monarch, Utah; from John Omohundro of Grand Junction, Colorado; from Jeff Kendrick of Salt Lake City, Utah; from Allan Jeffers of Denver, Colorado; from Scott Stringham of Salt Lake City, Utah; from Sean O'Leary of West Jordan, Utah;

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GREAT FIREBALL: A remarkable midnight fireball that "turned night into day" over parts of the western United States last night was not a Leonid. Infrasound measurements suggest a sporadic asteroid not associated with the Leonid debris stream. The space rock exploded in the atmosphere with an energy equivalent to 0.5 - 1 kilotons of TNT. Approximately 6 hours later, observers in Utah and Colorado witnessed a twisting iridescent-blue cloud in the dawn sky. Debris from the fireball should have dissipated by that time, but the cloud remains unexplained; we cannot yet rule out a connection to the fireball event. Stay tuned for further analysis. videos: #1, #2, #3.

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=18&month=11&year=2009

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can't copy the vid with this..sorry..go here http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=19&month=11&year=2009

GREAT WESTERN FIREBALL: Yesterday, Nov. 18th, something exploded in the atmosphere above the western United States. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho say the fireball "turned night into day" and issued shock waves that "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. The fireball was so bright it actually turned the night sky noontime blue, as shown in this image from KSL TV in Utah:



Although the fireball appeared during the Leonid meteor shower, it was not a Leonid. Infrasound recordings of the blast suggest a small asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding with an energy of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Experts liken the event to the Park Forest fireball of 2003, which scattered dozens of meteorites across a suburb of Chicago. Meteorites are likely from this fireball as well. Stay tuned for developing information about the possible fall zone.

more fireball images: from KSL TV in Utah; from KTVB News in Idaho; from Thomas Ashcraft near Santa Fe, New Mexico; from Marsha Adams of Sedona, Arizona;

Approximately 6 hours after the fireball, people in Utah and Colorado got another surprise. As the sun rose over those states, a twisting electric-blue cloud appeared in the dawn sky:
These curious clouds on the horizon caught my attention just before sunrise," says photographer Don Brown of Park City, Utah. "They were strangely bright relative to the rest of the sky."

The cloud strongly resembles artificial noctilucent clouds formed at high altitudes by rocket and shuttle launches. Yet there was no (officially reported) rocket launch at dawn on Nov. 18th. Could the cloud be associated with the fireball? The geographical coincidence is certainly striking. Debris from the fireball should have dissipated by sunrise, but the cloud remains unexplained and a connection to the fireball cannot yet be dismissed. Readers, if you have more information about this event, let us know.

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Near-Earth Asteroids
Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs is on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On November 20, 2009 there were 1082 potentially hazardous asteroids.


Nov. 2009 Earth-asteroid encounters: Asteroid Date(UT) Miss Distance Mag. Size
2009 UK14 Nov. 1 9.1 LD 20 29 m
2006 JY26 Nov. 2 6.7 LD 22 10 m
2000 XK44 Nov. 4 28.8 LD 13 1.1 km
2009 VA Nov. 6 0.05 LD 12 6 m
2000 UJ1 Nov. 7 43.3 LD 15 1.2 km
2009 VT1 Nov. 9 1.4 LD 18 6 m
2000 TO64 Nov. 10 44.2 LD 14 1.9 km
2009 UK20 Nov. 12 6.5 LD 20 20 m
2009 VX Nov. 12 2.6 LD 17 26 m
2009 VR Nov. 13 6.6 LD 21 10 m
2009 VC1 Nov. 18 6.0 LD 19 21 m


Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach.