A large meteor streaked across the night sky Wednesday night and was seen and heard throughout the Bay Area.

Sky observers took to social media to report that they had seen a bright fireball with hues of red and orange break up overhead shortly before 8 p.m., accompanied by a loud boom. The sound was so loud, some residents reported it shook their homes, making them think it may be an earthquake.

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.

Wednesday night’s meteor appeared for about four or five seconds and was traveling fairly slowly compared to some other meteors, indicating it was probably relatively 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 Wednesday night’s meteor sighting was 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 Wednesday night’s meteor were reported throughout the Bay Area from Santa Cruz to San Jose, Oakland, Pacifica, Daly City, Sausalito, and even in Davis.

By

By

By

By

Join the Conversation

11 Comments

  1. We caught a glimpse of this while walking the dog last night, and then we heard the boom in the distance, weren’t sure what the latter was at the time. Pretty cool, though!

  2. I was just getting into my car on Middlefield Rd across from Fandango Pizza, south of Midtown, Palo Alto when I a heard strange sound, looked up and saw a burning object descending to the east. My field of view was toward the northeast. The view lasted for less than 2 seconds before the flame extinguished. The time and date was between 19:30 and 20:00 on Wednesday, 17 OCT 2012, around the same time as the above report.

  3. At 7 48 I received a call. A friend I know well was seated on teh front steps in Professorville, facing west,
    Down on his luck, a professional some of you know, his wife is ill and far away, he has no regular job, and is out of money.
    A christian man, with alifetime of work, he asked God for a sign, some sign how to go on. Earlier in the day, we had talked about yet another person.

    I opined, sometimes, I just talk and listen to the person, put a hand on their shoulder, like this, and ask. “Where do you see God in all of this? Where would you like to see God in all of this?”

    My friend asked for a sign. Then — some SOME reason perhaps outside our OWN reason – – the grat “flaming ball” came over head,”throwing sparks”

    He was stunned. ANd called me. Happy.

    One thing you might do, I said, is continue the dialogue.

    SO, that is how I experienced this event, and how my friend did.

    I am now going for a hike in the Martinez Hills with my infra red heat detector and magnetic compass!!!

  5. I was lucky enough to see this from that San Jose area. This was one of the clearest fullest views I have ever had of a meteor.

    It seemed to be up there for about 5 seconds and covered about 70 degrees of arc … it was amazing, streaking across the sky bright as a sparkler, with bits falling off it it along the way. It was truly spectacular!

  7. Sorry I missed it. I guess we are sure by now this wasn’t a re-entering satellite or spent booster. They can be quite colorful, but probably don’t come with such a sonic boom. Anybody have an explanation for the strange sound heard by breht of Greenmeadow causing him to look upward? (include probable distance and speed of sound in your calculation)

  8. I saw a small meteor flying quite low over Palo Alto back on September 25th, at around 8:30 pm. It looked like it might have landed near 101 and the Baylands.

  9. what were those two 5 airliner sized oblong thingies flying side by side at 900 mph then changed into 2 snakelike lines flying over midtown in silence on oct. 1. then a 2 foot wide triangle shaped crystal white thing hovered over your head at only 200 feet after that. welcome to the new dimension.

  11. I was on the roof top of the marriott and saw it and then heard the boom! It looked as if it was only a few hundred feet above me. I thought it was a large firework until It made the huge boom. It was sooo cool.

Leave a comment