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 slow 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.