Feb 16 2009
Fireball In Waco
Lot of noise about what appears to be a meteor entering the atmosphere over Texas today (story and video here). This You Tube video below provides some clues as to what this probably wasn’t.
The runners are in a Marathon, in the morning. Given their shadows they appear to be running East-by-Southeast. The reentry seems to be coming in from the East and heading towards the West. It appears to be a little North of the runners.
Given the rough quality of the image, etc I am guessing this object came into our atmosphere from the East heading West on a low inclination trajectory (nearly parallel to the equator).
The satellites that collided last week were both in high inclination (polar) orbits which means they fly North-South over America, not East-West. So this is probably just a meteor, nothing more.
Update: Of course, if the reported timing of the Marathon is wrong my whole effort to orient the trajectory is wrong! Â Fair warning.
Fireball.
Waco.
Janet Reno ?
Fireball.
Waco.
Jeffrey Dahmer.
Bar-B-Que?
AJ,
On a more serious note.
If the two satellites collided with one another on a N-S trajectory, how much would the impact influence the direction of their paths?
BGG,
A collision might shift it slightly – mostly they fall down.
Appears to be natural. See here.
Space debris in equatorial orbits enters from the West and heads East. Debris from polar orbits can enter either North to South or South to North.
If this was heading East to West, it had to be natural. Spacecraft are launched toward the East to keep the 1000 mile/hr boost in orbital velocity from the rotation of the Earth. Launching in the other direction would be a waste of fuel.
“If the two satellites collided with one another on a N-S trajectory, how much would the impact influence the direction of their paths?”
Probably not a lot. The debris clouds (there would be two if them) would spread out along both orbital paths. You will eventually end up with two rings of debris tracing both paths. The problem is that all polar orbits converge at the poles. We will eventually have nearly continuous debris at the poles where these orbits intersect. It will be a danger for things such as sat-phone satellites and military reconnaissance for decades.