Meteor Crashes? in Texas September 21st

We ducked!
- Brent S of Goldwaite,Texas
AMSMeteors.org

UPDATE: Massive, unprecedented fireball sightings have continued in other states.

Many Texans, as well as Oklahomans, Arkansasanianians, Missississssiiis, and Louisianavilles, got a surprise visit from a spectacular green meteor, large enough and flying low enough to the ground to rattle some nerves and drop some jaws. Thankfully, the outcome was not the Apocalypse... just a great news story.

• When: September 21st
• Where: All over Texas, but especially North Central
• What: Bright green meteor, large and close to earth

Habitual star gazers, and people simply looking up at the sky at the right time, reported to AMSMeteors.org seeing a fantastically large, green fireball light up their neighborhoods:

Map of September 21st, 2013 Sightings

Perseid Meteor Shower in TX

The past month and a half, the Texas sky has been a battle zone... the Perseid Meteor shower showed up a day earlier than expected, and ushered in a wave of entirely unexpected meteor sightings.

Like last night's. People used to seeing shooting stars were floored by the September 21st flyby - this shooting star's bright beauty was unprecedented. If you weren't lucky enough to see it, (like me, boo hoo), then step into the shoes of those who were. Here are some highlights from the many, many witness reports:

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Excellent green color, very bright terminal flash. Best event I've ever seen by far. Won't soon forget this one.
- Corey M, Abilene

Brightest bluest I've ever seen. Not the typical shooting star I see regularly. I would love to know what it was.
- Christopher C, Pflugerville

It was intense...I've never seen one of those that close to earth before!! Extraordinary!!
- Heidi G, San Antonio

I watch meteor showers regularly, for the past 20 years and have never seen one this big.
- Natalie C, Round Rock

Bright blue green like lightening with what appeared to be a fire like tail glowing red orange. Was extremely close and lit up neighboring roof tops. Zero clouds!!
- Hilery C, Fort Worth

It was the biggest an brightest I've ever seen! It was amazingly beautiful!
- Danielle W, Hallsville

I was on the phone with my mother who lives in Electra, TX, and she was on her back porch. We both witnessed the event, and after discussing our approximate observation angles we
determined that it must have been the same one. We live about 2.5 hrs away from each other. Before realizing she saw it too, I initially thought the meteor's size was that it was less
than a few miles away due to how fast it fell and how long it lasted. Afterwards, it realized that the meteor had to be larger, further away, and higher in elevation that I first judged.
- Ian M, Denton

It to about 30 seconds to cross the sky from west to east. I never saw a plane move that fast. What was it?
- WTf, writing on a Godlikeproductions.com forum

Just a minute ago ... anyone else see it? It didn't streak across the sky, it went straight down
- Another GLP thread

Bright object shooting from night sky. Turned purple blue then Exploded and burned up right above ground
- Reported to TUS by a reader

But the story doesn't stop there.

Someone unsuccessfully tried to spread a rumor that the same night, a meteor stuck the Texas Capital (Austin, or Austin's capitol building, who knows) on Godlikeproductions.com. But instead of this gossip remaining on the site for all to scrutinize, the thread was removed...

...which, of course, just makes me wonder if there might actually be validity to it. Threads don't typically get removed because they're hoaxed or false. In my experience, they get removed for the opposite reason. I'll give the GLP mods more credit than that and assume this rumor is BS, however. Saying that, if you heard about a meteor crashing into Austin, please let me know! Witness reports definitely leave room for the possibility that a meteor could have crashed landed in the Lone Star State last night.

If Texans were impressed by this fireball, they are advised to hang on to their cowboy hats, because the best is yet to come. According to Texas Storm Chasers, this is likely debris from Comet ISON, which will arrive in Earth's orbit by December of this year. Astronomers guess that ISON will give an underwhelming show.

My guess? Astronomers aren't very good guessers, and ISON is already making itself known. Whether we get its wrath head on, or in a more indirect fashion, doesn't really matter... I have a feeling we'll see a ton more record-breaking fireballs before the year's out. Let's hope we don't get another Russia.

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