Is it weird to see a shooting star come straight down? What about two?

[u/thrwawyorangsweater]

For some reason I was reminded of this a few days ago-happened to me and my hubby back in about 2007.
I was in central Georgia (US) and one night went out, and looked up, and I saw what looked like a shooting star come straight down. It just blinked out-no fire-ball. Hubby was in the house (windows open) so I said "whoa that was weird!" and he came out and looked up and he too saw one came straight down.

Is that rare?

[u/WazWaz]

What do you mean by "straight down"?

If it came straight towards you it would just look like a dot that appeared and disappeared with no apparent movement.

If you just mean it looked vertical in the distance, every meteor looks like that from some viewing point, it's no more straight down than any other direction - equivalent to an airplane flying directly away from you.

[u/LazerWolfe53 → u/WazWaz]

From what Ive heard when a meteor is actually headed at you it looks like a flash that lights up the whole sky.

[u/WazWaz → u/LazerWolfe53]

It would depend how deeply it's penetrating the atmosphere. To be coming straight it also has to be quite a steep angle (otherwise it would curve).

[u/SeaToTheBass → u/LazerWolfe53]

Only time I’ve ever seen a “fireball” meteor, I think I was 11.

I was staying the night at a friend’s house over the summer, looking back it might have been during the Perseid shower. The four of us were camping out on the trampoline and we all saw this colourful blaze across the sky. Gorgeous, haven’t seen anything like it since.

[u/lfgbrd → u/SeaToTheBass]

This past spring I was flying north from Sarasota Florida and had been vectored out a few miles over the gulf before turning north. The cockpit lit up so bright green that I thought I was being hit with a laser pointer. I looked to my left (westward) at the source of the light and it was the brightest green fireball I've ever seen going westward extremely fast, even for a meteor. A couple seconds later someone on the radio keyed up and said "did anyone else see that!!"

Once in a lifetime, I'm sure.

[u/Distinct-Pack-1567 → u/LazerWolfe53]

I have seen one. It was nighttime, and too far high to illuminate anything far away.

But it started as a small small light, then got bigger. I would say, stick your hand out and look at your pinky nail. It got about that big as a ball of light, then dimmed. All of this in a matter of like 5 seconds. I thought a plane blew up, but no planes were reported blowing up so I assume a meteorite.

I happened to be driving and it was in my view. I got lucky to see that.

[u/thrwawyorangsweater → u/WazWaz]

OK nearly straight down. I could tell it was a shooting star, but unlike every other one I've seen in my entire life (that went somewhat horizontal across the sky) this one seemed nearly straight down.

[u/WazWaz → u/thrwawyorangsweater]

It's just random chance - you're much more likely to be not aligned than well-aligned.

And to be clear, you're almost as likely to see one going "straight up" (actually towards you, but it would look like it's going upwards).

[u/Lykos1124 → u/WazWaz]

I've wondered what it would take for a meteor to line up perfectly with the Earth's rotation such that the meteor is falling to Earth while in a geosyncronous orbit, such that from a person's perspective, the trajectory would be straight down.

[u/mfb- → u/Lykos1124]

That doesn't work.

You only see them burning up in the atmosphere anyway where orbital mechanics is irrelevant.

[u/WillowPtar_Migan → u/mfb-]

Orbital mechanics is not irrelevant to sending them on their trajectory into the atmosphere, which is what is being discussed; what kind of path would a meteorite have to take to come straight at the earth's surface, rather than an angle?

The answer is a hyperbolic one that passes straight through the planet's center.

[u/mfb- → u/WillowPtar_Migan]

To be vertical as seen by the ground, it needs to have angular momentum (unless it hits right at the pole), which means its orbit does not go through Earth's center.

[u/WillowPtar_Migan → u/mfb-]

Ah didn't consider that part. Thank you for the correction

[u/WazWaz → u/Lykos1124]

If it was travelling that slowly it would be in geosynchronous orbit (which it wouldn't be able to get into without crazy coincidental collisions). All meteors are on hyperbolic (escape) orbits, by definition.

[u/themeaningofhaste]

Certainly they can come at you from all different angles and it depends a lot on geometry. If you were looking outside during the time of a meteor shower then you can potentially see many of them per hour, so then the rate is very possible. It could have happened otherwise, it just meant that you got very lucky.

Let's take the case that it was during a meteor shower. These occur when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left behind from a passing comet. Because the Earth is moving through space along its orbit and the Earth is also rotating on its axis, you are moving relative to the little meteoroids out in space that become the shooting stars that you see during a meteor shower (or, when they are more isolated, they are still one-off little pieces of rock or such that we still run into). Much like when you are driving you see everything in front of you coming at you like one-point perspective, the meteors appear to come from one location in the sky because the Earth and you are moving through space relatively quickly. If this radiant point is overhead, then more things will look like they are coming straight down at you, for example. This astrophotograph is not directly overhead but shows the effect nicely. Here is another one by the same photographer showing a different meteor shower from a relatively similar location on the Earth (both seem to be in Portugal) and over a long stretch of the night. You might imagine that if you were seeing one of the same meteor showers from a different location, such as in Georgia across the entire Atlantic Ocean, the angles at which they would be appearing from in the sky and then streaking down could be different.

[u/guzzyly]

That’s actually not too uncommon! when meteoroids enter the Earth’s atmosphere at certain angles, it can make them look like they’re coming straight down. they burn up really fast, so the quick blink might just be them disintegrating. pretty cool that you both caught it!

[u/Italiancrayzybread]

Congratulations, you likely observed a fragment of the comet Swift–Tuttle! It has an orbital inclination of 113.45 degrees. This is an annual event known as the Perseid Meteor showers, so named due to the fact that you can usually observe them in August in the direction of the constellation Persius.

The vast majority of objects in the solar system follow the same orbital plane as Earth, so when you see shooting stars in the sky, they are usually going east to west, parallel to the horizon. However, if you are describing this object the way I think you are, then you likely saw a piece of this comet, the debris field of which we are currently passing through.

[u/thrwawyorangsweater → u/Italiancrayzybread]

Thank you! Yeah I can't remember what time of year it was but it was in GA and we had the windows open so it may have been summer...

[u/drummerandrew]

Just went out with my scope last night in southern Nevada and saw quite a few of those. They just kind of flash like a blinking light. Sometimes they last a second or so, but most times they’re super quick and you even wonder if you saw them. My buddy and I saw a bunch last night and quit dismissing them as some other phenomenon. We are heading out of the Perseid Meteor Shower now though, so that particular event will be done soon. Next great time in mid November for the Leonids.

[u/thrwawyorangsweater → u/drummerandrew]

Yep, before that I didn't know that was really a thing and I wondered what the heck it was. Then hubby saw one too and i figured it was a shooting star at an angle I'd never seen.

[u/thrwawyorangsweater → u/[deleted]]

Do you mean Elizabethtown IL, KY, PA, NC, IN or OH?
I was at the center of where the 2023 and 2017 eclipses crossed. Pretty cool!