Glenn Simeral reports seeing a bright meteor, low in the southern sky, Tuesday evening. He doesn't say where he was, but I'll assume it was somewhere in the Baltimore area. (Glenn? Can you fill us in?) Here's his report:
"At 9:30 p.m. 6/20, I observed a very large ball of fire streaking in the southern sky from left to right and quite low on the horizon. It was indeed an awesome sight and a bit frightening since from my perspective it looked like it would collide with the earth not too far away. I'm sure whatever it was must have been a long way out there, but it sure looked like 'Star wars' from where I stood. Nothing in the Sun today about it. Can you identify this?"
First, I'll ask anyone else who happened to see this object to leave a comment. Please describe where you were, in which direction you were looking, which way the meteor was moving, how long it remained visible and whether it left a persistent "train" 0 a sort of sparkly trail in its wake. With enough reports, we could triangulate a little bit and get a better idea of where this object really was. (If it appear low in the south both from Baltimore and Richmond, for example, we can be assured it was quite high and far away.)
These objects are most often referred to as "fireballs." They're really just meteors, but larger and brighter than the run-of-the-mill variety that can be seen on almost any night, streaking across the sky. The fireballs, being larger chunks of rock or metal, glow more brightly and longer as they burn up in the atmosphere, and often last for several seconds. Sometimes they appear to disappear behind a tree line or buildings. They're VERY cool and invariably leave observers thrilled and wondering whether they might have landed in a nearby field, or just over the hill. (Anyone remember the short-lived "Glen Burnie Meteor" story?)
Almost always these objects are much farther away, and far higher in the atmosphere than they look. And they almost invariably burn up high in the atmosphere. If they're big enough to crash to Earth, you can expect them to light up the night and even cast a shadow.
As for identifying it, I can't. We are at the tail end of the June Lyrid meteor shower, which runs roughly from June 16 to 21. But Glenn's description doesn't make it sound like the meteor appeared to radiate from the constellation Lyra (about halfway up the eastern sky at that time of night), as a well-behaved Lyrid meteor should. And besides, the June Lyrids have been pretty dormant in recent years.
We're also approaching the start of the June Bootids, which appear between June 26 and July 2. But they've been quiet too, and it's really too early.
My best guess is that Glenn saw a "sporadic," meteor - one not associated with a particular shower or "radiant." And I'm pretty confident it was NOT the International Space Station, which passed over Baltimore at about the same time last night, traveling from southwest to northeast over several minutes. That sounds quite different from what Glenn describes.
