Fireball!?!?

Question

What's a fireball? Well I know it's a ball of fire! But where does it come from? When do you see one? Is it from the sky?




random question..
is it true that people can firball people with their 'mind powers'?

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-Shawn-

Answer 1

When you see a fireball, its most likely a piece of space debris or rock that for one reason or another is falling to the earth and being burned up in the atmosphere. This is also known as a meteor or a 'shooting star'. If it reaches the earth's surface it's called a meteorite.

Some people might describe the sun as a fireball, but from your question I am fairly certain you are talking about meteorites.

To answer your random question: People can't fireball others with their mind powers. Except maybe in comic books or videogames like World of Warcraft.

Answer 2

Fireball observations
Most meteors seen in the course of an observing session are faint ones. Only a small fraction exceed magnitude 0 which are caused by millimeter-sized meteoroids. About one in 1,200 observed meteors becomes brighter than -5 mag, while only one in 12,000 reaches -8 mag (Rendtel and Knöfel, 1989). Bright meteors are called fireballs.

The definition of a fireball is somewhat arbitrary and in the literature the required minimum magnitude varies between about -2 mag to -6 mag. In the IMO Fireball Data Center (FIDAC), we regard meteors of at least apparent magnitude -3 mag (corrected for zenith position) as fireballs. By zenithal magnitude we mean the brightness the meteor would have if it had appeared in the zenith of the observing site. As an example, a meteor appearing like -1 mag may actually be a fireball if it moves only a few degrees above the horizon. The apparent brightness decreases with the square of the distance between object and observer, and furthermore, the absorption of the light is proportional to the optical pathlength as well. In the case of a near-horizon meteor, the distance to the observer is very large resulting in a strong reduction of the apparent brightness.

To put this way round: a fireball of -6 mag zenithal magnitude terminating about 50 km above Earth's surface will appear as a meteor of -1 mag at an elevation of 5 degrees above the horizon for an observer 600 km from the event.

Random question: I hope not! LOL

Answer 3

Unusually bright meteors are called fireballs. They really are not fire and not balls. They are glowing ionized air caused by a larger than usual meteoroid (space rock) entering the Earth's atmosphere. It doesn't even have to be that big. A one pound space rock would make a really spectacular fireball!

Answer 4

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