Why did the whole sky light up?

Question

Two summers ago, between the hours of 2-4 am my brother and I were watching tv when we looked out the window and saw the whole sky light up for about 1-2 seconds. (this is pacific time, if that makes a difference) so then i was chatting online with a friend totally forgetting what happend, and then he sees the same thing... but he lives 30+ miles away!
I know he wasnt lying because i forgot to mention anything to him. Was it an astroid??

also, when my friend saw it, it was 30min-2 hrs after i saw it!

Answer 1

Was the sky clear? If you can't say, then it could easily have been lightning.

However, I have seen a bolide, or fireball myself and it lit up the ground like daylight for a second. It was startling and beautiful.

However, it only requires an incoming object of a few meters across or less to produce that effect.

These larger meteoroid strikes are fairly rare, and so I would be more convinced it was one if your friend saw it at the same time as you. Two in a night in one general locality would be rather uncommon.

PS - In answer to Derr above - it is totally irrational to suppose a supernova. Doesn't he think the astronomers would be all over something like that? What Derr saw was most likely an Iridium satellite that can flash very bright, but nowhere near bright enough to light up the sky. Iridium satellite flashes are common - if you watched for several hours every evening or morning you would probably see several a week. There are 60 of them up there in orbit.

I wish people would not guess answers on this site.

Answer 2

That sounds exciting. It could have been a number of things. There are two meteor showers that takes place around this time each year. The Perseids and the Aruigids. Normally they don´t produce meteors bright enough to cause what you saw but it isn´t implausible. But no such reports has been posted on any sites, like spaceweather.com, that coorelate your observation.
Also stray rocks, asteroids, come crashing into the atmosphere every now and then. Actually it happens about 10 times a year that a rock big enough to cause an airburst with the force of a small atombomb crashes into the atmosphere... It happens so high up that the sound is rarely heard but the light is often seen. You are lucky to have seen such a blast. NORAD have many times seen these and gone into high alert as they look like nuclear blasts... Which is kind of scary. But they, if anyone, could confirm an airburst at that time and place.

Answer 3

Something happened like that in Washington State last summer and no one knew what the heck it was and there was video and all. I would see if news crews know of anything others have been reporting its a shot to get some information if any at all. Good Luck on finding out what it was.


Ok I answered this a bit ago tell I was looking up my daily news on yahoo and well I saw this and you need to read it. Maybe its why your seeing lights. I will be watching this if I can I know that right now. So I hope that this information helps out more on your question.

Answer 4

It could have been a fireball or sheet lightning.

Once I was observing meteors with a group of astronomers. We'd divided the sky up into quadrants so as to catch the maximum number of meteors, and I had drawn east. There was a white house in part of my field of view. Suddenly I saw the whole side of the house light up like it was daylight. My friends looking in the other direction all saw a huge fireball in the west, but all I saw was the house light up! This was back in the height of the Cold War, and we heard later that jet fighters had been scrambled to "intercept" this fireball!

Answer 5

Most likely a bolide in the definition of an exploding meteor. Not an asteroid or you wouldn't be alive to be asking the question. No one seems to have come up with a definitive definition for bolide. Its probably synonymous with fireball. Several times over the years when I was a child riding my paper route I had the chance to witness this phenomenon. Later on leave from the Navy, I was fortunate enough to witness an event from start to finish, incoming meteor, a great silent explosion right above me, and an illuminated sky. Very spectacular indeed. I always felt honored that I was probably the only one who witnessed that space wanderer's fiery death.

Answer 6

sorry, I can't recall exactly, but a bunch of scientists did an experiment in the upper layers of the atmosphere for some reason... but they let go a balloon, I think, of a certain gas that would glow if this or that was present up there or the atoms were excited in a certain way....dang, wish I could remember at least a fer sure part of it.... they did it a couple times to be sure the readings matched.... shoot, it might have been an experiment done by the Shuttle, fer all I can remember....then, too, there's been some Aurora seen pretty far south in the states after a good sun burst.... whatever it was, it didn't hurt anything, right?....

Answer 7

It could've been. Fireballs can light up the sky for hundreds of square miles.

Answer 8

maybe it was a supernova, when we were kids my brother told me that while he was at camp they were out sky watching or something and the whole group witnessed this event. i guess its very rare and it sounds like what you are talking about.

Answer 9

Sounds like sheet lightning.

Answer 10

If more than a few seconds passed between your two sightings, then it must have been a UFO.