I remember in 1998/1999 i was in grade 6, and we were at a soccer practice with my school soccer team. I live in southern ontario (kitchener).
It was very cold, im thinking either oct before winter. and we were playing, when all of a sudden I looked in the sky and there was this HUGE ball in the air a fiery one. it had a HUGE tail and was really big. It looked like the size of the sun from earth as in how the sun looks to us every day.
and i remember i was like OMG is it going to hit earth? but it was going and going until it went over the forest and i couldnt see it anymore. My teacher even saw it, and was surprised.
does anyone know which comet this could have been?
im REALLY curious :S
2007-10-19 21:24:30 · 4 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
What you saw sounds like a fireball - a very bight meteor. Comets move much more slowly and remain visible for days or weeks. Meteors are pretty much local phenomena, visible over an area of at most a few hundred miles. A really bright one may have made the local news or been reported to meteorobs - http://www.meteorobs.org/
2007-10-19 21:44:21 · answer #1 · answered by injanier 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This wasn't a comet, because comets are white in colour and move very slowly, being visible for weeks at a time. It was most likely a meteor...large ones like this are called fireballs or bolides. Because of its brightness and the time of night it probably was widely seen over southern Ontario.
2007-10-20 01:58:54 · answer #2 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the comet was called Hailbop comet and i could be viewed in the south western sky at night.
2007-10-19 21:53:02 · answer #3 · answered by twinspick22 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Those are called earth-grazers and they happen a lot.
check out http://www.spaceweather.com
2007-10-19 21:28:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋