Hello all. My mom remembers seeing a comet light up the sky here in Houston, Texas in the 1950s.?

Question

This would have been before 1954. She and my dad did not know what was happening when the sky was lit up very brightly but did read in the newspaper the next day that it was a comet. We are trying to find out the name of the comet. Does anyone know??? Thanks!

Answer 1

oh yeah

H town baby!!!! Love the place.....

"before" 1954 is quite a wide range..... we need more info


I show a air liner named "comet" that crashed in 1954

heres a short list of comets after 1910
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_non-periodic_comets#After_1910_.28alphabetical.29


yes and comets look pretty much like a star.... just a dot

Answer 2

You have to be very careful with your terminology. “Light up the sky” infers a sudden happening. That isn’t a comet. If a comet is that bright, it has been in the sky for weeks. Comets do not suddenly appear. Astronomers find them months, sometimes years before they are visible to the general population.

A bright “lighting up of the sky” is most likely a large meteor strike. They happen suddenly.

I wish people would get this in their heads:

Comets are huge and usually millions of miles away. They do not appear to move in the sky, unless you look at them for several hours or days.

Meteors start burning at about 40 miles up, and flash, and are gone. Anything larger than a football, entering the atmosphere at many miles per second will light up the sky.