Okay, I admit it. I got super distracted from what I was supposed to be doing today, ended up browsing digg, and finally landed on a site called Stupid Stuff: Magic and Illusions. Some of the images I’d seen plenty of times before, such as “Which Way is Up?” (below).
But I also found some new ones that I decided I must share …
Considering the fact that I clock in to work between 6:10 and 6:30am each weekday, I’d say that puts me in the category of “early risers.” However, since I don’t generally look outside until I walk out the door to start my car, I sadly missed the “bright lights” that had my favorite radio DJs all excited this morning.
Pete and Brenda of 104.1 The Fish (KFIS) were discussing a streak of light and accompanying boom that occurred around 5:20 this morning. Residents across Washington, Oregon and Idaho reported seeing a blue or greenish glow, and suspected everything from a UFO to a plane crash to a exploding transformer. A representative from the Federal Aviation Administration, however, has now confirmed it was a meteor (graphic at right borrowed from KATU.com).
OMSI Planetarium Manager Jim Todd provided this explanation: “When a solid object enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it interacts with air molecules, heats up to over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, and begins to glow. The incandescent object is called a meteor.”
Once a meteor hits the ground, it is called a meteorite. According to KGW.com, experts will use reports provided by the many eyewitness and attempt to locate and recover samples of any possible meteorites from today’s meteor.
