Hacker News Reader

Comment by Negitivefrags | Hacker News Reader

About 2 years ago there was a meteor around this size or maybe a little smaller that passed over Auckland, NZ.

I was sitting in my spa pool looking up at the stars around midnight and it passed over head. Took about 30 seconds and went from one side of the sky to the other an left a huge streak of fire.

There were a couple of posts on social media like “Did anyone see that giant fireball?” but no video footage or news about the event otherwise.

I always feel like nobody believes me when I tell them this.

View on HN

I had an identical experience while on the coast of the Mid-Atlantic US several years ago: a giant fireball flew over me for around half a minute, give or take. I was indoors looking at the sea at night through a large window. There was no sound I could hear from inside the room. I was so mesmerized by the meteor that it didn't occur to me to take my eyes off from it, you know, to grab my phone and record the whole thing. It all looked like a special effect in a big-budget movie, but in real life.

Now, I'm almost certain that mythological figures like Helios, who rides a "chariot of fire" in the sky, must be interpretations of similar meteor sightings in antiquity: https://www.google.com/search?q=helios+chariot+of+fire&tbm=i... -- a "chariot of fire" is pretty apt description, IMHO.

"Like Helios" maybe, but I think in Helios's case the 'chariot of fire' is carrying the Sun across the day's sky. As I recall from the myth, at night he sails (on water) from West to East to prepare for the next day. The story doesn't fit well with a fast-moving night-time meteor(ite).

You're right. Nonetheless, I do feel "chariot of fire" is an apt description that captures the magic of what I saw :-)

If the fireball took half a minute (or seemed to) it was probably reentering spacecraft debris, like an upper stage. These are slower than meteors and tend to be going nearly horizontally, which extends their lifetime.

That makes a lot of sense. Yes, it could have been spacecraft debris.

I was lucky enough to witness it too.

I was driving down my street and I saw the world in front of me light up from a fireball in the sky accompanied by a loud roar. I had no reference as to what this was – a missile? A plane going down? Surely it was travelling too fast for those though.

As it passed over to the East I waited with tensed shoulders for what was to come next, I assumed a large impact or explosion, but thankfully exhaled after a few seconds and simply silence was what came next.

Remarkable experience!

Felt like I had to dig this up, I saw it too from the beach at Matauri bay. Google timeline was handy in pinning down the exact date!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/reports-flood-in-of-possible-m...

I saw one a couple of months ago from Pakuranga! No sound, so it must've been far away, but at first I thought it must be a firework (bright white though, ending in a flash not an explosion). Could've been space junk not a meteor.

I was in Christchurch New Zealand in September 2006 when we experienced a meteorite. http://meteorite-identification.com/mwnews/09122006.htm . Extremely loud, sounded like a truck had fallen over!

Had a similar experience around 8 years ago over southern Germany.

I saw something similar decades ago. I believe you.

Did you hear anything?

I do believe you, same happen to me in the Netherlands

Had you been drinking?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com