The Virginian-Pilot
©
Thousands of people saw the Big Boom, the Big Bang, the not-a-Russian-rocket-but-a-meteor as it blazed across the mid-Atlantic sky on Sunday night.
But only one person has said he saw where it landed.
Joe Butler of Suffolk says he was driving south across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel when night turned briefly into day.
"The sky was light all of a sudden, like it was daytime," Butler recalled on Friday. "There it was, coming right at my car. It was so fast that I didn't even have time to think that I might have been in danger.
"It shot right over my car, it went down in the water right between the two bridges."
Butler said he was near the tallest part of the bridge, near Fisherman Island, where the northbound and southbound lanes separate widely. The meteor, he said, splashed into the water between them.
"I was like, what in the world is going on?" Butler said. "My daughter, she said, 'Wow, what was that, Daddy?' and I said, 'I don't know, babe, I think that was a falling star.' "
The meteor flashed past Hampton Roads around 9:45 p.m. Sunday, briefly lighting up the landscape.
It was followed one to two minutes later by a sonic boom, which experts said meant it had penetrated deep enough into the atmosphere to leave meteorites.
An astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory identified the object as a piece of space junk from a Russian rocket launched a few days earlier.
However, on Tuesday the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, which tracks 19,000 man-made pieces of space debris, said it couldn't have been.
Butler agreed.
"The shape of it, it was just too perfect to be a piece of junk. It looked just like a miniature comet, pretty much," he said. "It was really, really white with blue flames. It was pretty wild."
Butler said he didn't hear the boom, only a whistling roar as the object flew past. The wind-blown water was really choppy, he added, but he could see the splash when it landed.
He saved the newspaper accounts for his 5-year-old daughter to read when she gets a little older.
Her main concern at the moment, he said, was whether dad had made a wish on the falling star.
Just for the record, no, he didn't.
Diane Tennant, (757) 446-2478, diane.tennant@pilotonline.com
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I was traveling south on
I was traveling south on I-95 when I saw the object falling. I was just outside of Richmond pretty close to I-295. It was falling on the right side of the interstate. It must have been massive because the following day I heard reports of people spotting it from NC to NY. I think what the gentleman on the Bay Bridge tunnel saw might have been a piece of the "big one" that was falling. I could see it breaking up as it approached the ground. A guy in PA said his windows shook. I have a feeling there were a lot of pieces that hit the ground as it broke up entering the atmosphere and that's why it didn't make an enormous splash. One of the most spectacular things I've ever seen.
Latest report of meteor hitting the water at CBBT
I have wondered since last Sunday, where were all the surveillance cameras that night ? Did the alien forces turn them all OFF? In the past, if a person as much as, backed into a dumpster, it WAS CAUGHT on hidden camera. The Suffolk man is saying that he witnessed the meteor hit the water between the two towers of the CBBT. There are certainly many cameras along that bridge, its just hard to believe that not ONE of them recorded anything to back up this or any of the other stories regarding last Sundays light flash and 'big boom', which by the way, was an explosion thunderous enough to shake my house and rattle the windows, six miles away!
BeachMan
If it was ice, it's gone.
If it was a space rock, it would probably have to have some uniquely measurable characteristic to find it or it would probably look like most any other rock down there.
Still, it would be interesting to find it.
Shucks
another conspiracy theory busted.
Comets
are primarily made of ice so it would have melted already. Space junk would be a concern if it was a fuel source container which is a health issue and was in the news about a dead soviet era spy satellite that came down over the pacific a year or two ago.
This is definitely a news worthy article and a welcome change from the dreary economic news and the hourly police reports of armed robberies and homicides or would you rather spend all your time reading about blood and gore and the inhumanities that people commit upon each other?
So whats the deal with the alien and Elvis jokes? Seriously there was a streaking light in the sky then the sky lit up then a loud boom not a visit from aliens or Elvis, come on that's like comparing a flux capacitor to a positronic flow maximizer.
From the horses mouth
After Joe told me Wednesday night about the sighting, I called the Virginian Pilot to give them his name. The Pilot called him. He was not so interested in reporting it. He had not read the paper and did not know about the hub-bub until Tuesday. He did immediately call a friend to tell them what he had seen, but then let it go. He just thought he had seen a shooting star. A once in a time event, but not knowing that so many others had seen it, he just accepted it as an unusual event. He said he looked around and there were no other cars within sight so I doubt anyone else saw it. He was returning Sunday night with my granddaughter Alana from visiting family in Maryland. He has the toll receipt showing that he paid the toll at 9:29 pm. That would put him on the bridge about 9:35 assuming the clocks at the toll booth are accurate. Could be off a few minutes. Based on reports from those at the ocean front saying they saw it in the northwest sky, this would be consistant with where it landed. This spot is about half way from Maryland and North Carolina where people live that reported the sighting. I accept his report as accurate and agree that someone should look for it. The water
That sounds about right...
After all of the guessing, wondering, and conspiracy theories about whatever it was last Sunday- this makes the most sense to me. I tend to believe him, but after reading this story- it makes me wonder. Why hasn't some organization gone out to that spot to investigate it? He was pretty specific on where it landed. Why hasn't, at the very least, the Va Aquarium or someone gone out with a few divers to check it out? If it was a comet, wouldn't it be valuable research material? If it was "space junk", wouldn't NASA want to recover it? Why does this event seem to be moving at a snails pace? We all didn't have mass hysteria- it was very real...I for one want to know what landed near the bridge. I wish I had some scuba gear and a boat- just to satisfy my own curiosity!
And Then???
Elvis appeared....?????
Way cool! What a memory for
Way cool! What a memory for the father and daughter. The CBBT is a man made wonder and now the backdrop for a rare occurrence, a wonder in itself! Ponder it.
Too bad the water visibility
Too bad the water visibility is likely so low there. If it wasn't, and the guy could try to recall the general area it landed, then it would be possible to go look for it.