"rb608" wrote in message
news
...Reminds me of one of the coolest astronomical things I've seen.
What must
have been a large meteorite made a huge, bright, trailing but brief
streak
as I was looking up. My mind barely had time to form the
impression, "wow",
when I heard a "pop" sound behind the meteorite. For a long time,
I'd
assumed I'd actually heard the meteorite hit the atmosphere; but in
retrospect, the sound came way too soon after the streak to have
traveled at
the speed of sound from that altitude. Is it actually possible the
pop
sound was from the meteorite, or is it more likely the sound
coincidently
came from somewhere else?

I've seen a couple of meteors that left an incandescent trail which
lasted for several seconds. I also saw one split up into numerous
pieces on one occasion. None of those times, or any other for that
matter, did I ever hear a sound associated with the event. Given that
sound travels at roughly five seconds per mile, I suspect that if one
hears a "pop" from a meteor in something under a second after seeing
it, it would probably be the last thing one ever heard.....and one
would have very little to say about it. It would be a hell of an
exit, though.

Wolfgang