11/11/19 – Where Were You?
Meteor that streaked across the sky in St. Louis area was part of the Taurids Meteor shower
Earth cam captures the moment the meteor streaked across the sky in the St. Louis area.
November 21, 2019
If you were awake at 8:52 p.m. on Nov. 11, then you might have heard or even seen a meteor jet across the sky.
The Taurids Meteor Shower made it displays Monday night across the Midwest. The Taurids is an annual meteor shower that is set to streak across the sky twice this month. The Taurids are actually two separate showers, with a Northern and Southern component. They are also associated with the comet Encke.
We heard a loud boom. We thought something hit our house.
— Austin Shields, 9
The Taurids appear between Sept. 10-Nov. 20. And for the citizens all across Missouri, Nov. 11 was the first time that many have seen a meteor shower. Many people didn’t know what it was. There were many different reactions. Some thought that a plane crashed, others thought it was a bomb. Some even thought that the world was ending.
Freshman Jacob Hostetter claims that he wasn’t surprised by the meteor shower.
“I wasn’t surprised, to be honest. I did think that this meant the world was gonna end in some type of tragic way,” Hostetter said.
While this event did not mean that the world was ending that night, it doesn’t take away any of the excitement from this event. The meteorite was the size of a basketball and weighed 220 pounds. It broke off in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter before it entered our atmosphere. The rock traveled at 33,500 miles per hour, faster than the speed of sound, which is why we all heard the boom.
Freshman Austin Shields described his experience with the shower.
“I was sitting on my couch. It was around 9 p.m. And the meteor came down. We heard a loud boom. We thought something hit our house. So we went outside to check and the sky lit up super bright.
“At first I thought it was a frost quake. But then I heard about the meteor and changed my mind. Apparently, people knew that this was going to happen but the word didn’t get around to very many people.”
There have been rumors going around about the space rock hitting the Earth and many people have been looking for it. Unfortunately for those people, those are just rumors. According to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the meteor never actually hit the ground but it did break into tiny pieces after traveling for 70 miles, 12 miles above the ground. Also, finding a meteorite is extremely rare. Only 24 meteorites have been found in Missouri since 1839.
In case you missed the shower, go here.
