Is it possible to hear a meteor explode?

CarlSaganINSPACE! · #1 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 03:11 PM

I ask this question because just last night (11-11:30PM EST) I was looking a the constellation Cygnus with my binoculars and saw a meteor cross my FOV. About one to one-half seconds later, I heard a faint popping sound in that direction. Could this have been the sound of the meteor exploding, or just my imagination/background sounds?

thoth II · #2 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 03:19 PM

Meteorites can make loud sounds. I also heard one explode

phunk · #3 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 03:46 PM

1 or 2 seconds sounds too soon, sound just doesn't travel that fast.

phunk · #4 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 03:48 PM

Interesting theory here though:

http://www.pibburns.com/catastro/metsound.htm

WayneFrancis · #5 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 04:01 PM

sound travels only about 1 mile/sec so it would have had to exploded very close to you.

phunk · #6 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 04:16 PM

Actually closer to 1/5 of a mile per second, at sea level.

nokton · #7 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CarlSaganINSPACE!

I ask this question because just last night (11-11:30PM EST) I was looking a the constellation Cygnus with my binoculars and saw a meteor cross my FOV. About one to one-half seconds later, I heard a faint popping sound in that direction. Could this have been the sound of the meteor exploding, or just my imagination/background sounds?

Hi Carl, only if the meteor was in the atmosphere would you hear a sound.
Nokton

Tucson_Tim · #8 (**permalink**) 15-July-2009, 05:33 PM

From wiki:

Quote:

Sound

Numerous people have over the years reported sounds being heard while bright meteors flared overhead. This would seem impossible, given the relatively slow speed of sound. Any sound generated by a meteor in the upper atmosphere, such as a sonic boom, should not be heard until many seconds after the meteor disappeared. However, in certain instances, for example during the Leonid meteor shower of 2001, several people reported sounds described as "crackling", "swishing", or "hissing"[10] occurring at the same instant as a meteor flare. Similar sounds have also been reported during intense displays of Earth's auroras.

Many investigators believe the sounds to be imaginary — essentially sound effects added by the mind to go along with a light show. However, the persistence and consistency of the reports have caused others to wonder. Sound recordings made under controlled conditions in Mongolia in 1998 by a team led by Slaven Garaj, a physicist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne, support the contention that the sounds are real.

How these sounds could be generated, assuming they are in fact real, remains something of a mystery. It has been hypothesized that the turbulent ionized wake of a meteor interacts with the magnetic field of the Earth, generating pulses of radio waves. As the trail dissipates, megawatts of electromagnetic energy could be released, with a peak in the power spectrum at audio frequencies. Physical vibrations induced by the electromagnetic impulses would then be heard if they are powerful enough to make grasses, plants, eyeglass frames, and other conductive materials vibrate.[11][12][13][14] This proposed mechanism, although proven to be plausible by laboratory work, remains unsupported by corresponding measurements in the field.

formulaterp · #9 (**permalink**) 16-July-2009, 03:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nokton

Hi Carl, only if the meteor was in the atmosphere would you hear a sound.
Nokton

If it weren't in the atmosphere, he probably wouldn't have seen it. And it wouldn't have been a meteor.

Jason_Roberts · #10 (**permalink**) 16-July-2009, 03:35 AM

Airbursts can produce a thunderous bang. I experienced this outside one afternoon in 1996 while watching a meteor.

It was very startling.

eburacum45 · #11 (**permalink**) 16-July-2009, 11:48 PM

Since meteors are generally at least forty miles from the observer, any sound would reach the observer 200 seconds later - three minutes or more. Quite often a lot more.

Most people would not associate a sound heard three or more minutes later with a particular visual event.
.
.

KaiYeves · #12 (**permalink**) 17-July-2009, 03:06 AM

Welcome to BAUT, Carl!

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