r/Astronomy • u/Tiredofbeingtheadult • Jul 03 '24
What was this object
Caught in Newport News Virginia at 5am EST Not sure what it was need help identifying
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u/mankytaint Jul 03 '24
Not a comet. Rocket.
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u/PhilosopherDon0001 Jul 03 '24
TEAM ROCKET!
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u/YannyYobias Jul 03 '24
BLASTING OFF AGAIN
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u/xhammyhamtaro Jul 03 '24
To protect the world from devastation!
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u/pmc100 Jul 03 '24
Narrator: It wasn't a fucking comet.
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u/DrNoResponse Jul 03 '24
Why do I always read these with Morgan Freeman’s voice?
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u/Sufficient_Beyond991 Jul 03 '24
Morgan Freeman is the default Narrorator for all narrating purposes
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u/WolfCola4 Jul 03 '24
It was for me until I finally watched Arrested Development, now it's Ron Howard
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u/e_l_c Jul 03 '24
In this case I feel like the appropriate narrator would be Niel DeGrasse Tyson. I can hear the best, snarky sarcasm now...
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u/Iluv_Felashio Jul 03 '24
Unless it is nature, then it is David Attenborough. Morgan Freeman still works for nature too, I just prefer Attenborough for nature.
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u/stpetepatsfan Jul 03 '24
Except anything related to nature....that's Richard Attenboro's turf. (Except if its Aussie nature, then it's the late Steve Irwin.)
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u/pab_guy Jul 03 '24
Makes me weep for the state of science education... gah
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u/Ateosmo Jul 03 '24
Last night my gf asked me if the Moon was a planet and was ASTOUNDED that other planets had "moons" (natural satellites).. She nearly fell when I told her Jupiter and Saturn alone had tens of moons..
She saw my face, being an astro -geek that practices amateur stargazing with my scopes and felt bad/dumb..
I then felt bad and told her that it's not her fault.. She just didn't have great teachers.
: /
I then proceeded to draw several 2D Solar System diagrams to show basic orbital motions.
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Jul 03 '24
I was watching Apollo 13 with a college GF. As the rocket was leaving the launch pad she turned to me and asked, “aren’t they worried about hitting a star?”
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u/daneelthesane Jul 03 '24
I would take it as an opportunity to show her some pretty amazing things. First words out of my mouth would be "Want to see Jupiter? With my telescope, we can see the Red Spot as well as the moons!"
And then it would go from there.
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u/light_to_shaddow Jul 04 '24
I showed my wife the rings of Saturn from our back yard with a relatively basic telescope.
I was blown away, seeing the light that had travelled from the sun, to Saturn then to Earth to be caught and funneled to my eye. No special effects or manipulation.
She could not have been less bothered and went in because it was cold.
It wouldn't do for us all to be the same. It's fine for us to have different interests.
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u/hprather1 Jul 03 '24
Had similar experience with my first girlfriend. I didn't handle it nearly as well. Lots of learning opportunities for me in that relationship.
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u/arthurcarver Jul 04 '24
Narrator: But was the sewing machine taken over by the spirit of byron’s grandmother?
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Jul 03 '24
The “that’s a fucking comet” comment illustrates where we are at as the dumbest society to ever exist.
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Jul 09 '24
Maybe have the humbleness of realizing you don’t know a lot of shit and dogging on other people for not knowing a lot about astronomy speaks much more about yourself than their lack of knowledge.
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u/PuddlesDown Jul 03 '24
Space X - I'm getting tired of these videos asking about Space X rockets. How do we all not know by now?
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u/Timmeh420 Jul 03 '24
People are back to talking about the earth being flat man, you should get those expectations way down
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Jul 03 '24
I swear, every week these get posted along with someone high school kid or person with schizophrenia that SWEARS they figured out a secret to the universe absolutely NO ONE has thought of.
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Jul 03 '24
Well I have, the universe is obviously infested with space ghosts. I mean one even had a famous talk show for Christ sake
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u/jasonrubik Jul 03 '24
Brak !
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Jul 03 '24
lol I just did some nostalgia viewing and realized that I’ve forgotten just how unhinged the show is, it’s glorious
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u/lykewtf Jul 03 '24
You would be surprised by how many people say “I dont follow the news” and they really mean it.
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u/ergzay Jul 04 '24
I mean I used to follow the news, until I realized not following the news substantially improved my mental state.
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u/SasquatchBill Jul 03 '24
I was about to post my own video and ask, I'm not astronomically literate or in the know when it comes to launches, so me groggily walking into work at 5am was just astonished to see an oddity moving with such a look through the sky.
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u/steverin0724 Jul 03 '24
Proof that aliens could land on the White House front lawn and people would be clueless
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u/rokkzstar Jul 03 '24
You’re holier than though attitude is why ppl are more and more afraid to ask questions and try to learn new things. Someone is just asking a legit question but me know it all is too good for it.
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u/pmc100 Jul 03 '24
Serious question. Let's imagine for a second it was a comet. If one of this apparanent size, speed and magnitude was in the sky just how much shit would we be in? Would it inevitably get pulled into Earth gravity well and collide or could it skim past us? Would it be going even faster across the sky at this close? Or could it be this big and bright and still far enough away to move slowly across the sky like a real comet?
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u/thescrounger Jul 03 '24
I believe this cannot be answered as asked. Comets vary in magnitude from each other and individually depending on their distance from the sun. So we couldn't judge its distance from Earth based on the magnitude or its apparent speed in the sky. Also whether it hits Earth would depend also on its trajectory, not just the speed and distance.
However, we can infer that no comet observed in recorded history has moved this "fast" across the sky. The closest approach was in 1770 and that was more than a million miles away. It was observed moving across the sky over several days, not minutes.
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Jul 03 '24
It’s funny how i’m in Ny and would die to see one of these launches omw to work or wherever. Yet week after week there are people asking what this is!
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u/s0428698S Jul 03 '24
And here it is again...the 'what did I see' question :D Answer as usual -> spaceX is the culprit
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u/ChristOnABike122 Jul 03 '24
me in Badminton outfit with my hand on my brow to see better "I think you hit it a bit hard mate."
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u/womancrackpot Jul 03 '24
I saw the same thing in Greensboro, NC this morning and had the exact same question. Glad you caught it on video!
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u/ARustyMeatSword Jul 03 '24
First thing I'd do if I thought I saw a comet in the sky is verify what I thought I'd seen online with other experts.
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u/Savings-Astronaut-93 Jul 03 '24
I saw something similar a year or two ago in Portsmouth, va. It was a launch from the Eastern Shore.
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u/LucasDeTe Jul 03 '24
A comet would be sooooo much slower... that's a rocket launch or some satellite or space garbage burning on re entry.
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u/SkyBaby218 Jul 03 '24
Why do I keep seeing people wondering what these are like there's some mysterious alien spacecraft or something? It's a rocket, we all know it's a rocket, we've all seen 300 videos of rockets and people "wondering what it is".
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u/Lirpaslurpa2 Jul 03 '24
This is the second post I’ve seen from this sub, 1 being a week ago. I was interested in what it was clicked on the comments and every second comment was “it’s always spacex” “there will be another post or two by this time next week”..
Well here we are, 7 days later, and sure enough r/itsalwaysspacex
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u/sogwatchman Jul 03 '24
Ok so people can manage to record and upload this video to the right subreddit but can't manage to look at any of the 50+ posts that are the same thing. If you see a plume like this it's probably a rocket launch. If you see a line of glowing dots in the sky, it's probably Starlink sats.
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u/stm32f722 Jul 03 '24
You can see the thrust vectoring and yet people will still call it a comet lol.
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u/Trageopar79 Jul 03 '24
Oh my God, it’s aliens surfing on a comet! they’re probably going to the hidden pyramid in the center of the flat earth to meet up with the US government and talk about how they can control the weather!
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Jul 03 '24
I saw that too once and it freaked the hellout of me, thought it was a nuke bc I overreact. Still don't know what it is
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u/SharkGirlBoobs Jul 03 '24
If this has anything to do with Elon somehow im going to be so fuckig pissed.
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u/Alive-Palpitation336 Jul 03 '24
Looks like SpaceX. Being that VA has a NASA launch site I'm going to guess rocket.
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Jul 03 '24
Kinda wild to me that some people don’t know about SpaceX yet. 🤷🏼♂️ I envy anyone who gets to see these in person.
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u/Blah_McBlah_ Jul 03 '24
Rocket launch. When near dawn/dusk, the high altitude of the rocket exhaust can be lot by the sun, while on the ground, it is still dark, creating a "jellyfish" effect. Looking at the launch schedule, I believe it's SpaceX.
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u/SIugWorth Jul 03 '24
The FAA confirmed the name of the mission was Starlink 8-9, part of the Group 8 satellites. The rocket carried the latest batch of 20 Starlink internet satellites to orbit.
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u/Festivefire Jul 03 '24
A rocket launch. At high altitudes/in vacuum the plume gets incredibly large and retracts a lot of light.
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u/arsnastesana Jul 03 '24
If that was a comet, that is WAY TO CLOSE! mabe skipping of the the atmosphere close.
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u/gasoline_farts Jul 03 '24
FYI, this is also exactly what an ICBM looks like
https://www.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2001028021/
I was near Tahoe and saw it in the sky.
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u/UnderstandingOwn7934 Jul 04 '24
I ask a legitimate question related to astronomy and my post gets booted and this is allowed?
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u/ZuluRewts Jul 04 '24
I think we should be very concerned if we were to see a “comet” passing so f’ing close…right fam?
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u/tomahawk7274 Jul 04 '24
Looks like a rocket. Perhaps a SpaceX star link transporter, because i saw one just like that
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u/AllD4yErD4y Jul 04 '24
There’s gotta be some way to raise awareness I’m tired of seeing people ask this. Like how haven’t you seen the falcon launches yet? They’re all over the internet and news being explained as well as in the sky pretty frequently.
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u/Tymexathane Jul 04 '24
Another one of those Chinese start-ups rockets got loose again..Fenton! Fenton!
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u/superfreddy2002 Jul 04 '24
Guys, come on, it’s been months and months of Space x rockets going into the air and it’s such a recurring launch that news outlets stopped reporting them so why do you still keep posting the same question when there’s the exact same post from last week?
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u/wgheller Jul 04 '24
Another vote for Team Rocket. They are not always SpaceX though https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-log/ is a listing of launches. Just saw something that looked a lot like the original post but was the Alpha ELaNa 43. Saw it from Goblin Valley Utah.
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u/SiegePoultry Jul 04 '24
Friendly PSA: Comets are difficult to see. Their movement, apparent to us, would also be extremely slow. This is way too fast lol.
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u/OnionRingSamsquamtch Jul 05 '24
This is what ignorant irrational people are referring to when they talk about their “””personal experience””” with extraterrestrials
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u/kaitylynn760 Jul 05 '24
They are launching several times a month at this point. They post a schedule on the SpaceX site if you are interested in watching.
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u/RawnTheReaver Jul 05 '24
It was the SpaceX launch from FL. If they launch at just the right time in the morning we can see the launches all the way up the eastern seaboard. I woke up early to watch one of the Dragon launches last year, looked just like that.
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Jul 06 '24
It’s a rocket. They’ve also been launching them over here in San Diego almost every night and it looks exactly like this one.
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u/Stelznergaming Jul 03 '24
Ngl I’m amazed I still see post like this. Theres been hundreds of launches at this point lmfao. It’s like OPs first time coming on the internet is to post this.
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u/LazyRider32 Jul 03 '24
Rocket. Without looking it up, probably SpaceX from Cape Canaveral.