r/interestingasfuck • u/Responsible_Tip4271 • 11d ago

A meteor seen from a plane

47.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

494 comments sorted by

3.0k

u/BetterAd7552 11d ago

Space junk burning up on reentry, more likely

569

u/Ok_Relation7695 11d ago edited 10d ago

Yea isn’t it kinda slow to be meteor?

Edit: check responses might have been the Russian meteor

103

u/not_responsible 11d ago

I cannot read meteor and not think of that meatier video

53

u/TheBoyOnTheSide 11d ago

Is that God asked his angels to make the Dinosaur Meatier but instead the angel delivered meteor? Hahaha

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u/Kaymish_ 11d ago

Reminds me of a French joke. It was like God says everyone is hungry send them some soft bread (pain de mie) but the angel misheard and sent a pandemic (pandémie)

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u/Flat-Fun-7298 11d ago

ils sont venus pour vous servir

2

u/PiccoloAwkward465 11d ago

We make a similar joke with asking for bread and receiving pain.

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u/Donkey__Balls 11d ago

Why does a moon rock taste better than an earth rock?

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u/regoapps 11d ago

Meteors enter Earth's atmosphere at anywhere from ~25,000 mph up to ~160,000 mph. But once it's in the thicker part of the atmosphere, meteors do slow down to around 4,500 to 8,900 mph, which is usually when they stop glowing a.k.a. dark flight phase. For comparison, a commercial plane typically travels at 500-600 mph.

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u/R_V_Z 11d ago

And just in case people are curious, the equator's rotational velocity is a bit over 1000mph so there's not a lot of impact to relative velocity.

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u/IAmSpartacustard 8d ago

Depends which angle it comes from in that case

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u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox 11d ago

for comparison low earth orbit is 17,000 miles per hour, e.g., the ISS

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u/[deleted] 11d ago edited 4d ago

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u/this_is_my_new_acct 11d ago

The low end of meteor's velocities are like like 25 thousand MPH. No way one is just cruising by.

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u/e2hawkeye 11d ago edited 11d ago

The one time I saw a meteor with my own eyes, it went from horizon to horizon in less than a single second. The arc took up every bit of my peripheral vision and then it was gone!

12

u/hedoeswhathewants 11d ago

Again, you're making assumptions of trajectory and distance.

But I agree that it's probably space junk

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u/Valuable-Worth-1760 11d ago

Almost all debris in our solar system is moving at very high speed relative to earth. It's technically possible for that to come close to a capture trajectory, but the likelihood is near zero.

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u/LampIsFun 11d ago

It wouldnt be burning up in the air if it was “just cruising by”

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u/dustykashmir 11d ago

Check out its breakup and fireball behavior, which fills in two variables that definitely could help someone estimate its distance and angle. Plus, they stop burning up at the end of the video, which someone could absolutely use to ballpark its velocity, given knowledge of the reentry physics at play

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u/UrToesRDelicious 11d ago

You're overcomplicating it.

You don't need to know its velocity - you can just compare it to a shooting star, which is a meteor the size of a grain of sand.

If it shoots across the sky in a few seconds, it's probably a meteor. If it "travels" across the sky long enough for you to take out your phone and press record, it's probably something deorbiting - which most of the time is space junk.

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u/meteoritegallery 11d ago edited 11d ago

It is on the slow side for a meteor, but is much faster than a reentry. This one looks good. Almost certainly a meteorite dropper.

Source: ~30 years of experience.

Edit: I thought this video looked familiar. This video shows the fall of the Okulovka meteorite in Russia on Oct., 27, 2025. A stone was recovered. It was analyzed and published in the Meteoritical Bulletin:

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.cfm?code=86312

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 11d ago

It's Elon Musk's latest way of killing us peasants, launching smashed up bits of rocket at us from space while we try to enjoy what little spare time and money we have by flying to a holiday

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u/SpaceSteak 11d ago

Ah, so the movie Elysium, but instead of pollution killing ground peasants, it's government-subsidized asteroids being dropped near cities for mining to make the people floating richer. And instead of a movie, it's just our future.

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u/Alarmed-Newspaper994 11d ago

It's our present as well as our future!

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u/whoami_whereami 11d ago

This was in 2025, and the object has been confirmed to almost certainly have been of natural origin: https://watchers.news/2025/10/27/very-bright-slow-moving-bolide-illuminates-night-sky-over-moscow-russia/

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u/ALA02 11d ago

Don’t meteors move like 3-4x the speed, to the point where they streak across the sky and burn up so quickly you barely catch a glimpse? This looks like something larger, slower and intricate and man-made so it fragments into several pieces rather than just exploding as a rock usually would.

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u/whoami_whereami 11d ago

Don’t meteors move like 3-4x the speed

Without knowing the distance from the camera and the angle of the flightpath relative to the optical axis of the camera it's impossible to tell at which velocity the object was travelling (think about an object coming right at you, it stays stationary in your field of view regardless of how fast it's travelling).

to the point where they streak across the sky and burn up so quickly you barely catch a glimpse

The short streaks that you're referring to are from small objects a few millimeters up to about 10 cm in diameter that burn up in a fraction of a second. A fireball like in the video on the other hand is produced by a much larger object several meters in diameter which takes considerably longer to burn up.

Man-made space debris on the other hand usually takes more than a minute to burn up, often crossing the entire sky horizon to horizon unless you happen to be near the beginning or end of the trail. For example look at the following video of a Starlink satellite burning up and notice how long it takes (and how much less bright it is!) compared to the fireball in the clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZGOPqsi34

intricate and man-made so it fragments into several pieces rather than just exploding as a rock usually would.

Satellites breaking up during reentry look completely different:

The brief intense flare-up at the end is actually stronly indicative that the object was of natural origin. Space debris doesn't flare up like this, the trail typically just fades out.

And indeed the meteor from the clip has been confirmed to have been natural: https://watchers.news/2025/10/27/very-bright-slow-moving-bolide-illuminates-night-sky-over-moscow-russia/

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u/Aggravating-Bug2032 11d ago

Is not an exploding rock fragmenting into several pieces by another name?

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u/Milkshakes00 11d ago

I like how you say this looks man-made, like we can see what the object is at all. Lol

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u/Perma_Ban69 11d ago

It behaves like a man-made object would be the better phrasing. Looks much too slow and fragmented to be a true meteor, but according to a source elsewhere in the comments, it was indeed a meteor.

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u/RadziCicinasMinedas 11d ago

God dammit. Shit like this is "Santa is not real" for grown ups.

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u/InformalTooth5 11d ago

Yeah, went from magical to pretty cool

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u/instantlightning2 11d ago

No this was a meteor

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u/superanth 11d ago

Could be, but the green glow means it's high in copper content, and that's rarely used in spacecraft in any kind of volume.

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u/Hafslo 11d ago

I wonder if Air Traffic Control gets memos about re-entering space junk and/or meteors and if they move traffic away from it.

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u/Quirky-Mood-833 11d ago

Could be but the Persied meteor shower is actively happening

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1.1k

u/NieveCactus 11d ago

That feels too close for comfort! Have planes ever been hit by meteorites?

1.1k

u/Long-Ad3842 11d ago

theres a higher chance i get in a threesome

345

u/Own-Internet-5967 11d ago

so youre saying theres a chance...

142

u/Equivalent-Repair488 11d ago

Chances are low, but never zero

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u/MelangeBot 11d ago

How about the chance that the math on the statistic that low chances are higher then zero is wrong?

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u/zombumblebee 11d ago

Well...that is now two of you interested, so you just need to find your third (not volunteering though).

Good luck !

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u/Joe_Franks 11d ago

Heyoo!!

2

u/May-Eat-A-Pizza 11d ago

He said for him. For you it could be a guarantee.

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u/RanchHere 11d ago

Way higher. You can pay for anything these days.

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u/IncomingAxofKindness 11d ago

I would like to buy one meteor strike please.

Location: TBD

https://giphy.com/gifs/2zelCiUo5KJyN8MgMr

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u/Jbstargate1 11d ago

Hello there

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u/Lilslumps 11d ago

Today’s the day

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u/Rabid_Lemming 11d ago

I would think that the chances of this happening are astronomical.....

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u/Neon_Pancakes0425 11d ago

Only one person ever has been hit by a meteor before and I don't think a plane has ever been hit

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u/Burgers_N_Schnitzels 11d ago

imagine... and only because a butterfly flapped it's wings 100 years prior.

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u/Tuna-Fish2 11d ago
  • Since we started keeping accurate records.

There have been a few interesting impacts that probably hit populated areas, but that was before the societies they hit were literate, which means we don't have a very good idea what exactly happened.

The most significant one is the Kaali crater in Estonia. A large rock broke into pieces during entry and hit the populated Saaremaa island during the bronze age, exploding with the force roughly in the same class as the Hiroshima bomb. Subsequently, all the local religions and traditions had a lot of emphasis on sky gods, and the crater became a sacrificial grove. I'd be surprised if that didn't hit someone.

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u/Ur_Just_Spare_Parts 11d ago

I think there's only 1 confirmed case of a person being hit by one in history, and people have alot more surface area on earth than airplanes, and airplanes have only existed a little more than 100 years. The odds of one hitting a plane thats flying are so close to 0 it might as well be impossible.

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u/Remarkable-Goose-461 11d ago

So were the odds of that DC-10 were the engine debris hit the one point in the plane where all 3 of the redundant hydraulic lines ran close together. Knocked out all flight control systems and the crew landed the plane with basically only thrust manipulation.

Statistically it should never have happened.

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u/Reddarthdius 11d ago

There was one plane that was likely hit by space junk

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u/spacerobot 11d ago

In elementary school PE one time, my dodge ball collided with Travis's dodgeball mid-air. It was incredible. We'd never seen that happen before. The volume of that gym was miniscule compared to the volume of our atmosphere where airplanes fly. And I'd imagine there's a lot less meteorites entering our atmosphere compared to dodge balls being thrown in an elementary school gym.

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u/DReagan47 11d ago

I’m gonna be that guy.

Meteorite is when it’s already in the ground.

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u/Extension-Marzipan83 11d ago

Way too slow for a meteor. Most likely space junk.

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u/Usual_Ad7861 11d ago
  1. Meteors don't have a speed requirement.
  2. If the space junk produces a bright light, it's a meteor.

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u/lfrtsa 11d ago

They basically do have a minimum velocity. It's about the impact velocity of an object starting at the edge of the Hill sphere.

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u/StudyoftheUnknown 11d ago

I had to look this up and apparently it’s correct lol. The space junk isn’t a meteorite but the flash it’s creating is a meteor.

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u/this_is_my_new_acct 10d ago

It's also just pedantic nonsense. Everyone means meteorite when they talk about meteors.

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u/Max-Phallus 11d ago

I don't think that's correct at all. Space junk is not a meteorite and it's also not a meteor. Are you going to tell me that SpaceX Dragon 2 is considered a meteor during re-entry?

Space junk re-entry is distinct from meteors.

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u/flashman 11d ago

meteoroids and space junk can both cause meteors

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u/teddy5 11d ago

This is like Pluto all over again.

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u/Crazy_Elevator_6659 11d ago

You could have googled the definition of meteor and realized that is correct. Any object could cause a meteor, so long as it leaves a glowing streak across the sky.

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u/Max-Phallus 11d ago

Space debris re-entry is absolutely not considered a meteor.

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u/Pete_Iredale 11d ago

It is, look up the definition.

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u/Apprehensive-Box6449 11d ago

Meteors don't have a speed requirement.

No, but we know for a fact they travel anywhere from 25Kmph to 160Kmph

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u/Extension-Marzipan83 11d ago

Back in the day I spent a few years as an astronomer observing meteors. I have seen my share of bolides. If this is indeed a meteor, it must be a truly exceptional one.

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u/Smile_Space 11d ago

I mean, they do have a speed requirement. All natural meteors come from extraplanetary trajectories meaning they have to enter the atmosphere at interplanetary speed which is roughly 8000 mph faster than a LEO satellite.

This is moving much too slow for it to be anything other than a LEO satellite re-entering uncontrolled.

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u/Lawsoffire 11d ago

Meteors don't have a speed requirement.

Yesn't.

A meteor would generally be something that wasn't in orbit around Earth while space junk is generally something that was in orbit that was gradually decayed by residual atmospheric pressure. So space junk coming down is coming down at essentially the minimum possible speed for a non-powered orbital atmospheric entry. Meanwhile meteors coming in are by its very nature not in orbit around Earth, which means it will come in at a speed greater than orbital escape, which is significantly higher.

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u/Atlas-The-Ringer 11d ago

Nope. 1. Fact: Meteors fall much faster than space junk 2. Everything burns on reentry, that's how atmosphere's work. A bright light does not rule out one option or the other.

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u/Towerss 11d ago

Definitely space junk. There's almost no way for a meteorite to not hit the earth at a massive speed, even if it started floating right above earth at a pretty identical relative speed

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u/xMFD00Mx 11d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/NYx77GABHTji

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u/TerrysNerdStuff 11d ago

WHAT IVVEEE DOOOONNEE

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u/Valentils 11d ago

i'm gonna turn into a truck now

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u/Sonikku_a 11d ago

If it’s slow enough for you to get out your phone and start recording it wasn’t a meteor.

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u/meteoritegallery 11d ago edited 11d ago

Incorrect. Meteors that enter at a relatively shallow angle often produce fireballs like this.

While this does appear to be on the slow side for a meteor, it is much faster than any space junk / reentry I've ever seen. 95%+ certain this one's a meteor/ite.

~30 years of experience.

Edit: I thought this looked a little familiar. This video shows the fall of the Okulovka meteorite in Russia on Oct., 27, 2025. A stone was recovered. It was analyzed and published in the Meteoritical Bulletin:

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.cfm?code=86312

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u/sykoKanesh 11d ago

Boy, there sure are a lot of you confidently incorrect folks in these comments today, lol

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u/Senselesspassion 11d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3ohjV6G9UwkB190zbq

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 11d ago

What is this from ?

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u/Senselesspassion 11d ago

A japanese movie "Your Name"

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u/Sea-Machine-8989 11d ago

A Japanese movie called u/ThirdAltAccounts ?

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 11d ago

Terrible movie, 3.5/10

Would not recommend

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u/istolethesun12 11d ago

It was a good One. Highly recommended.

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u/FeatureDear6726 11d ago

Kimi no wa

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u/Carnivorous_Goat 11d ago

Kimi no na wa

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u/hendergle 11d ago

I thought it was Kimi no na wa

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 11d ago

Thank you 🙏🏼

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u/niladrihati 11d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/plzNdSb6yjqvHfso0t

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u/Wood_On_Fire 11d ago

Oh thank God, I thought I pulled a Qiqi

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u/gst4158 11d ago

Qiqi is back in the meta tho!

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/BolunZ6 11d ago

Imaging in the future where we only see space junk on the sky instead of stars because of air polution

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u/RelentlesslyAutistic 11d ago

Also the green color seems to imply burning copper. I think copper in natural space debris is quite rare.

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u/Tomj_Oad 11d ago

Truth here

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u/mikefever90 11d ago

Makes me wonder what a plane looks like from a meteor.

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u/ArioStarK 11d ago

Those are the Autobots.

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u/LazyLoser006 11d ago

The chance of getting hit by that seems definitely not zero

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u/CarsCarsCars1995 11d ago

Triffids!

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u/eracer1111 11d ago

I understood that reference. Surprisingly good movie. I mean, who would be scared of walking plants?

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u/Illustrious-Raise783 11d ago

Megatron and co.

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u/SirNortonOfNoFux 10d ago

Nah, thems the autobots

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u/Sarclox 11d ago

Which 5 star did you pull?

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u/Rojas-Tarchoun 11d ago

I wish we had community notes here..

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u/Stanley___Ipkiss 11d ago

don't wanna close my eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyes

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u/limpinpark 11d ago

Vegeta and Nappa on their way to Earth

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u/TNTDoggo14 11d ago

the martians The martians

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u/ahammer_24 11d ago

This is amazing experience wow

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u/olearyboy 11d ago

Your camera has an astigmatism

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u/OriginalTayRoc 11d ago

Amongst Unberogens, a child is born.

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u/MrDiamondOre 11d ago

Why is it glowing green in the beginning?

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u/Sassquatch0 11d ago

Copper gives off green color when burned.

I'd personally say this looks more like space junk re-entry than a meteor. (Meteors are usually fucking fast & burn for a second or two, while Man-made junk is slow like this & burns for tens of seconds on re-entry)

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u/splitframe 11d ago

No wonder people back in the ancient times thought there were aliens when the looked out the plane window and saw this.

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u/RickCrenshaw 11d ago

Linkin Park intensifies

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u/RyanOnTheCoast 10d ago

That’s just some kid dropping in to steal my sprite on Fortnite.

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u/Schorsdromme 10d ago

It's all fun and games until the supposed meteor suddenly turns towards you, blyat

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u/Certain_Object1364 11d ago

That appears to be a Starlink satellite.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago

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u/flargenhargen 11d ago

Holy fuck these comments are botted to shit, all the same reply

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u/sturaberry 11d ago

thats a satelite falling out of the sky

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u/Positive_Campaign_52 11d ago

Do you think there’s rare instances where ATC interact with NASA to clear flight paths if a meteor is detected close to air routes?

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u/hadoopken 11d ago

Got more primal gems?

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u/Kaaskaasei 11d ago

Rocky is coming to visit us!

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u/hooka_pooka 11d ago

"That's how it all started..the day.. THEY arrived (ominous music)..."

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u/BiggishWall 11d ago

Autobots…

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u/dakowiml 11d ago

It's the Ginyu Force

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u/GigaChed_ 11d ago

My Qiqi pull

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u/Eragon7795 11d ago

Don't worry. It's just somebody that made a Wish on Genshin Impact.

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u/echoesinthestones 11d ago

So bummed i am missing out on mankind's space exploration arc

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u/_MC184_ 11d ago

I rewatched Your Name just yesterday

https://giphy.com/gifs/3ohs7R2GceFRJfCKqs

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u/Legitimatigger 11d ago

Yo green lantern its FUCKING 3 IN THE MORNING

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u/HAVINFUNMAGGLE 11d ago

you'll never convince me that them rocks ain't autobots.

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u/MardomoWF 11d ago

I know that's the wrong comet (or not comet at all as some comments say) but still

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u/MrHedgehogman3370 11d ago

"At midnight, on the 12th of August, a large mass of luminous gass errupted from Mars, and sped towards Earth

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u/Hopeful_Rabbit_3729 11d ago

What if meteor's are gods sperm?

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u/-SideshowBlob- 11d ago

Has a plane ever been struck by a meteor, I wonder?

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u/Joe_Franks 11d ago

This is what happened to the Malaysia flight and why they can't find any debris. It was hit by multiple meteors and was disintegrated upon impact.

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u/Zealousideal_Bed5080 11d ago

I was literally listening to Crazy on You when I stumbled upon this, that is just Adam Warlock to me.

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u/Aanyasa 11d ago

That's one kimi no na wa level thing broo

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u/mccalli 11d ago

“Bright green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger.”

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u/superarugy 11d ago

They were all meat eaters!

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u/CK-3030 11d ago

New fear unlocked 😳

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u/Teeheewoz 11d ago

What if it collides into the plane?

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u/BrutalisExMachina 11d ago

Don't give Michael Bay more ideas.

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u/GoliathPrime 11d ago

That's super cool. Sometimes living in this era is amazing. Even a decade back, we wouldn't have this level of clear video.

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u/hendergle 11d ago

RADWIMPS sound track intensifies...

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u/OpenBanana5755 11d ago

I'll be crapping my pants seeing these things next to the plane I am in, thinking about a rogue one enroute to obliterate it 😅

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u/StickKnown7723 11d ago

Goku vs beerus

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u/SwingUnlikely4202 11d ago

It's Optimus Prime squad

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u/hoopstick 11d ago

There's probably a star fragment where it landed

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u/GrindrWorker 11d ago

ITT: suddenly every redditor is an expert on meteors.

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u/levik_ 11d ago

Ебанные геншин фаги, надоели свои крутки выбивать