A screaming comes across the sky

May 19, 2024 1:10 PM

Suspected Meteor Turns Sky Over Portugal an Astonishing Neon Blue [The Daily Beast]

Um clarão de luz iluminou o país de madrugada: Foi um meteoro? Caiu como meteorito? O que se sabe até agora? [Expresso]
Meteoro atravessou Portugal na noite de sábado [Público]
Una bola de fuego ilumina el cielo: el meteoro que ha cruzado España era inusualmente grande [El Pais]
Footage of meteor that was seen last night in Portugal. [Reddit]
Bright green fireball lights up the skies over Portugal and Spain [Space.com]
Comet fragment lights up sky over Spain and Portugal 'like a movie' [Reuters]

posted by chavenet (21 comments total)

Sometime in the near future, we'll pause before jacking our brains directly into cyberspace, glance at each other over our padded-shoulder leather ensembles, and murmur as we gaze out over an eternally rain-soaked cityscape, "Do you remember what you were doing when the meteor brought the 80s back?"
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:17 PM on May 19 [8 favorites]

I like this video the most.
posted by fight or flight at 1:33 PM on May 19 [18 favorites]

noooooo I hate shoulder pads!
posted by supermedusa at 1:48 PM on May 19 [4 favorites]

Does anyone have an explanation of why blue? Is it the chemical makeup of the thing?
posted by bitslayer at 2:01 PM on May 19 [2 favorites]

Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. It was thought to be an ordinary falling star, but the next day there was a huge crater in the middle of the Common, and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there. A cylinder, thirty yards across, glowing hot, and with faint sounds of movement coming from within. Suddenly the top began moving, rotating, unscrewing, and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside trying to escape.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said...
posted by Nelson at 2:01 PM on May 19 [8 favorites]

I, for one, welcome our bright blue-green overlords.
posted by zardoz at 2:08 PM on May 19 [4 favorites]

Usually seeing a bright blue flash is a really bad thing.
posted by rikschell at 2:13 PM on May 19 [2 favorites]

This is one of those times where it had better be a meteor and not, like, the Heavenly Host or worse
posted by BungaDunga at 2:20 PM on May 19 [1 favorite]

stop using regular screwdrivers for plutonium bar tricks.
posted by j_curiouser at 2:20 PM on May 19 [1 favorite]

Is it the chemical makeup of the thing?

Yes. This was an alien craft coming in too hot and burning up in our atmosphere, and it has such special alloys that it burned a color we've never seen before in this dimension. Many who witnessed it in person may suffer adverse effects over the next few weeks as the heretofore unseen/unimagined color has its deleterious effects on their brains. Eyeballs, of course, being the senses most directly wired to the brain.
posted by hippybear at 2:20 PM on May 19 [3 favorites]

The Space.com article says it is indeed a matter of chemical composition:

The bright blue/green flash of the fireball indicates the burning of magnesium. One type of meteorite known to bear magnesium are the "pallasites," which contain large olive-green crystals that are a form of magnesium-iron silicate called olivine.

posted by BungaDunga at 2:21 PM on May 19 [10 favorites]

Look, I'm trying to get a thing started here, okay? I don't need your science coming in and fucking things up.

Alien craft burned up in the atmosphere. Pass it on.
posted by hippybear at 2:23 PM on May 19 [10 favorites]

Could be a magnesium flying saucer, true
posted by BungaDunga at 2:34 PM on May 19 [4 favorites]

It's just science. Aliens exist in the febrile realm of speculative fiction. There is a God however.
posted by Czjewel at 3:10 PM on May 19 [1 favorite]

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one they said...

It's all in the timing: "Pallasite meteorites like the Imilac formed in the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter."
posted by HearHere at 4:59 PM on May 19 [1 favorite]

Alien craft burned up in the atmosphere. Pass it on.

Alien craft was ejecting magnesium to disguise its entry to our atmosphere.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:31 PM on May 19 [3 favorites]

What a beautiful colour out of space!
posted by SPrintF at 6:42 PM on May 19 [2 favorites]

I saw a video on Threads and I assumed it to be fake because Threads just seems to be people lying or spreading disinformation (at least in my experience). I'm glad it's real because what a remarkable, beautiful thing.

I've seen some good meteor showers but nothing that cool.
posted by edencosmic at 6:57 PM on May 19 [3 favorites]

The heavens are screaming this year... and we're not even halfway done with it
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:28 PM on May 19 [4 favorites]

I saw a really nice green shooting star/ meteorite not long ago, also, the eclipse and a magnificent night of aurora borealis. Bring it! I would love to have seen this. If aliens are trying to re-populate earth, I think they're a bit premature, but who knows.
posted by theora55 at 10:54 PM on May 19 [3 favorites]

They're here. Finally.

I asked them to come get me ten years ago. I'd had enough of being stuck on this barbaric Terran outpost, collecting research data for a faceless Proxima Centauri conglomerate. I missed my wife and kids. There must have been some sort of delay in communication, because it took them this long to respond. Now I can finally go back to my homeworld.
posted by carnival_night_zone at 10:23 AM on May 20 [1 favorite]