Strange flash of light in the sky..

Question

Last night around 1 A.M. (Technically it was July 31st going into August 1st) I was walking around in the streets talking with a friend of mine when our conversation was interrupted by a bright flash of light in the sky. I quickly looked up and noticed a line that was left in the sky that just as quickly dissipated, the line almost looked like fire.

Note that this seemed high in the atmosphere, and I heard no "bang" or "boom" :(

I am not sure what this was, I was thinking it could have been a satellite explosion or maybe even a falling star exploding from the heat and expansion.

I just thought this was rather strange and I could not really put my finger on it. Does anyone else have any other ideas?

Answer 1

Meteor.  I once saw a bright green meteor, also without sound.

Answer 2

It was a meteor (shooting star) or more correctly a fireball. I've seen some spectacular ones that left a trail of smoke.

http://www.meteorshowersonline.com/

Heres a defenition from the web:

A meteor is the visible event that occurs when a meteoroid or asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere and becomes brightly visible. For bodies with a size scale larger than the atmospheric mean free path (10 cm to several metres) the visibility is due to the heat produced by the ram pressure (not friction, as is commonly assumed) of atmospheric entry. Since the majority of meteors are from small sand-grain size meteoroid bodies, most visible signatures are caused by electron relaxation following the individual collisions between vaporized meteor atoms and atmospheric constituents. The meteor is simply the visible event rather than an object itself.

Fireball

A fireball is brighter than a usual meteor. The International Astronomical Union defines a fireball as "a meteor brighter than any of the planets" (magnitude -4 or greater).The International Meteor Organization (an amateur organization that studies meteors) has a more rigid definition. It defines a fireball as a meteor that would have a magnitude of -3 or brighter if seen at zenith. This definition corrects for the greater distance between an observer and a meteor near the horizon. For example, a meteor of magnitude -1 at 5 degrees above the horizon would be classified as a fireball because if the observer had been directly below the meteor it would have appeared as magnitude -6

Answer 3

Saw the flash approx 1:30 am Aug 2. We were watching shooting stars and the flash came from behind us.Didn't see it directly and there was no noise. We're in S.W. Montana, where were you?

Answer 4

Meteor.  The line was the vapor trail.  And it looked like fire because it was super-heated.  You heard no sound because it was indeed high in the atmosphere, too high for sound to be transmitted.  Basically, it was a rock proobably no bigger than your pinky's fingernail going between 7 and 26 miles per second, maybe more.  7 mps is the minimum speed of a meteor, 26 the maxiumum unless it orbits retrograde to the planets or is extrasolar.

Answer 5

sounds like a shooting star

Answer 6

It was a 'falling star' but it's not an actual star falling on the Earth.  They are thousands of times bigger than the Earth; that would be a catastrophe.  It was a small bit of rock, the size of a baseball or smaller, hitting the upper atmosphere and burning up.  It's also known as a meteorite.  But your description is spot-on.  If you go out late at night on Aug 12, you'll see a lot more of them - it's one of the best meteor showers of the year.

Answer 7

I would say that was definitely a meteor.... and you never hear booms or bangs or anything like that with meteors, unless it was a HUGE meteor and it actually enters the troposphere.