7:28:00 PM

Nebraska Meteor Inquiry To ELPALLSKY 5FEB2011
Bayard, Nebraska arrived from google.com on "elp allsky: Bright Flashes-Booms Reported Across NE US 26JAN2011 +-11:00 PM EST Believed To Be Thundersnow Storms" by searching for blue light in sky nebraska 2011.
19:22:32 -- 4 minutes ago

***Nebraska Readers...If you witnessed a meteor event please post in my chat window or in comments below. Thank you!***

7:02:00 PM

Washington State Inquiry To ELPALLSKY 5FEB2011
Tacoma, Washington arrived from google.com on "elp allsky" by searching for lights in tacoma sky february 4 2011.

 ***Washington Readers...If you witnessed a meteor event please post in my chat window or in comments below. Thank you!***

6:59:00 PM

Michigan Inquiry To ELPALLSKY 5FEB2011
Canton, Michigan arrived from google.com on "elp allsky: Breaking Meteor News...Large Bright Fireball Event IN OH MI 19Jan2011..." by searching for bright flash canton mi. 
  
***Michigan Readers...If you witnessed a meteor event please post in my chat window or in comments below. Thank you!***

6:57:00 PM

Florida Meteor Inquiry To ELPALLSKY 5FEB2011
Fort Myers, Florida arrived from google.com on "elp allsky: Meter Class Asteroid 2011CQ1 Narrowly Misses Earth 4FEB2011 Only Hours After Discovery......" by searching for fl fireball in sky february 4 2011. 

***Florida Readers...If you witnessed a meteor event please post in my chat window or in comments below. Thank you!***

1:15:00 AM

Meter Class Asteroid 2011CQ1 Narrowly Misses Earth 4FEB2011 Only Hours After Discovery......


Don Yeomans and Paul Chodas
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
February 4, 2011
Asteroid 2011 CQ1 was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey on February 4 and made a record close Earth approach 14 hours later on February 4 at 19:39 UT (14:39 EST). It passed to within 0.85 Earth radii (5480 km) of the Earth's surface over a region in the mid-Pacific. This object, only about one meter in diameter, is the closest non-impacting object in our asteroid catalog to date. Prior to the Earth close approach, this object was in a so-called Apollo-class orbit that was mostly outside the Earth's orbit. Following the close approach, the Earth's gravitational attraction modified the object's orbit to an Aten-class orbit where the asteroid spends almost all of its time inside the Earth's orbit.
As is evident from the diagram, the close Earth approach changed the asteroid's flight path by about 60 degrees. Because of their small size, object's of this size are difficult to discover but there is likely to be nearly a billion objects of this size and larger in near-Earth space and one would expect one to strike Earth's atmosphere every few weeks on average. Upon striking the atmosphere, small objects of this size create visually impressive fireball events but only rarely do even a few small fragments reach the ground.