by Wayne » Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:44 pm
I find it highly unlikely that the two events were related.
First off, meteors burn up in the mesosphere, which is around 100km up. Satellites are usually at least 400km (LEO) and quite often much higher. Secondly "almost the same instance" isn't good enough. They'd peak together with absolute simultaneous precision. A meteoroid bright enough to cause a satellite to glint would also quite literally turn night into day and would certainly survive its passage to the ground.
You also don't note that the meteor was much brighter than the satellite, which it would necessarily be. Hence you saw a chance occurence of an iridium flare with a meteor at a similar time. Not common but by no means rare.
I find it highly unlikely that the two events were related.
First off, meteors burn up in the mesosphere, which is around 100km up. Satellites are usually at least 400km (LEO) and quite often much higher. Secondly "almost the same instance" isn't good enough. They'd peak together with absolute simultaneous precision. A meteoroid bright enough to cause a satellite to glint would also quite literally turn night into day and would certainly survive its passage to the ground.
You also don't note that the meteor was much brighter than the satellite, which it would necessarily be. Hence you saw a chance occurence of an iridium flare with a meteor at a similar time. Not common but by no means rare.