By Jeff Fast
(January 2, 2025) — On December 13, 2024, I photographed a brilliant green meteor in the skies over East Haddam. Unlike most meteors, this one did not diminish as it passed behind the trees on the horizon. It looked as if it might have hit! I took the picture from Deep River, at the landing next to the Essex steam train station. I was looking roughly north, along the Connecticut River. If you plot a line from where I was standing toward where meteor dipped below the horizon, it’s possible it landed somewhere in East Haddam.
This meteor is one of the Geminids. Each year, in mid-December, the Earth passes through a debris trail left behind long ago by the asteroid Phaethon. These are some of my favorite meteors because they are often brilliantly colored. Different meteorites contain different elements and each element burns with a different color at a different temperature. Nickel or magnesium is probably the reason this meteor is green.
I am offering a $1000 reward for anyone who finds a 200+ gram piece of the green meteor pictured. To claim your reward, just bring your discovery to my shop, Into the Woods, at 106 Bridge Road in Haddam. Do I know for sure the meteor landed in East Haddam? No. It might have landed hundreds or thousands of miles away. Do I know it landed at all? No. Do I know it didn’t land? No, but we can dream!
Photo by Jeff Fast
