[meteorite-list] Suspected Fireball Over Norway Was ... A Cat

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:01 2004
Message-ID: <200304022239.OAA07808_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=516591

UFO was ... cat
Aftenpoften (Norway)
March 26, 2003

Most observations of mysterious flying objects in the sky are eventually
identified and explained, but the UFO and suspected meteorite over Lardal,
Norway got the highly unusual solution of being attributed to a cat.

Observers heard an explosion and spotted a fireball in the night sky over
Lardal on March 14. Now authorities have managed to puzzle out the evidence,
and say a housecat caused the sighting, NRK Vestfold reports.

Sheriff Lars Helge Sogn believes a cat climbed up a high-tension power line
and burst into flames after striking the high voltage cable with its tail.

The heat from the short circuit caused the wooden mast to burn, and it is
most likely this that appeared to be a fireball on the horizon on the night
of the mysterious sighting.

jhe local electricity company recorded no power outage due to the fire, which
made it harder to unravel the mystery. But the discovery of a dead cat under
the power mast made them double-check, and a four-second glitch in their
records was found on the evening of the 14th.

Before the feline solution the local sheriff had contacted Oslo University
astrophysicists, only to find that eyewitness reports of a fireball lasting
up to half an hour could not be a landing meteorite.

Cats don't burn so long either, but part of the wooden mast set alight by
the unlucky tabby is now considered to be the explanation for the local
mystery.
Received on Wed 02 Apr 2003 05:39:54 PM PST