[meteorite-list] Hundreds Report Burning Meteor Over Australia

From: Michael Farmer <farmerm_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:16:30 2004
Message-ID: <003101c35cfc$288bf240$a430ef42_at_S0031628003>

Here we go again. Why do scientists say that? If the fireball was large
enough to excite thousands of people, it is most likely that something DID
hit the ground. There are many instances of meteorites falling without the
fanfare of explosions and bright fireballs, take the Canadian fall
(Killborne) I think it is, a small 500 gram stone fell and plopped down
without a sound in bright daylight in front of a golfer! And the Indiana
stone that fell in the yard where the boys were playing.
Meteorites do not have to be giant to make it to the ground.
I would like to know how this guy came to such an accurate size estimate of
the meteorite, guessing that it was "cricket ball size".
Mike Farmer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2003 8:35 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Hundreds Report Burning Meteor Over Australia


>
>
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s919114.htm
>
> Hundreds report burning meteor
> Australian Broadcasting Corporation
> August 7, 2003
>
> Astronomers say it is unlikely the remnants of a blazing meteor seen by
> hundreds of people last night have landed on earth.
>
> The Perth Observatory was flooded with hundreds of phone calls from
residents in
> the Goldfields, wheatbelt, and Great Southern when the meteor appeared
about
> 6:20pm AWST yesterday.
>
> Astronomer Peter Birch says they reported a bright light with a long tail
> lasting between five and 10 seconds.
>
> He says the meteor would have completely vapourised 100 kilometres from
> the ground as it entered the earth's atmosphere.
>
> "It would have only been the size something like...a football at maximum,
> maybe only the size of a cricket ball," he said.
>
> "But it's come in at such speed that it's actually burnt up in the
atmosphere,
> it's got very hot, and it's vapourised, and when these things happen, they
> get very bright and people can see them from a long way."
>
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>
Received on Thu 07 Aug 2003 11:54:15 AM PDT