[meteorite-list] Re: Fireball Observed Over Minnesota

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:48 2004
Message-ID: <200303141644.IAA08986_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

>And the spot it came down is, either
>in fact or in my overactive imagination, less than a mile from
>my home.

It is very common for witnesses to report that a fireball
has landed very close to them. It turns out it is very
difficult to judge the distance of a fireball, and in
the vast majority of the cases the distance has been
grossly misjudged. In one case, someone thought a meteorite
landed nearby, 'just over a that nearby hill',
and it later turned out to have landed hundreds of miles away.
One key observation to look for is sonic booms.
A fireball is travelling at supersonic
speed, so if it is close to the observer, the observer will
hear sonic booms. If the observer does not hear sonic booms, then
that means the fireball is at least 50 miles away.

In this particular instance, there were no reports of any sonic
booms.

Ron Baalke
Received on Fri 14 Mar 2003 11:44:47 AM PST