[meteorite-list] Bright Fireball Seen Over Northern California

From: Michael Farmer <meteoritehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:19 2004
Message-ID: <020d01c38843$8e9e47f0$0200a8c0_at_S0031628003>

WOW, I hope we get pieces of all of these falls, this would then be a bumper
crop year for recovered meteorites!
Mike Farmer,
PS, what if they are all the same type?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 10:38 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Bright Fireball Seen Over Northern California


>
>
> http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6903000.htm
>
> Comet debris cited as fireball
> METEOR SEEN MONDAY OVER THE SOUTH BAY
> By Glennda Chui
> The Mercury News (San Jose, California)
> September 30, 2003
>
> A bright fireball that streaked over the South Bay on Monday evening may
> have been debris from a comet, according to an astronomer.
>
> The meteor -- commonly called a shooting star -- traveled east to west at
> 7:57 p.m. Observers said it flared several times from three to 10 seconds
> before disappearing over the horizon.
>
> ``It's by far the brightest and longest I've ever seen,'' said Jake
Burkart,
> 29, of San Jose, an amateur astronomer who has been watching shooting
stars
> since he was a child. ``It was really amazing.''
>
> Meteors are streaks of light left by bits of space dust as they enter the
> upper atmosphere and evaporate. The dust may come from a rocky asteroid or
> from a comet, which is a loose conglomeration of rock and ice.
>
> Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer with the SETI Institute at NASA/Ames
> Research Center, said the meteor's appearance is typical of comet dust,
> which is more fragile than the dust from an asteroid and more likely to
> break up and flare.
>
> Five hours earlier, he said, another bright meteor was seen over Europe,
> where it reportedly glowed green or blue, broke into fragments and left a
> persistent, shining trail.
>
> ``So maybe we have a bit of a shower of bright fireballs going on at the
> moment, which is interesting,'' Jenniskens said.
>
> Although showers of meteors periodically light up the skies as the Earth
> passes through a thick patch of cometary dust, no such shower was expected
> on Monday night, he said. The next one, called the Draconids shower, is
> supposed to arrive Oct. 9.
>
> Jenniskens said whatever caused Monday's fireball appears to have landed
in
> the ocean.
>
> Contact Glennda Chui at gchui_at_mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5453.
>
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Received on Wed 01 Oct 2003 01:43:42 PM PDT