[meteorite-list] Photo of Fiery Object Over UK [no longer] Mystifies Scientists

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:27 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4EE11_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi All,

Regarding Ron's latest forwarded message about the Wales images:

> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_031013.html

Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell (the guys who run NASA's Astronomy
Picture of the Day website), shouldn't feel too bad about their
premature assessment that Jonathan Burnett's image was of a bolide.
Yes, they may have jumped the gun in the interest of getting the
information out there quickly. But if it weren't for them I doubt
that the picture would ever have reached the level of publicity
that it did. And publicity was what was responsible for Julian
Heywood coming forward with a second picture, which was critical
to solving the mystery.

Without that second image, I wouldn't have written my triangulation
program and proven that the object was relatively low altitude.
Triangulation allowed an approximate determination of the true
direction of the contrail, and that contributed to forming the
hypothesis that the Concorde was the source of that contrail.

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Mon 13 Oct 2003 02:54:28 PM PDT