[meteorite-list] Meteor Explosion Detected Over Australia

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Dec 6 12:33:43 2004
Message-ID: <200412061733.JAA02179_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Meteor-lands-with-a-bang/2004/12/06/1102182230350.html

Meteor lands with a bang
By Richard Macey
smh.com.au (Australia)
December 7, 2004

After circling the sun for billions of years it exploded over northern
NSW yesterday with the force of about 500 tonnes of TNT, shaking people
from their sleep and lighting up the pre-dawn sky.

As worried Taree residents phoned police, a shockwave from the meteor's
blast was heard by networks of sensitive microphones set up near Hobart
and Tennant Creek to listen for secret nuclear tests.

"We saw the shockwave for about five minutes," said David Brown, a
scientist from the Federal Government's Geoscience Australia, which runs
the listening posts.

Dr Brown said the data showed that the meteor, travelling west to east,
broke into about five parts high in the sky just north of Taree at 4.18am.

"Any debris would have fallen into the sea," he said, adding that
Geoscience Australia's earthquake monitoring stations did not detect any
ground impact.

Dr Brown said the explosion was probably equal to that of about 500
tonnes of TNT but could have been as big as that of 1000 tonnes.

Graham Bird, of Taree police, was among those who heard the meteor's
arrival. "I certainly woke up," he said. "It sounded like really heavy
thunder."

Police received reports of the blast from Wollongong to Coffs Harbour,
and his own station received about 70 calls, he said.

"We had a few truck drivers say the sky lit up for about four seconds
and that it was like daylight," he said.

The blast woke Warren Burnes, owner of a prawn trawler, who was at home
in Harrington, 40 kilometres north of Taree.

"I thought it was the local petrol station exploding," he said. "It was
very, very loud. I jumped up in bed and looked outside but I saw
nothing. Everyone heard it. It made my sister-in-law's baby cry."

A Manly caller to Angela Catterns's ABC radio program said the jolt
knocked a painting off her wall, smashing the glass. "It scared the
daylights out of me."

Rob McNaught, an astronomer at Siding Spring, near Coonabarabran, said
meteors typically entered the atmosphere at about 20 kilometres a second
and started glowing 90 kilometres up.

The boom heard by residents suggested that yesterday's meteor was less
than 50 kilometres up when it exploded.

If made from stone or iron the meteor was probably at least as big as a
basketball.

Mr McNaught said there was a chance that security cameras in eastern NSW
recorded the fireball, or at least its reflected glow.
Received on Mon 06 Dec 2004 12:33:39 PM PST