[meteorite-list] Eyewitness Accounts of Australian Meteor

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Dec 7 18:53:49 2004
Message-ID: <200412072353.PAA25390_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://portmacquarie.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=356065&y=2004&m=12

Meteorite passes over
By CLARE HAYES
Part Macquarie News (Australia)
8 December 2004

PORT Macquarie found itself in the path of a meteorite on Monday morning
as the speeding fireball shot through the earth's atmosphere.

The sky lit up, the night rumbled and the earth shook.

Where it was heading and where it landed, nobody knows.

But to witness the strange phenomenon residents had to be within a 50km
radius of the meteorite's path; and there was no shortage of witnesses
in Port Macquarie.

Mark Shelton had to pinch himself when he woke up.

The Gilmore St resident said the reserve at the back of his place glowed
with an intensely bright light for about five seconds.

"It was like nothing I've seen before in my life," he told the Port News.

"It was so bright I didn't know what it was. I got up walked onto the
balcony and 35 seconds later heard distant explosions followed by earth
tremors that made the windows rattle.

"I was scared of the light because I've never seen anything like it. It
was like looking at the sun, but worse."

The noise people heard was the sonic boom from the fireball hitting the
earth's atmosphere.

If parts of the fireball break through the atmosphere, the rock that
survives is a meteorite that will land on earth.

Astronomers can't tell if this happened on Monday because there have
been no reports of people finding the rock.

According to Sydney Observatory astronomer Dr Nick Lomb, it's not
uncommon for meteorites to reach earth.

In June a meteorite shot through the roof of a New Zealand home and in
1999 a Dunbogan home near Port Macquarie was hit. Fifty years ago in
Alabama, USA, a woman was hit by a meteorite that came through her
bedroom roof while she was sleeping.

And, if you're lucky, or unlucky, enough to get in the way of the
meteorite, at least the rock will pay for the repairs because the outer
atmospheric collectibles are valuable.

On the flip-side, a meteorite looks like any other rock and is
impossible to distinguish without testing or unless it was seen falling
out of the sky.



By LAURIE SULLIVAN

First there was a growing 'shewwwwwwwwing' sound from the north-west.

Almost simultaneously, the fish began boiling on the surface of the water.

Then, as if on cue, the lights on the bridge went out just as a fuzzy
object the colour of a smoke-filtered sun with a long tail flashed
overhead, rocketing out to sea.

Port Macquarie man Lloyd Eyles witnessed what he described as 'the
spectacle of a lifetime' while fishing from Lake Cathie Bridge at 4am on
Monday.

The well-known local fishing identity had an armchair view of the meteor
which made a noisy pass over the Mid-North Coast.

For most people - the light sleepers anyway - it was little more than a
window-rattling disruption to their sleep.

For Mr Eyles it was a celestial close encounter of the impressive kind.

"It all happened very quickly,' he said.

"I only just heard the shewwwing sound coming from the direction of Lake
Innes when the fish went absolutely beserk, boiling up on the surface of
the water.

"A split second later the lights on the bridge went out as this orange
ball passed overhead.

"It almost seemed close enough to touch. It was probably much higher,
but it appeared to pass about 20 metres above the trees just south of
the bridge.

"As it moved away there was this loud rumble - like jets breaking the
sound barrier or a convoy of trucks carrying boulders."

"It gave me the impression it was losing height as it headed out to sea."

The brief blackout of the street lights pitched the bridge into complete
darkness, allowing Mr Eyles a clear view of the spectacle.

There was no shortage of local people woken by the rumble of the meteor.
Some like Gilmore Street resident Mark Shelton were quick enough to
observe the bright light that accompanied it.

It's not uncommon for meteorites to reach Earth. In 1999 a Dunbogan home
was hit.

While they are valuable, testing is needed to distinguish them from
earthly variety.

If Mr Eyles' close encounter left him open-mouthed, it did the same for
the fish.

"It must have shaken them up," he said. "I caught another four whiting,
a bream and a flathead afterwards."

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http://taree.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=356082&y=2004&m=12

Resident says he knows where it is
Manning River Times (Australia)
8 December 2004

AN Old Bar resident has begun a search of property near Coolongolook, so
sure is he that he knows where Monday's meteorite fell.

Gilbert Babinall believes the main part which fell to earth landed with
a definite 'thud' not far from where he was travelling on the Bulahdelah
expressway.

"I ducked... it was that close," said the Sydney cab driver, who was
returning home to Old Bar after finishing his weekend's roster.

"It was shortly before 4.15 and I came over the top (of the expressway).
I had a bird's eye view of the sky and there was this huge light coming
hurtling at me for a few seconds.

"It was huge, to the naked eye it looked about football size. I've seen
shooting stars but this was huge. It had a big fireball tail.

"At first the sky lit up, then there was this huge bang. The thing
rocketed up in flames, the whole place lit up like daytime.

"Fragments started burning in the sky, like flares. They were all
colours... green, blue, red and orange. I thought a plane had blown up
in mid-air.

"There was a delayed noise, like a sonic boom. One piece, which looked
about this big," he said, indicating a grapefruit size, "came down
towards me. It looked to be falling slowly when it hit the ground, and I
heard a thud.

"I had ducked because it was dropping down beside me. I reckon I could
pinpoint just about where it fell."

Mr Babinall reported what he had seen to police, as he feared the
fragment could have caused a bushfire.

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http://taree.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=local&category=general%20news&story_id=356078&y=2004&m=12

As small as a cricket ball
Manning River Times (Australia)
8 December 2004

THE meteorite which gave Manning residents an early wake-up call on
Monday could have been as small as a cricket ball, according to a Mid
North Coast astronomer.

Win Howard of the Boambee Observatory, near Coffs Harbour, was asked by
the Times for his explanation of the loud explosion which shook the Mid
North Coast and rattled homes across the Manning about 4.16am.

Although he did not hear the explosion, one of his neighbours heard 'a
loud bang' and initial reports indicated it was an earth tremor along
the Dividing Range, Mr Howard said yesterday.

But as further reports started coming in, it appeared more likely that
'the meteorite theory' was the most possible cause.

(Whether it was a meteor, or became a meteorite, is unclear. Meteors are
fragments travelling through the sky - they technically become
meteorites if they hit the ground.)

"The normal cause of such a noise is a meteorite," Mr Howard said, and
in most cases they are not very big - probably no bigger than a cricket
ball.

"But they make a spectacular entrance depending on the angle at which
they approach the Earth. With the Earth travelling at a pretty fast
rate, if the meteor comes in from the opposite direction and also at a
fast rate, it can have spectacular results. It can be a collision of
thousands of kilometre an hour, and the resulting noise is like a jet
breaking the sound barrier.

"If it occurs above your horizon, there will also be a brilliant light,
sometimes as bright as a full moon." (This is the light described by
Times reader Allen Hannaford in yesterday's edition, after he witnessed
the meteor 'explosion' a few minutes before the huge bang woke most
residents around 4.16.)

If the meteor breaks up as it hits the Earth's atmosphere, it can leave
a scattering of light behind it, like a trail, and because of the heat,
the lights can be coloured green, red, yellow and orange, Mr Howard said.

"If it breaks up, there may be nothing on the ground to show for it. If
it remains intact, it may land somewhere. Curiously enough, only the
outside gets hot, and given a minute or two, it can be picked up."

Mr Howard describes the probable meteor of Monday morning as 'just a
little fellow'. "Heaven help us if something bigger strikes," he added.

As for the loud bang occurring up to several minutes after Mr Hannaford
witnessed the explosion, Mr Howard explained that such occurrences are
similar to lightning strikes, whereby it takes about three seconds per
kilometre "for the bang to catch up with the flash".

He remembers being in his observatory about midnight one night, with his
eyes accustomed to the dark "when suddenly the place lit up... you could
read a newspaper by the light.

"Three seconds later, there was a huge noise, just like a clap of
thunder, and the belief is that a meteorite hit somewhere off Solitary
Island (near Coffs Harbour."

Mr Howard said the 'shooting stars' that anyone can witness, up to many
times a night, are only about the size of grains of sand, which
vapourise under friction and create a spectacle.

Some of the debris flying about comes from disintegrating planets or
planetoids. Hundreds of meteorites land somewhere on our planet every
day, he added, with estimates being up to 40 tons a day in total. But
because 70 per cent of the earth's surface is water, most are never found.

"Although it is a relatively common event, many happen during the
daytime when the light cannot be seen, and because of the distraction of
other noises, they usually go unnoticed."
Received on Tue 07 Dec 2004 06:53:44 PM PST