[meteorite-list] FWD: Re: Brilliant Meteor over the Greater NY Area

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Apr 26 01:59:07 2005
Message-ID: <20050426055905.42087.qmail_at_web51706.mail.yahoo.com>

All that I can add is that there have been no reports
of a sonic-boom... so far... which is unfortunate.

------- Forward Message -------

Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 11:19:45 -0700
From: "Robert Lunsford" <lunro.imo.usa_at_cox.net>

Subject: (meteorobs) Re: Brilliant Meteor over the
Greater NY Area

The AMS has so far received 16 reports of this
brilliant object. It was seen as far north as southern
Maine and as far south as Pennsylvania. The
most often quoted color is green and the duration is
reported as short on most reports. From what I can
tell it does not appear to line up with any active
radiant and could be a purely random occurrence. The
updated AMS fireball table may be viewed at:
http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball/fireball_log.html

Clear Skies!

Robert Lunsford
American Meteor Society
-----------------------

Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 12:55:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lew Gramer <mameteors_at_yahoo.com>

Subject: (meteorobs) Could the NE US fireball have
even POTENTIALLY been a Lyrid?


The question has arisen in the press, whether the
recent very bright fireball seen over the Northeastern
United States could potentially be a Lyrid.

I'm Florida right now, so collecting data is a bit
tricky. But as I understand it, the fireball was
reported as being seen well before the local
radiant-rise time of the Lyrids for that region.
However, some people have suggested that this could be
discounted, if the meteoroid had traveled a "wrapped"
trajectory after beginning its initial atmospheric
entry... So it COULD still be a LYR.


My initial answer to this possibility would be
"definitely no" - a meteoroid traveling at the V_inf
of the Lyrids (49 km/s) would have to endure
incredible torques to be "wrapped" in the way you're
envisioning - and in any case, the gravitational shift
in its trajectory would only be that significant once
the body had lost most of its celestial velocity, and
so was no longer traveling at
a sufficient velocity to be visible from the ground.

On the other hand, some very bright fireballs have
exhibited incredibly long in-atmosphere trajectories
in the past - albeit those that I can think of all
had smaller initial V_inf than a Lyrids would, and
were considerably denser (say 3+ gm/cm3) than a Lyrid
meteoroid is likely to be (say 0.4 to 0.8 gm/cm3).


However, as a pure amateur, I would not rely on my own
opinion about this, when speaking with the press! So I
am posting this to 'meteorobs' now, in hopes that
some of our readers will have the experience and the
knowledge to say for sure whether the Lyrids are even
a possible source for the event, according to the
data collected from witnesses so far.

So, Peter, Peter, Colin, Rob, Sergey, and our many
other experts: how about it?


Clear skies to all!
Lew Gramer


End of meteorobs Digest, Vol 12, Issue 26
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Received on Tue 26 Apr 2005 01:59:05 AM PDT