[meteorite-list] frightful fireball of July 8 ==> July 10 fireball

From: mexicodoug at aim.com <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:58:12 -0400
Message-ID: <8CAB2FF3DE0AABB-4B8-61B2_at_WEBMAIL-DF10.sysops.aol.com>

Hi Rob, Listees,

For those who have been following the Israeli pandemonium / Cypriot UFO
"meteor" story I first reported here, and Rob Matson quickly suggested
it was the decaying orbit 3rd stage rocket booster of the Israeli
Shavit, all within 6 hours of the event, - this appears to be a
well-embellished but bonafide recovery of a cool piece of the booster
rocket which orbit finished decaying at 13:20 UT on July 10, 2008. It
lofted a top secret spy satellite launched 13 months ago. And ... it
fell in the country that best knows how to tell a newsstory ;-)

Rob mentioned the Israeli "Shavit" translates to "comet" - and to think
this is probably what caused or related to what caused the July 8
fireball observed between Israel and Cyprus.

A fun read !! Great picture !! Cool piece !!

Just fell where it was supposed to be - along the orbit past the
calculated re-entry point on the Butan/Tibet border and then a little
past that point along the orbit (though I haven't looked closely) ...
this still needs to be confirmed, but it sure looks right ... in spite
of the article's red hot buildings and day to cool off, etc., etc. ...

Best wishes
Doug

Flaming saucer from the sky
- Time raises possibility of Israel satellite debris in Kurseong
VIVEK SINGH AND G.S. MUDUR

The object that fell in Kurseong. Picture by Vivek Singh
July 11: Comrade Karat, while you were lost in
 the nuclear draft last
evening, an ?intruder? from America?s bosom buddy Israel ? of all
places ? may have infiltrated the communist bastion called Bengal from
the sky.

Hear it from Hari Bahadur Chettri of Kurseong: ?I was drinking tea when
I spotted a glowing red object falling from the sky. It crashed near my
cattle shed with a hissing sound. The heat was so much that the tin
wall of the cattle shed also turned red.?

The celestial object, around two feet wide and 18 inches high, had not
been identified till late tonight.

But the time of the landing ? 6.30pm ? raises a tantalising
possibility. A US agency had forecast that chunks of a stage-3 rocket
body of Shavit, an Israeli launch vehicle, would re-enter Earth?s
atmosphere around the same time. Shavit?s trajectory would have taken
it over India.

The Centre for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies in Los Angeles had
predicted the re-entry of parts of the rocket body on July 10 at 13:28
Universal Time (6.28pm in India). The error margin had been kept at 75
minutes.

Whether the object is part of that debris or not, it has caused
considerable excitement in the landing site, Lower Sirubari Busty, 4km
 from Kurseong town. No one was injured, nor was Chettri?s house damaged
but the spot where the object hit the ground had a crater almost six
inches deep, suggest
ing it came crashing at very high speed.

Residents flocked to take a look at the ?metal-like? object which they
described as round, and having fibres and many concentric layers
inside. The thickness of the ?metal? was said to be around half an inch.

Chettri said the object looked ?silvery? after cooling last night. It
turned ?black? this morning, with Chettri saying it could be because of
the overnight rain.

According to the US centre for debris studies, the intense heat caused
by friction with the atmosphere leads to melting, vaporisation or
disintegration of objects coming back to Earth. But a component of a
satellite or a rocket might be intact if its melting point is high
enough and if its shape allows it to lose heat rapidly, the centre said.

At least 20 objects that were once parts of rockets or satellites have
fallen back since January 2008, according to the centre for orbital and
debris studies, which has catalogued each re-entry and its expected
path. The stage-3 of the Shavit rocket had been launched from Israel?s
Palmachim Air Force Base on June 10 last year.

Back in Lower Sirubari, many were more relieved than curious. ?This is
the first time we have seen such an object. It was a scary moment for
us but we were lucky no one was injured. We did not allow the police to
take away the object initially as we wanted higher-ups=2
0in the
administration to see it first,? said Kiran Rai.

The district administration said it would take the object to Kurseong
police station and send it to ?technical experts? for identification.

?The object must have fallen from space. We can?t confirm what it is,
though. We have told the district magistrate,? said Manish Verma, the
Kurseong block development officer.
Received on Sun 13 Jul 2008 08:58:12 AM PDT