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02) http://www.wfaa.com/news/23/texas_meteorite.shtml

Scientists Ponder: Green Streak in West Texas Sky MONAHANS, Texas, March
23 - You may have heard the old song, "Stars Fell on Alabama."
How about "Meteors Raining Down on Monahans"?
Sunday night, it happened - and the little West Texas town is still
buzzing.
"It sounded like an airplane crash when it hit the ground and, it
sounded real loud," exclaimed Eron Hernandez, who was playing basketball
with his pals Sunday about 6:45 p.m.
Suddenly, like a rocket, at 12 miles per second, a rock careened out of
the heavens and smashed down a few feet away from the boys.
Eron said he was amazed. The rock was glowing red.
"When I heard it fall, I came over. I thought it just was a regular
rock, so I picked it up and it was warm," Hernandez said.
A couple of blocks away, another chunk of the fallen meteor slammed into
a street, gouging out a hole in the asphalt.
The celestial visitor streaked down from the north across the Texas
Panhandle, riding a tail of green fire that turned to a blaze of gold.
Across a hundred miles, people said they heard a loud boom.
"It sounded like several sonic booms, and we thought it might be a plane
losing power," said
Wilma Branham.
Dan Branham recalled, "I thought maybe a plane exploded. It was a weird
looking trail. I heard three or four explosions, just `boom, boom,
boom!'"
This happened only about 30 miles from a spot where -- 25,000 years ago
-- a massive meteor hit the desert near where Odessa is.
It left a crater 500 feet across and 100 feet deep; now, just a shallow
bowl.
It may be that people are just a little extra spooked by this one after
hearing about that 30-mile wide asteroid -- you know, the one scientists
said might smash into the Earth.
Later they said, "oops, our mistake, looks like it won't obliterate us
after all."
Still, the hurtling fragments on Sunday landed just 90 feet from a
house.
For Tom Rodman of The Meteoritical Society, "it's very exciting. Seldom
in a man's lifetime will a meteorite fall this close to where you live.
It's a very rare occurrence."
Pretty hot stuff for a place where the big talk had been about whether
the Lobos would make the finals in basketball.
The plunge of the meteorites is sparking excitement far beyond West
Texas. Representatives from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington
called, eager to get a look at the new arrivals from outer space.
A rash of meteorites have been reported in recent weeks in Colorado,
Wyoming and northern New Mexico. Scientists there have said there's no
firm explanation for the increase in activity.

Reporter: Bill Brown
Last update: Tuesday, March 24 at 01:02 AM


03) http://www.abqjournal.com/scitech/1sci3-23.htm

March 23, 1998 - Pieces of Possible Meteoroid  - Fall in West Texas

The Associated Press  MONAHANS, Texas - Authorities are investigating
whether an unusual black rock discovered by a group of teen-agers caused
a flash of light that many believed to be a falling meteoroid.
Monahans police suspect the rock could be the cause of Sunday's
sighting, but officials
still weren't sure on Monday. "Right at the moment they don't know what
it is," said a woman who answered the phone at the police station. "No
experts or anything have looked at it yet."
The woman, who declined to give her name, said the rock was about 3
inches wide.
Monahans radio station KLBO reported the charred rock was about 9 inches
long and landed about 50 feet from five homes. Law officers were keeping
the fragment for examination by scientists. Several witnesses told local
newspapers and television stations that they had seen something
streaking across the sky as dusk fell.  People from as far as 70 miles
away also
heard a loud boom. The Goldsmith and West Odessa fire departments were
sent out to look for a possible plane crash. The possible celestial
visitor appeared as a bright green streak that exploded into white-hot
fragments, according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
They could have been meteorites composed of copper, explaining the
greenish tint, an astronomer at McDonald Observatory said. Monahans is
about 60 miles southwest of Odessa.

Copyright © 1997, 1998 Albuquerque Journal


Regards, Bernd