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Re: (meteorobs) Fantastic Fireball -- 7PM -- Nov. 16 th

< In a message dated 11/16/99 10:34:29 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
< NthWhovian writes:

<< I agree that the radio report I heard was inaccurate to tie this to
the beginning of the Leonids.   >>

<Many of us have now posted about this being a marvelous sporadic, and
<there have been several speculations about space debris.  
<This was so amazing 
<I think we are almost reluctant to believe it was a true meteor. 
<Leonid or not, it was almost unbelievable!

In a message dated 11/16/99 11:04:00 PM US Pacific Standard Time,
bolide*chaser writes:

You're absolutely right!  It wasn't a "true meteor".  It IS
"unbelievable" that this came from any comet, let alone Swift-Tuttle.
But it IS a typical light show that is "par for the course" when a large
enough fragment comes from an ASTEROID.

It has yet to be shown that a falling fragment from a comet has ever
produced a sonic boom.

Now that you've seen a real "fireball",  you have to agree with me that
there is a true need for ANOTHER word to describe this beast.  A word,
maybe ... like .... say..... BOLIDE!!

(As far as it being manmade debris... as long as the number of witnessed
"falls" per year of astroidal debris outnumbers witnessed "falls" of
orbital debris, I wouldn't count on it!)

Here is what NASA said (BEFORE they reworded their statement) at
http://www.leonidslive.com/:

BEGIN QUOTE

"Fireball lights up the sky over the midwest!: Reports of a large
fireball were received shortly after 7 pm EST on Tuesday night from
states including KY, PA, IN, OH, MI, WI and MO. The trajectory was similar
in
appearance to an aircraft, flying low and level across the horizon. It is
likely
that this is a Leonids "Earth-grazer" travelling nearly parallel to the
Earth's surface through the atmosphere and possibly a taste of things to
come,
The Leonids meteor shower is expected to peak late Wednesday night into
Thursday morning. Stay tuned!"

END QUOTE

Allow for me to apologize for the above mis-statement by NASA's
"cometary" experts for their knee-jerk identification of this (now
confirmed in Carlisle, PA) "bolide" as "likely being a Leonid
Earth-grazer" :-(

Brace yourself for more continuing noise, as the media tries to relate this
event to comets and the Leonids.

Excuse me, but I have a
bolide to chase......

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