[meteorite-list] Brilliant Light Plunging Into Pacific May Have Been Meteor

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:44:43 2004
Message-ID: <200103272345.PAA29715_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010327/t000026482.html

Brilliant Light Plunging Into Pacific May Have Been Meteor
Los Angeles Times
March 27, 2001

     A bright red and green light that appeared to plunge into the Pacific
Ocean on Monday night may have been a meteor, an astronomer said.
     About 30 people from Santa Barbara to Marina del Rey called U.S. Coast
Guard and law enforcement officials about 8:20 p.m. to report what they
thought was a meteorite, a flare or a downed aircraft, authorities said.
     Crews in boats and helicopters equipped with infrared scopes were sent
to search for crash debris in Los Angeles Harbor and Marina del Rey, but
they found nothing.
     Paramedic Robert Johnson saw the brilliant burst of light in Sherman
Oaks while sitting around a bonfire with fellow firefighters.
     "I could see how people thought it was a plane," he said. "There were
flames coming out, but they were green and large.
     "This thing was hot and just going before it disappeared below the
horizon," he said. "I thought it was going to crash into something."
     Troy Powers, a museum guide at Griffith Observatory, said that judging
from the descriptions, "it could have been a meteor."
     "It might have impacted the water, although that's pretty rare," he
said. More likely, he said, "it was a meteor, between the size of a naval
orange and a basketball, about 40 to 50 miles high in the atmosphere."
Received on Tue 27 Mar 2001 06:45:05 PM PST