[meteorite-list] Re: Asteroid?

From: Bob King <lakewind_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:53:37 2004
Message-ID: <3E08B517.876.A973D6_at_localhost>

Regarding seeing the shadow of an asteroid on the ground as it
crosses the face of the sun it would seem to me that the asteroid would
have to be extremely large and extremely close to the earth for its
shadow to be of a signficant size to block the sun however briefly. (If it
was far from the earth and the asteroid was truly huge the event would
last longer.) I seriously doubt anything that large and that close would
escape prior detection by either the automated professional surveys or
the numerous amateur asteroid surveys underway. Even if a giant
asteroid passed suddenly and unexpectedly close to the earth and
astronomers missed it they'd pick it up soon after. Once its orbit was
calculated the news would spread like wildfire that the earth was barely
missed.
No, I agree with Ron and others. It was most likely either an airplane or
a large bird that passed between the gentleman and the sun. Where I
live we have lots of gulls and I've experienced that sort of 'flicker' before
from their passes. Of course on at least one occasion they've dropped a
little present or two nearby ;-)
Merry Christmas and happy holidays all. Thanks for making this a great
list.
Bob
Received on Tue 24 Dec 2002 08:27:19 PM PST