[meteorite-list] Suspected Fireball Over Norway Was ... A Cat

From: Mark Miconi <mam602_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:02 2004
Message-ID: <003101c2fa14$4a7d22c0$d7e16a44_at_ph.cox.net>

That has to be the best use of a cat I have ever heard of.....Norway sounds
like they need some better entertainment to cut some of the boredom.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: Meteorite Mailing List <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2003 3:39 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Suspected Fireball Over Norway Was ... A Cat


>
>
> http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=516591
>
> UFO was ... cat
> Aftenpoften (Norway)
> March 26, 2003
>
> Most observations of mysterious flying objects in the sky are eventually
> identified and explained, but the UFO and suspected meteorite over Lardal,
> Norway got the highly unusual solution of being attributed to a cat.
>
> Observers heard an explosion and spotted a fireball in the night sky over
> Lardal on March 14. Now authorities have managed to puzzle out the
evidence,
> and say a housecat caused the sighting, NRK Vestfold reports.
>
> Sheriff Lars Helge Sogn believes a cat climbed up a high-tension power
line
> and burst into flames after striking the high voltage cable with its tail.
>
> The heat from the short circuit caused the wooden mast to burn, and it is
> most likely this that appeared to be a fireball on the horizon on the
night
> of the mysterious sighting.
>
> jhe local electricity company recorded no power outage due to the fire,
which
> made it harder to unravel the mystery. But the discovery of a dead cat
under
> the power mast made them double-check, and a four-second glitch in their
> records was found on the evening of the 14th.
>
> Before the feline solution the local sheriff had contacted Oslo University
> astrophysicists, only to find that eyewitness reports of a fireball
lasting
> up to half an hour could not be a landing meteorite.
>
> Cats don't burn so long either, but part of the wooden mast set alight by
> the unlucky tabby is now considered to be the explanation for the local
> mystery.
>
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Received on Thu 03 Apr 2003 02:07:37 PM PST