[meteorite-list] Bright Light Observed Over New Zealand

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:50 2004
Message-ID: <200303230219.SAA05383_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2346810a11,00.html

Space Junk May Have Been Meteor
Stuff.com
March 21, 2003

Space junk or big meteor? Whatever it was, the big, bright light that hurtled
northward over an area from Nelson to Palmerston North in the early morning
light of Wednesday was according to witnesses "really honking".

Fifteen sightings were reported to the Carter Observatory and astronomer Brian
Carter said the object was probably man-made space junk.

But Noel Munford, of the Manawatu Astronomical Society, said the international
astronomical website that reliably tracks bigger pieces of space debris had
given no warning of a significant object coming in.

Witnesses had reported the object was travelling at great speed across the sky
and did not break up, as space debris usually did.

That suggested the object was a "bolide" - a meteor far bigger that the usual
pea- or pebble-sized "shooting star". And it might have disappeared because it
came in at a low angle and skimmed off the upper atmosphere back into space.
Received on Sat 22 Mar 2003 09:19:48 PM PST