[meteorite-list] AP article on today's meteorite fall

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:52 2004
Message-ID: <20030328031154.21489.qmail_at_web80401.mail.yahoo.com>

http://www.newsday.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-meteor-shower,0,4369465.story?coll=sns-ap-science-headlines


Meteor Showers Rocks on Midwestern Homes
By RICK CALLAHAN
Associated Press Writer

March 27, 2003, 5:44 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS -- The midnight sky flashed an eerie blue
early Thursday over four Midwestern states as a
meteorite exploded in the atmosphere, sending rocks as
big as softballs crashing through some houses.

Residents in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin
reported seeing the disintegrating meteorite flash
across the sky about midnight. Police were soon
deluged with reports of falling rocks striking homes
and cars.

Chris Zeilenga, 42, of Beecher, Ill., said he and his
wife, Pauline, were watching TV war coverage around
midnight.

"The sky lit up completely from horizon to horizon.
We've seen lightning storms, but this was nothing like
that," he said. "A minute or so later the house
started rumbling and we heard all these tiny particles
hitting the house."

Outside his home about 30 miles south of Chicago,
Zeilenga found tiny gray and black pieces of stone. He
didn't realize their origin until he heard people
talking about meteorites as he rode the morning train
to work in Chicago. "When I heard that I thought,
'That's what it was!'"

Kenneth and Karen Barnes of Park Forest, Ill., told
WGN-TV in Chicago they were sleeping when a 5-pound
meteorite crashed into their living room. Thursday
morning their son spotted a hole in the ceiling.

"I didn't know what to think, so we went looking
through the house for it and found it," Kenneth Barnes
said.

Commander Mike McNamara of the Park Forest Police
Department said about 60 pieces of space rock ranging
from gravel-sized to softball-sized were brought in to
the police station.

He said three homes in Park Forest were damaged, along
with the fire department and possibly one car. Two
homes in the nearby town of Matteson also were struck
by meteorite pieces.

Paul Sipiera, a professor of geology and astronomy at
Harper College in Palatine, Ill., spent Thursday
examining dozens of pieces of meteorites and plotting
where they fell. The largest he saw was about 7 1/2
pounds.

He said the debris field appears to cover a path about
80 miles long by 20 miles wide from north of
Bloomington, Ill., to Chicago's south side and
possibly part of northwestern Indiana.

He said all of the pieces came from a stony meteorite
he estimates was about the size of a Volkswagen bug
when it exploded as it plunged into Earth's
atmosphere.

A spokesman for the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha,
Neb., said the defense installation was not tracking
any manmade space objects in the area at the time that
the light show appeared over the Midwest.

Sipiera said it's very rare for meteorites to fall on
populated areas.

"For me, it's a dream come true," he said. "I always
tell my wife that when I die, I hope I get hit in the
head by a meteorite flying through the roof and it
came pretty close," he said.

Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press


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Received on Thu 27 Mar 2003 10:11:54 PM PST