[meteorite-list] Arkansas Meteor Produces Rattling Sonic Boom, Blue-Hot Arc in Sky

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:27:44 2004
Message-ID: <200311051643.IAA03748_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.arkansasnbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1511963&nav=F8n2IvhT

Jonesboro Meteor Produces Rattling Sonic Boom, Blue-Hot Arc in Sky

Meteor Lands Near Blytheville in Northeast Arkansas

Associated Press
November 5, 2003

A meteor above northeast Arkansas produced a rattling sonic boom and
traced a blue-hot arc across the sky.

Researchers from the Center for Earthquake Research and Information in
Memphis, Tennessee, are searching for the object in Poinsett County.
Residents saw and heard the meteor Monday night.

Reports of the loud noise caused by the meteor were heard as far north
as West Plains, Missouri, and as far south as Brinkley, about 70 miles
to the southeast.

Residents described a bright blue light.

An astronomer at the Arkansas Sky Observatory on Petit Jean Mountain
saw several bright meteors shooting across the sky Monday night while
watching a comet.

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http://www.kait8.com/Global/story.asp?S=1511753&nav=0jshIvXb

University of Memphis Investigating Monday Night Meteor Event
kait8.com
November 5, 2003

JONESBORO, AR - An Associated Press report that indicated that scientists
from the University of Memphis' Center for Earthquake Research and
Information are searching for a meteor in Poinsett County was incorrect,
according to a spokesman at the Center.

Gary Patterson told K8 News this morning that no such search is underway
in Poinsett County or anywhere in northeast Arkansas, but said the Center
is doing in-house research on the incident. Patterson said preliminary
evidence leads him to beleive the meteor may have exploded "somewhere
between Newport and Marked Tree."

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http://www.blythevillecn.com/articles/2003/11/04/news/news02.txt

Meteor lands in northeast Arkansas

By PAT IVEY
Blytheville Courier News
November 5, 2003

While some Blytheville residents were enjoying what looked like a
fireworks display in the western sky about 10 p.m. Monday, some Jonesboro
residents thought the sky was falling.

According to Kelly Robertson, media spokesperson with the Arkansas
Department of Emergency Management, a meteor fell from the sky, striking
the earth very near the city of Jonesboro.

According to a report to ADEM from the National Weather Service in Little
Rock, eyewitnesses reported seeing a greenish object falling through the
sky. The impact caused homes in Craighead and St. Francis counties to
shake, and resulted in several small fires in the Jonesboro area.

Robertson said no injuries or property damage was reported as a result of
the meteor.

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http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=1511452

A mystery in Monday night's sky
By Anna Marie Hartman
WMC-TV (Memphis, Tennessee)
November 5, 2003

Mysterious "night lights" lit up the skies over the Mid-South Monday night.
Reports of a huge fireball and a loud explosion that shook houses came
flooding into police all around the Mid-South. Scientists have an idea
what it was, but there was no evidence left behind to prove it.

A mystery in Monday night's sky was the hot topic over dinner in Wynne,
Arkansas. "The sky lit up, it was like lightening." Teriann Dildane saw it
from her car around 10 o'clock Monday night. "It looked like an airplane was
on fire, I thought an airplane had crashed and it went over the trees." And
Dildane wasn't alone.

At the same time the sky lit up, Detective Larry Jones says the phones lit
up at the Cross County Sheriff's Department. "Quite a few at one time it
was overwhelming." Action News 5 knows of calls from more than a half a
dozen counties where people not only saw something, they heard something.

Dispatcher: 911 do you have an emergency?

Caller: I was calling about a big explosion

Then another call.

Dispatcher: 911 do you have an emergency?

Caller: I'm not sure it sounded like a large explosion here in town.

"For the next 20 minutes or so we continuously got those phone calls."

Whatever was falling was never found.

Jim Greenhouse from the Sharpe Planetarium suspects it was a variety of
meteor called a bolide. "Meteors are objects in space that are burning
up in the earth's atmosphere, and bolides enter the atmosphere at a steep
angle and explode in the air above us." But since most objects from space
are so small, they disintegrate before they ever hit the ground.

There is a meteor shower expected around November 17th called Leonid.
Traces of those showers can begin a couple of weeks before they peak. So
Tuesday night's flash could have been a Leonid preview.
Received on Wed 05 Nov 2003 11:43:19 AM PST