[meteorite-list] Rare Type Of Meteor Lights Up Sky Over New Mexico

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:27:53 2004
Message-ID: <200311240402.UAA14165_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.thenewmexicochannel.com/news/2655776/detail.html

Rare Type Of Meteor Lights Up Sky

Sandia Labs Catches Object On Videotape

Nex Mexico Channel
November 21, 2003

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A lot of people saw it, they just didn't know what to make of it.

A light streaked across the New Mexico sky about dusk Thursday evening. There were a lot
of theories as to the cause of the flash of light, but the experts at Sandia National Labs
said it was a meteor.

Thanks to a unique camera system at the lab, the meteor was videotaped and experts have been
able to study what was a very remarkable sight. In the accompanying photograph, taken from
Sandia Labs' camera, you see the meteor highlighted in a box. The photo is a spherical
image of the entire sky, with the horizon to the left ringed by city lights.

Terry Connors had just flown his plane into Double Eagle Airport from Los Alamos when he
spotted the meteor.

"It was quite amazing because the first thing we noticed kind of a bright flash, and then
you saw the long bright trail of a meteor that you would normally see, but it was still
daylight so you could also see the vapor trail that it left," Connors said. "Rather than
just dying out, there was a bright green explosion at the end of the trail and then that
was the end of the event, except the vapor trail stayed around for another 5 or 10 minutes."

As an Air Force veteran, Connors said he's seen a lot of meteors, but nothing like what he
saw Thursday. But Sandia senior engineer Dick Spalding said he's confident that's what it
was on the tape.

"It caught a meteor -- a thing that moved through the sky with the speed and direction
that we generally associate with a meteor -- so we think that's what people saw," Spalding
said.
Received on Sun 23 Nov 2003 11:02:37 PM PST