[meteorite-list] The Sky Isn't Falling, But Pieces Sure Are

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:19 2004
Message-ID: <200310012009.NAA20286_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://space.com/scienceastronomy/chicken_little_031001.html

The Sky Isn't Falling, But Pieces Sure Are
By Robert Roy Britt
space.com
01 October 2003

A host of mostly coincidental recent events make Chicken Little sound
ever-so-slightly more credible. In the past eight days, stuff falling from
space rocked a village in India and a bathroom in Louisiana, while lighting
up the skies over the San Francisco Bay area, Europe and Australia.

The most spectacular visitor from beyond was a meteorite initially said to
set a village afire in India and injure 20 people this past weekend. Later
reports by the BBC and elsewhere put the injuries at three.

The fireball streaking through the sky turned night into day, witnesses
said. It was reported visible across a nearly 5,800-square-mile
(15,000-square-kilometer) region. Two pieces about 11 pounds each (5
kilograms) were said to be recovered.

On Monday, Sept. 29, a bright fireball startled residents around San
Francisco. Witnesses said it flared several times over a few seconds before
disappearing below the horizon, according to a report in the San Jose
Mercury News.

"It's by far the brightest and longest I've ever seen,'' said Jake Burkart,
an amateur astronomer who said he'd been watching shooting stars since his
youth. "It was really amazing.''

Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer with the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames
Research Center, told the newspaper that the event had the markings of comet
debris, which is more fragile than asteroid material and therefore more
likely to break apart and generate a bright flare.

The object may have landed in the ocean, Jenniskens said.

Jenniskens said the fireball might have been part of an unexpected shower of
debris. Another bright meteor had been spotted five hours prior from Europe,
he said.

Another bright and fiery object was seen in the night sky over Australia
this past weekend, near the time of the Indian meteorite. No connection
between the two has been made. An official in Australia said, however, that
manmade space junk may have caused the curious event spotted from south of
Queensland.

Space rocks frequently strike Earth's atmosphere. They are called meteors
when streaking into the ever-denser air, where most vaporize. While in space
they might be referred to as asteroids if they are large, or meteoroids if
they are small. If they hit the ground, they're called meteorites.

Most of the smaller pieces light up fantastically, as shooting stars or
fireballs, and never reach ground. It is not uncommon for residents of a
particular region to be surprised or even shocked by a fireball, as space
debris rains down on Earth daily.

Many visible shooting stars start out as bits no larger than a sand grain.
It only takes a pea-sized object to generate a brilliant fireball. And even
something the size of a Volkswagen can disintegrate before reaching the
surface.

One that did not fully vaporize hit Roy Fausset's recently renovated
bathroom Sept. 23 in New Orleans.

Fausset returned from work to find holes in his roof and two floors. A space
rock was in a crawl space under the house.

"The powder room door was open and it looked like an artillery shell had hit
the room," he told the Associated Press. Tests by Tulane University
researchers suggest the object indeed came from space.

"I'm in shock," Fausset told the Associated Press. "Oh, that's scary. I will
certainly go to church this Sunday, because the Lord was certainly sending
me a message."

There are no known deaths by meteorites. But a few people have been injured
throughout history, and a space rock killed a dog in Egypt in 1911. Of
greater concern, astronomers say, are large asteroids that could devastate a
region. None are known to be on a collision course with Earth, but
astronomers are keeping a wary eye.
Received on Wed 01 Oct 2003 04:09:53 PM PDT


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