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

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:19 2004
Message-ID: <20031001225219.64349.qmail_at_web12705.mail.yahoo.com>

Proof!

See the part at the end of this story.

"A space rock killed a dog in Egypt in 1911."

humm...

Hope that doesn't enliven the "The Dog" thread again.

LOL

Steve Schoner/ams


--- Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
>
>
>
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.
>
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>
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Received on Wed 01 Oct 2003 06:52:19 PM PDT