[meteorite-list] Student Recorded Meteors A Week Before India Fireball

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:22 2004
Message-ID: <200310071929.MAA26805_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_406490,000600010004.htm

City student recorded meteors a week before Orissa incident
Press Trust of India
October 7, 2003

Mumbia - A city based amateur astronomer had observed and photographed a
huge fire ball-- the meteorites of the same origin as those hit Orissa
villages on the evening of September 27, from suburban Mulund in south
Mumbai, exactly a week before.

Rahul Patil, who also made an important observation that the meteor
shower was associated with "Aquarid" (originated from the constellation
Aquarius) meteor shower, had sent the observations to Nehru Planetarium
in Mumbai and the International Meteor Organisation, Germany.

Confirming the claim, Solar Astronomer of Nehru Planetarium and
Vice-President of Mumbai Amateur Astronomer's Association, Bharat Adur
said "Strangely, no planetaria and none of the leading institutes doing
research in astronomy in the country were found to be studying this
meteor shower".

Patil said the cosmic shower was not yet over as there were 534
near-earth meteors in the sky currently, of which 30 asteroids were
passing very close to earth from September 11 to November 16, 2003.

"Another strike is expected anytime but where and when depends on the
keen observers", he told PTI.

They are going to be very close to the earth to the tune of 0.0228
Astronomical Units (one AU= 150 km), the distance less than that of
moon from the earth, Patil said.

Patil said that on September 19, a week before the actual strike in
Orissa, he had observed one of the "bolide" (exploding) meteor moving
from south to west at 8.20 pm and a second one moving from southeast
to west at 8.47 pm.
Received on Tue 07 Oct 2003 03:29:24 PM PDT