[meteorite-list] Photo of Fiery Object Over UK Mystifies Scientists

From: Kevin Fly Hill <khill_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:27 2004
Message-ID: <01bd01c391a5$1841c260$6d00a8c0_at_coxinternet.com>

At the risk of showing my igornace (vast), couldn't the photo be subjected
to some type of spectrum analysis. Wouldn't a picture of a contrail lighted
by the setting sun show a different spectrum than an exploding meteor? Can
that be taken from a digital photo?
Fly Hill


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, October 13, 2003 10:45 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Photo of Fiery Object Over UK Mystifies Scientists


>
>
> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mystery_monday_031013.html
>
> Photo of Fiery Object Mystifies Scientists
> By Robert Roy Britt
> space.com
> 13 October 2003
>
> A digital picture of a spectacular and apparently explosive event in the
sky
> fooled a pair of seasoned NASA scientists, has other researchers around
the
> globe mystified, and made a minor celebrity of a teenage photographer.
>
> Jonathan Burnett, 15, was photographing his friends skateboarding in
> Pencoed, Wales when one of them noticed a colorful fireball in the sky.
> Burnett snapped a picture, then sent it to NASA scientists and asked if
they
> knew what it was.
>
> Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell, who run NASA's Astronomy Picture of the
> Day (APOD), posted the photograph on Oct. 1 and wrote that "a sofa-sized
> rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet Earth and
> disintegrated." They called the picture "one of the more spectacular
meteor
> images yet recorded."
>
> Problem is, it turns out, there was no meteor.
>
> Rampant speculation
>
Received on Mon 13 Oct 2003 12:14:34 PM PDT