[meteorite-list] re: Photo of Fiery Object Over UK [no longer] Mystifies Scientists

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:27 2004
Message-ID: <004e01c3924e$f1e30fc0$68c4ea3e_at_HAL>

Rob Matson wrote:

> Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell (the guys who run NASA's Astronomy
> Picture of the Day website), shouldn't feel too bad about their
> premature assessment that Jonathan Burnett's image was of a bolide.
> Yes, they may have jumped the gun in the interest of getting the
> information out there quickly. But if it weren't for them I doubt
> that the picture would ever have reached the level of publicity
> that it did. And publicity was what was responsible for Julian
> Heywood coming forward with a second picture, which was critical
> to solving the mystery.


I agree to this comment, as will be clear from what I wrote in my CCNet
contribution:

"On the other hand, it appears that Julian Haywood then might not have come
up with the second picture which solved the riddle. So there was
something good in something bad after all."

I am a bit sorry that my critique on APOD in CCNet
(http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc100403.html), as quoted in the
space.com contribution, hit hard. What I tried to communicate, is how
sensitive the position of NASA is, as for the public it is synonymous with
'experts'. And meteor astronomy is an expert field as well, so it would have
been to the point if a meteor astronomer would have been involved in the
assessment of these pictures. I sometimes feel that other astronomers
disregard the need for specialist knowledge concerning meteor-related issues
as not so important, feeling that a basic astronomical education will do. If
this case learned us anything, then it is that this view is clearly mistaken
and can lead to a goof. But everybody can make mistakes, and as long as you
learn from them, that's no problem. But I do think that NASA, given its top
ranking position, should be carefull for this kind of pitfalls as their
position is a very sensitive one (as was shown again).

- Marco

----------
Marco Langbroek

marco.langbroek_at_wanadoo.nl
meteorites_at_dmsweb.org
http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
----------
Received on Tue 14 Oct 2003 08:25:48 AM PDT