[meteorite-list] re: Space Junk Lights Up Skies Over

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Aug 27 12:45:34 2004
Message-ID: <003b01c48c55$4380cd80$9600000a_at_HAL>

Contrary to what the news report suggests, this was not space junk, but a true
meteor. Also, it is a misconception that the re-entry of "nuts and bolts" will
create splendid fireballs. They are too small and slow for that.

Concerning the australian fireball: Low Earth Orbit debris large enough to
create such a fireball would be tracked. But there are no suiitable decay
candiidates for this date and time. The only object
near decay around this time, was a rocket booster of the 2001 Navstar 50 launch
(SSC catalogue nr. 26692; COSPAR ID 2001-04C) with a diameter of about 2.5
meter. However, this object was over China at the time of the Australian
sighting, did not pass over Australia for several hours after the sighting, and
finally, the orbital updates show it was still in orbit and tracked several
hours after the fireball

More on this in tomorrows edition of the Asteroid/Comet Connnection.

- Marco

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Marco Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)
Leiden, the Netherlands
52.15896 N, 4.48884 E (WGS 84)

e-mail: meteorites_at_dmsweb.org
DMS website: http://www.dmsweb.org
priv. website: http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
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Received on Fri 27 Aug 2004 12:45:26 PM PDT