[meteorite-list] Bright Meteor Sighted Over England

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Jan 18 13:03:06 2005
Message-ID: <200501181744.JAA11285_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.eveningleader.co.uk/ihome2/detail.asp?storyid=32992&catid=%201&officeid=1

I SAW A METEORITE FLYING OVER WREXHAM
Evening Leader (United Kingdom)
January 18, 2005

A BEWILDERED man claims he saw a meteorite with a bright blue tail
racing across the sky over Wrexham.

Paul Davies, of Rhosddu, was enjoying a break with four colleagues at
Kellogg's, Wrexham Industrial Estate, at 4am on Friday when two of them
spotted a ball with a flaming tail shooting across the night sky.
Mr Davies said it was the strangest thing he had ever seen and watched
in awe before it disappeared in a flash.

He said: "The only way I can describe it was a ball moving across the
sky, obviously under the cloud cover because it was so plain. It was
moving so fast it was unbelievable and it was gone in half a second."

"It went across the sky with this fabulous bright blue trail behind it.
It was a very short trail and looked intensely hot. I would love to find
out what it was."

Met Office spokesman Wayne Elliott confirmed it was a meteorite, known
more commonly as a shooting star.

He said the brightness creates an illusion that it is close to the
earth, but in reality it is much further away.
He said: "They enter the outer atmosphere fairly regularly and every
once in a while there is an absolutely fantastic one."

Illusion

"It burns very brightly and some go quite slowly. It would have burnt up
by the time it reached the atmosphere. It was just an illusion, the
bright ones you can see through the clouds."

"In August there is a well-known meteor shower with one or two a minute,
but it is amazing when you see one on its own."

He added that meteorological movements are not registered or logged.
Received on Tue 18 Jan 2005 12:44:03 PM PST