[meteorite-list] Meteor Seen in Oregon Skies

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jul 21 14:06:00 2005
Message-ID: <200507211805.j6LI5AK17183_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/articles/2005/07/20/news/news3.txt

Meteor seen in Siskiyou skies Tuesday
Siskiyou Daily News (Oregon)
July 20, 2005

YREKA - At 2:20 Tuesday afternoon, callers began alerting Yreka police
and the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Department to a "fire ball" that had
come from the sky and believed to have landed near the city's
corporation yard.

A golfer at the Rogue Valley Country Club in Medford, Ore. was getting
ready to make a shot off the second tee, when he reported seeing a
flaming object with "blue and red flames coming off of it," fall from
the sky. That observer thought that the object had fallen somewhere near
Shady Cove, Ore.

Callers also contacted the National Weather Service offices in Medford
and Roseburg, Ore. to report the sighting.

Scientists at the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory (CML) at Portland State
University have determined that what was seen in the sky Tuesday
afternoon was a fireball, also called a "bolide." Scientists say when a
solid object enters the earth's atmosphere, it can heat up to over 2,000
degrees Fahrenheit, and will begin to glow. That object is called a
meteor and if it glows brighter than the planet Venus, it is called a
fireball. When there are a sufficient number of eyewitness reports of a
fireball, scientists can often determine the location where the
meteorite landed and samples can be recovered. Tuesday's fireball has
not yet been located.

Sightings of fireballs are not that uncommon in the Pacific Northwest,
so much so that CML asks people who see such a phenomenon to contact
them with details and if possible, photographs.

If you see a fireball and want to confirm your sighting, you can contact
Alex Ruzicka by e-mail at ruzickaa_at_pdx.edu or by telephone at
(503) 725-3372.
Received on Thu 21 Jul 2005 02:05:10 PM PDT