[meteorite-list] Fireballs Seen Over Germany

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Nov 4 14:35:15 2005
Message-ID: <200511041924.jA4JOK825842_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002603058_crater04.html

Fireballs seen over Germany spark UFO speculation
Dominican Today
November 4, 2005

BERLIN. - Numerous sightings of massive fireballs in the skies over
Germany this week have led to an upsurge in reports of UFOs, but
scientists believe the cause could be a bizarre annual meteor blitz.

According to the Web site of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), such fireballs have been reported elsewhere in
the world and may also be due to the fact that the Earth is now orbiting
through a swarm of space debris.

Many people in Germany have noticed the fireballs, said Werner Walter,
an amateur astronomer in Mannheim who runs a Web site on unexplained
astronomical phenomena and a hotline for reports on unidentified flying
objects (UFO).

"The last reported sighting was yesterday at 7:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) in a
corridor near the border of the Netherlands," he told Reuters in a
telephone interview.

"This week we have had at least 15 emails and phone calls from people
reporting these fireballs," he said. "Some people said it looks like
something out of a science fiction horror film."

In addition to a possible meteor streak, Walter said amateur and
professional astronomers were considering the possibility that the blitz
was the result of a "falling satellite or UFOs."

"It is possible that they are UFOs, which are after all things which we
cannot explain," he said.

NASA's science Web site (http://science.nasa.gov) mentions reports of
recent fireball sightings in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands,
North Ireland and Japan. It includes images of the fireballs, which one
man likened to a spotlight.

Walter described them as "super-large, colored fireballs that shoot with
the speed of lightning through the sky."

However, the NASA Web site quotes meteor expert David Asher from the
Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland as saying that people "are
probably seeing the Taurid meteor shower."

Taurids are meteors that shoot out of the constellation Taurus, which
peaks at the end of October and early November.
Received on Fri 04 Nov 2005 02:24:19 PM PST