[meteorite-list] Object Believed to be Meteor Lights Up Florida Coast

From: Dawn & Gerald Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Sep 30 20:14:53 2005
Message-ID: <033501c5c61a$6fac9d80$6602a8c0_at_GerryLaptop>

Any chance this could be seen in R.I. I revise that to 7pm after talking to
the observer tonight?
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 2:35 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Object Believed to be Meteor Lights Up Florida
Coast


>
>
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050930/BREAKINGNEWS/50930001
>
> Object believed to be meteor lights up Fla. coast
> ASSOCIATED PRESS
> September 30, 2005
>
> MIAMI - Experts believe a meteor was visible along a large section of
> the Florida skyline Thursday night, although NASA officials have not
> confirmed what the intensely bright, fast object exactly was.
>
> The glowing orb was spotted around 7 p.m.; some who saw it called county
> and state officials to ensure that it wasn't a crashing aircraft.
>
> "This one could've been from a baseball to a basketball-sized chunk of
> space rock that slammed into our Earth's atmosphere at a very high
> speed," Jack Horkheimer, director of the planetarium at the Miami Museum
> of Science, told The Miami Herald.
>
> National Weather Service meteorologist Barry Baxter said he isn't sure
> if the object, which he believes was a meteor, was over Atlantic Ocean
> waters or the Florida peninsula.
>
> Bob Cooper, 48, of Dania Beach was in his back yard throwing a Frisbee
> to his dog when the object - which he described as a flaming ball -
> caught his eye.
>
> "All of a sudden this thing shot from my right," Cooper told the South
> Florida Sun-Sentinel. "And it was super fast, so you know it was in a
> hurry. It turned from orange to the-center-of-the-sun yellow then it
> disintegrated."
>
> Residents from the state's Space Coast region all the way to South
> Florida reported seeing the object, officials said.
>
> A meteor is a momentary flash of light produced when a space object
> penetrates Earth's atmosphere.
>
> NASA will determine what direction the object was traveling, officials
said.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Brevard sees light
> Juan Ortega
> Florida Today
> September 30, 2005
>
> PORT CANAVERAL - The Coast Guard got about five calls from police
> departments Thursday night in Brevard County, telling officials about
> more people seeing lights in the sky.
>
> This contrasts with Sept. 20, when about 20 calls came in. Some calls
> were about a fireball sighting. Others thought a boater was in distress.
>
> "The calls we're getting now could be a possible flare," said Dan Yates,
> a Coast Guard petty officer in Port Canaveral.
>
> But members of the Coast Guard in Fort Pierce - on an offshore vessel -
> confirmed seeing a meteor Thursday night.
>
> "We're getting tons of calls," Patrick Thibodeaux, boatswain mate second
> class with the Coast Guard in Fort Pierce.
>
> Callers described the light as a reddish-orange and lasting 20 seconds.
>
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Received on Fri 30 Sep 2005 07:55:28 PM PDT