[meteorite-list] Large Object Seen in Australian Sky

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 21 17:18:36 2006
Message-ID: <200607212116.OAA01599_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.abc.net.au/sa/stories/s1692314.htm

UFO in the Mid North
Reporter: Annette Marner
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
July 20, 2006

So was it a meteorite or space junk falling to earth? No one knows. But
at 1.30pm in the afternoon of July 19, many people across the Mid North
of South Australia - from Wirrabara Forest to Quorn and Hawker saw a
large object moving across the sky.

One witness, John Teague was at Hawker in the Flinders Ranges. He was
pumping tyres when something caught his eye.

"I thought it was a flare. It was the colour of mercury and had a tail
and there were sparks coming from it. Then it seemed to break up and
disintegrate." He said it was large, not as large as a full moon, "more
like a cricket ball," he said.

About four minutes after it disappeared, John heard a "sonic boom". He
said, "It was really loud, like thunder".

The seismographs at Hawker and Wilpena registered the boom as a
disturbance. David Love, seismologist with the Department of Primary
Industries and Resources in Adelaide confirmed that equipment "at Hawker
and Wilpena recorded the same thing".

"What we've recorded is a soundwave coming somewhere south of Hawker,
whether it's south west or south east is a bit hard to tell."

He said they haven't got enough case studies to compare this sound with
a sonic boom from a jet. And this is complicated further because the
disturbance detection instruments are in the ground.

So will property owners in the area during the weeks and months ahead
find space junk or meteorite fragments? From what the seismographs
indicated, David Love concluded, "If anything did hit the ground, it
wasn't large".

So what was it? The United States Space Command in Colorado said "there
was no scheduled re-entry of any spacecraft or satellite."

The CSIRO, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Australian Airforce at
the Keswick Barracks, all said they knew nothing about it.

The Astronomical Society in South Australia is keen to hear from any
witnesses so they can determine what it may have been. You can send your
observations to mailtelescopes_at_adam.com.au .
Received on Fri 21 Jul 2006 05:16:04 PM PDT