[meteorite-list] Strange Object Seen in Skies Over Minnesota

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jun 4 22:24:27 2006
Message-ID: <200606050156.SAA03846_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/local/14738841.htm

Strange object seen in skies over Orr
Duluth News Tribune (Minnesota)
June 4, 2006

Wendy Zeka was traveling near the Orr Transfer Station at 11:35 p.m.
Friday when she saw a green object as large as the moon sailing across
the treetops parallel to her car.

Zeka said the object emitted a tail of sparks before "disintegrating."

Zeka doesn't know what the object was.

"I've seen shooting stars, and no shooting star is green," she said.

Andy Tingler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office
in Duluth, said radar didn't show anything unusual in the sky over the
Iron Range on Friday night. However, shooting stars, or meteors, are
typically too small to be caught onscreen.

Tingler said the description of the object wasn't characteristic of a
meteor, but he said he wouldn't rule out the possibility.

"If a meteorite is big enough, it will fly for a long time," he said
after hearing of the object's flight.

Tingler also said meteors' tails don't usually look like sparks, but
such an event wouldn't be impossible.

Some mysterious sky sightings get attributed to burning balls of swamp
gas, but Howard Mooers, a geology professor at Minnesota Duluth, said it
was "extremely unlikely" that this was the case.

"The area around there is rock outcrop and swamp, but I don't think
swamp gas would do anything like that," he said.

Mooers said the swamps around Orr don't have enough decomposing peat to
create the kind of methane a burning ball of swamp gas would require.
Furthermore, it's rare that methane accumulates in substantial
quantities, Mooers said, and it would be very unusual for it to ignite
if it ever formed.

"The first thing I think about when I hear things like this is that it's
a meteor," Mooers said.
Received on Sun 04 Jun 2006 09:50:58 PM PDT