[meteorite-list] 'Green Fire' Spotted Over Canada

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jun 7 00:07:11 2006
Message-ID: <200606061638.JAA27286_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2006/06/06/1616463-sun.html

Witnesses to 'green fire' wanted
Winnipeg Sun (Canada)
June 6, 2006

Manitoba Museum wants to hear from people who spotted "eerie green fire"
in the sky late Friday.

Resident astronomer Scott Young said the spectacle occurred about 11:30
p.m. when a small asteroid or chunk of comet burned up in the Earth's
atmosphere, shattering into several pieces.

A sonic boom could be heard in the Whiteshell area about five minutes
later, meaning the object was "nice and low," Young said.

He said it was visible from Winnipeg as far east as Lake of the Woods,
and some pieces may have made it to the ground.

Vaporizing materials in the object, which burned up at 4,000 C to 5,000
C, produced the green colour, Young said.

Descriptions have him believing it was a large bolide, which is a bigger
cousin of a meteor or shooting star.

"This happens every day somewhere in the world," Young said.

He wants to gather as many eyewitness accounts as he can to determine a
flight path and find any fragments that may have made it to ground level.

People can send an e-mail to skyinfo_at_manitobamuseum.ca or call 956-2830
to submit their sighting.

You must include the time and date, your location when you saw the
object, direction you were facing, the direction it was travelling
(right to left, for example), and a description of the object and any
sound it made.
Received on Tue 06 Jun 2006 12:38:33 PM PDT