[meteorite-list] re: Mystery Surrounds Green Meteor in Australia

From: Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed May 17 13:02:13 2006
Message-ID: <446B570D.7010509_at_wanadoo.nl>

> Astronomers are uncertain whether the object was a piece of space junk
> or a meteorite, however Jim Barclay from the Maidenwell Observatory
> suspects it was part of a satellite or some rocket casing.
>
> "The description that I received from phone calls was that it was of a
> greeny blue colour which typically suggests something metallic," Mr
> Barclay said.
>
> "Over 20,000 pieces of space junk are currently hurtling around the
> earth and they have to come back down. If this had landed on someone's
> house though it could have killed someone," he said.


I don't understand why space junk, rather than a meteoric fireball, is almost
always being picked out as the most likely explanation by these observatory
spokesmen whenever a bright fireball has been sighted. The point is that space
junk decays are relatively rare compared to meteoric fireballs - so they are
picking the least likely option.

Moreover, these commenters do not seem to be aware that you can actually *check*
whether something is a space junk decay or not. That stuff is being tracked!
Virtually everything larger than a football in Low Earth Orbit has been catalogued.

In this case there is no reason at all to consider a space junk decay, not in
the observation itself (the colour argument is nonsense), nor when checking
pertinent sources for space junk decays.

- Marco

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Dr Marco Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: meteorites_at_dmsweb.org
private website http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
DMS website http://www.dmsweb.org
-----
Received on Wed 17 May 2006 01:02:05 PM PDT