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

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed May 17 13:56:03 2006
Message-ID: <A8044CCD89B24B458AE36254DCA2BD07A4EA97_at_0005-its-exmp01.us.saic.com>

Hi All,

Regarding reentering manmade satellites or "space junk", Ron
replied:

> It is more common than you think. For example, in the past
> month, 9 pieces of space junk have reentered into Earth's
> atmosphere.

Bolide events outnumber manmade debris reentries by thousands
to one. How many on this list have ever seen a satellite
reentry? I'd be surprised if the answer is more than one.
On the other hand, I think pretty much everyone has seen at
least one bolide in his/her lifetime. I've seen more than a
dozen, and despite ACTIVELY looking for satellite reentries --
which are predictable, by the way -- I've never seen one.
 
Ron checked for potential matches to the latest Australian
event:

> There was a SL-12 debris reentry scheduled for May 15, which
> may be a possibility for the meteor observed in Australia.

It's good that you checked, but in this case it was probably
overkill: the trajectory was from east to west, eliminating
all but a handful of highly retrograde objects.

--Rob
Received on Wed 17 May 2006 01:55:40 PM PDT