[meteorite-list] Large Meteor Streaks Across Sky in Hawaii

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:02:49 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200704132202.l3DM2nZ19742_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Apr/12/br/br1498307256.html

'Very lucky' folks on Maui possibly saw meteor
By BRIAN PERRY
The Maui News
April 12, 2007

WAILUKU - A brightly glowing object that streaked across the sky above
Maui was reported by a few people up early enough Wednesday morning to
witness the phenomenon.

The Maui News received several phone calls from people who said they saw
what probably was a large meteor that moved from northwest to southeast
or reporting an unusual cloud that remained in the sky after it passed.

Mike Maberry, assistant director of the University of Hawaii Institute
for Astronomy, said he was not aware of any reports of an object in the
sky. But he said its description sounded like a meteor.

"Whoever got to see that was very lucky," he said, adding that chances
are "very slim" of a meteor landing in the vicinity of Maui in the
middle of the Pacific.

Maberry said the meteor itself would not need to be very large to make a
spectacular show.

"They don't have to be much larger than a poi pounder to look really
big," he said.

Many of the meteors that make bright streaks across the night sky are
only the size of a grain of sand, he said. A meteor is a rock or similar
solid material that crosses into the Earth's atmosphere, with the
friction from the high-speed entry causing the material to burn. When a
space object lands on Earth, it is called a meteorite.

Kaleo Evangelista, a paddler with Kihei Canoe Club who was working out
with a crew offshore from old Suda Store, said the glowing object made
quite a show a few minutes after 5:30 a.m.

"We saw a glow going over us, just like an airplane," he said. But
instead of seeing an aircraft the canoe paddlers saw a light blue,
almost white object moving from northwest to southeast.

For one to two minutes, the paddlers watched the object move across the
sky, leaving a trail of smoke before it disappeared behind Haleakala.
Evangelista said he couldn't tell if the object landed on land or in the
ocean.

"We didn't see any kind of explosion or flash," he said.

The object traveled roughly parallel to land until it abruptly changed
course, "dropping down at a 45-degree angle," he said.

Evangelista called his friend, Charlie Fleck, who lives in Wailuku
Heights. Fleck woke up, stepped outside and snapped photos at 5:49 a.m.
of the smoke trail with his digital camera, but he didn't see the object
itself.

"It was just an amazing looking sight," Fleck said. "The smoke lingered
for an hour in the sky. . . . It was big, very noticeable in the sky."
Received on Fri 13 Apr 2007 06:02:49 PM PDT