[meteorite-list] Meteor strikes Alex City house?

From: Gary K. Foote <gary_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:09:12 -0500
Message-ID: <45AD14C8.4446.1D4C19D_at_localhost>

No pictures yet... - Gary

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http://www.alexcityoutlook.com/articles/2007/01/16/news/news05.txt

Saturday night Richard Tapley was relaxing in his easy chair watching a National Football
League playoff game, and then heard a big thud outside his Warren Circle home.

"I thought it was another bird hitting the house; it happens all the time," Tapley said.

He got up from his chair and went to the front door to see if he could see anything.

Nothing.

So what was it that hit Tapley's house?

A bird? A rock?
 

Or how about a meteor?

That is what Tapley concluded had hit his home Saturday afternoon when he found a rock-
like object in front of his front door.

Now it's a matter of proving that it's a meteorite.

"I've got a [relative] that has taken a fragment to Auburn University to study, and the
police department has a fragment," Tapley said.

The next scheduled meteor shower for to pass over the United States will be in April,
according to NASA's Web site.

But on any night, at any location, a few meteors can be seen each hour. These are called
sporadic meteors, or simply sporadics, according to NASA.

"Occasionally, though, intense meteor displays fill the sky with tens, hundreds, or even
thousands of meteor trails. These displays are called meteor showers. Many meteor showers
can be predicted, as they repeat every year when the earth passes through the path of a
comet. The bits of debris left behind by the comets, most no larger than a grain of sand,
create a spectacular light show as they enter the Earth's atmosphere."

And Tapley is convinced that it is a meteor that hit his house and not a rock.

"It's too large to have been thrown at the house," he said.
Received on Tue 16 Jan 2007 06:09:12 PM PST