[meteorite-list] Major Daylight Fireball Seen Over Slovenia, Croatia and Italy

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:16:10 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200708010016.RAA25085_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.spaceweather.com/

SUPER-BOLIDE: On Wednesday, July 25th at approximately 10:00 UT, "a
major daylight fireball tore across the skies of Slovenia, Croatia and
Italy," reports veteran meteor observer Jure Atanackov of Maribor,
Slovenia. "It produced two bright flashes that reached an estimated
magnitude of -20 and also loud sonic booms."

Magnitude -20? In plain language, the meteor was 600 times brighter
than a full Moon. Atanackov has gathered reports from hundreds of
eyewitnesses. "Most described the fireball as very bright, its
surface brightness almost as great as the Sun's. One person said it
was 'too bright to look at for more than a few moments.'"

[Image]
Above: This is not the fireball. The image was posted by a Croatian
news service as an example of what the fireball looked like.
Non-speakers of Croatian misunderstood and widely circulated the
photo as a genuine record of the event.

The July 25th fireball falls into the category of superbolides--
exploding meteors of magnitude -17 or brighter. They are, essentially,
small asteroids measuring a few to 10 meters in diameter and massing
a few hundred metric tons. Superbolides trigger seismic detectors on
the ground, produce waves of infrasound that can travel thousands of
miles, and they are tracked by military satellites scanning Earth for
nuclear explosions. Recent examples include the El Paso fireball of
1997 and the Yukon fireball of 2000.

Eyewitnesses, please report your sightings to Jure Atanackov
(jureatanackov at gmail.com) or colleague Javor Kac (javor.kac at gmail.com)
who are gathering data to learn more about the "Slovenian
Superbolide" and to estimate possible landing sites.
Received on Tue 31 Jul 2007 08:16:10 PM PDT