[meteorite-list] Flaming ball spotted in Minn

From: AstronomicalResearchNetwork <arn1200_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 15:24:13 -0500
Message-ID: <02fc01c806c4$892243e0$0402a8c0_at_VAIO>

This was on the local new yesterday . I will be out looking !!
Ken Regelman
Astronomical Research Network

Flaming ball spotted in Minn., NW Iowa sky may have been meteor
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Residents from the Twin Cities to the
southwestern corner of Minnesota and into Iowa reported seeing a flaming
object shooting through the sky Wednesday, and experts
said they may have been watching a meteor.

Shortly after 2 p.m., people across the Twin Cities reported seeing
a ``metallic'' object or ``flaming ball'' falling from the sky,
according to broadcasters and emergency dispatchers who got hundreds
of calls from people in Edina, Maple Grove and other suburbs.
The callers said they saw the object traveling from the northeast to the southwest.

Meanwhile, residents in Lyon County in far southwestern Minnesota reported
hearing a loud boom Wednesday.

``Oh man. To me it was like being on a (Navy) carrier ... when they break the
sound barrier with an F14,'' Navy reservist Greg
Devereaux, who lives near Amiret, told the Marshall Independent.
``It sounded like a sonic boom from an F14 maybe 300 yards away.
That's what it felt like. It shook the house and when I walked outside the
ground was still shaking.''

Mike Fuhs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
Sioux Falls, S.D., said several residents reported sightings of
fireballs in the sky in northwestern Iowa, especially near Sioux City.

As of 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration
hadn't received reports of anything falling from airplanes in the
area. That led to speculation that the object was a meteor
that had burned up in the atmosphere.

Ken Murphy, a physics professor at Southwest Minnesota
State University in Marshall and director of the school's planetarium, said a
chunk of a meteor called a bolide can make a noise that sounds like thunder.

``That's just a possibility of what this thing is,'' Murphy said. Murphy
said his wife Sandy heard a thunder-type sound both Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

Lyon County Sheriff Chief Deputy Mark Mather said deputies
investigated near Amiret but found no evidence of an explosion
Received on Thu 04 Oct 2007 04:24:13 PM PDT