[meteorite-list] Fireball Streaks Over California

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:58:28 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200812301758.JAA13285_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/615048.html

Fireball streaks across night sky over Merced
By SCOTT JASON
Merced Sun-Star
December 30, 2008

A glowing tomato-green fireball shot through the black Merced sky early
Saturday, stunning those fortunate enough to see its brief life.

Merced resident Erika Knorn, 42, had awoken just before 2 a.m. to take
her dog, Shadow, to the bathroom before returning to bed.

She gazed toward the sky and noticed the burst of color above her house
near East Olive and Parsons avenues.

Erika Knorn describes witnessing a spectacular "fireball" in the sky
above Merced early Saturday morning.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! What is that?" she recalled saying that night
as if someone would answer. "Oh my gosh!"

Was it a flare? she wondered. Was it a missile?

The flash, which resembled a bright white beach ball, moved in a
northwesterly descent for about six seconds, she said.

Then it turned blue-green. Three waves of light pulsed through the sky.
It then began releasing gold and white sparks. About a minute later she
heard three sharp booms that startled her dog into barking a few times.
Other dogs in the neighborhood began howling.

She hasn't been able to get the image of it out of her head. "It was
beautiful and scary in a way," she explained Monday. "I don't think I
want to see one that close again."

Knorn was pointed to www.spaceweather.com,
which allows people to post stories about fireball sightings.

There she found a few other accounts from people in Bishop in Inyo
County, Corona in Riverside County and San Jose.

Grant Bentley wrote, "It was as if someone had set off a rescue flare
that instantly bathed the countryside around Bishop in whitish
blue-green light. It was easily the most massive object I have ever seen
burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere."

George Shirakawa was driving on Interstate 280 in San Jose at the time.
He wrote, "I have never seen anything like it!"

Arizona-based meteorite hunter Robert Ward said the noise Knorn heard
was meteor crashing into land, thereby becoming a meteorite.

Ward, 32, has gone on more than 30 successful meteorite expeditions in
the Middle East, Europe, Africa and North America. He sells and trades
some of the pieces he finds. Prices average at about $1 a gram, but can
get as expensive as $1,000 a gram if the meteorite is from Mars or the
moon. (A little more than 28 grams make an ounce.)

Based on the descriptions he's read, Ward said Knorn and others probably
saw a fireball, which is a brighter version of a meteor. Meteorites can
be the size of microwave ovens and even refrigerators, he said. They
travel between 11,000 and 30,000 miles an hour.

The noise she heard means the meteorite may have gone to ground near or
even in Merced County, he said. He's found space rocks 50 miles from
people who've heard sonic booms.

Ward is contacting people in the state who have sky cameras to see if he
can re-create the meteor's path and begin a recovery effort. "If I got
the right information, I'd leave immediately," he said.

The most common type of meteorite is a chondrite, which is mostly
silicate but contains traces of nickel and iron.

After seeing the fireball, Knorn stayed in her backyard and scanned the
sky to see if any others would fall.

"I am going to start (meteor watching). It made me go, 'Wow, life,'" she
said. "It changed my way of looking up."

Reporter Scott Jason can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or
sjason at mercedsun-star.com
Received on Tue 30 Dec 2008 12:58:28 PM PST