[meteorite-list] How 'bout a Wise meteorite?

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:41:32 -0500
Message-ID: <eftiu4p7bgsgihg3o96330f7k3vegq3032_at_4ax.com>

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9013239

Meteor creates fiery spectacle over Wise County
By Steve Igo

Published April 17th, 2009

WISE ? A cosmic visitor created a brief spectacle over the pre-dawn Wise County
skies Friday.

Most likely a meteor plummeting to earth in a blaze of glory, the fireball
streaked down on an easterly arc roughly above U.S. Route 58 down toward what
appeared to be a destination in the Tacoma area, at least from the perspective
of White Oak Road atop the Tacoma Mountain Road ridgeline, looking south.

The fiery falling object was witnessed shortly before 6:30 a.m., or roughly a
half-hour before sunrise. Daybreak motorists on U.S. 58 would have had a nice
view of an unusual event during their morning commute, the fireball breaking
apart into two pieces before flaming out in the same instant at what appeared to
be just a few hundred feet above the terrain.

The Wise County Sheriff?s Dispatch Center said no citizens reported having their
breakfast rudely interrupted by a smoldering stone smashing through a ceiling or
finding a car windshield inexplicably spiderwebbed. So whatever was left of the
likely meteor ? tiny pieces or even tinier particles for the most part ?
splattered harmlessly onto field or forest.

Dr. Lucian Undrieu, a native of Romania and a professor of physics at the
University of Virginia?s College at Wise, said a meteor is an object that
disintegrates in the atmosphere, and a meteorite actually strikes the ground.
Because it flamed out, the object was most likely a meteor, he said.

?There are probably two (meteorites) per day all over the globe,? Undrieu said.

A little-known fact is that the Earth?s mass grows by an estimated 40,000 tons
annually from stuff that falls from space.

Undrieu said for a meteor to have survived so close to the ground, it would have
been about one meter in diameter when entering the atmosphere, or more or less a
yard thick.

Breaking into two pieces an instant before flaming out was likely the final
incineration of Friday?s meteor, Undrieu said, so little more than stardust
would have sprinkled onto the ground. Also, appearing to fall over the Tacoma
area would have been deceiving to the White Oak Road witness, he said, because
the object could have been far farther south.

Although he teaches physics, Undrieu said he occasionally teaches an
introductory astronomy course at UVa-Wise.

?I take great pleasure in teaching it,? he said, and expressed a hint of envy
for those early birds who might have witnessed Friday?s sky spectacle of a
meteoroidal kind.
Received on Sat 18 Apr 2009 02:41:32 AM PDT