[meteorite-list] Hegins man suspects meteorite struck home - Could it Be?

From: Thunder Stone <stanleygregr_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:49:05 -0700
Message-ID: <SNT117-W37091B43B8650588F37842D29C0_at_phx.gbl>

Could it be?

Greg S.



http://republicanherald.com/news/hegins-man-suspects-meteorite-struck-home-1.953646


Hegins man suspects meteorite struck home
By Vicki Terwilliger (Staff writer vicki-t at citizenstandard.com)
Published: August 17, 2010


VICKI TERWILLIGER/staff photos Ralph Lucht believes a meteorite may have caused the damage to his roof, above, and rust-colored depression in the patio, below at his Pine Drive home in Hegins.



HEGINS - Whatever struck Ralph Lucht's home in Hegins punched a hole through asphalt shingles and the flashing on the roof.

Lucht believes a meteorite may have struck his Pine Drive home at the end of July or beginning of August.

The metal of the white flashing is peeled outward several inches, as if it had suffered a tremendous force or heat.

A cable to a lighting rod on the roof was also severed by whatever apparently fell from high above, Lucht said. It grazed the edge of the cable, barely missed entering the house, then landed in a solid concrete patio surrounding Lucht's pool.

The indentation in the concrete was about one-inch-by-one-inch wide and a half-inch deep. Inside the hole was rust-colored flecks of material.

"The flecks were magnetized. It had to be a projectile," Lucht said. "I looked around for parts, but didn't find any," he said of whatever had made the depression in his patio.

The family did not hear anything, but recently noticed the damage when they went outside. Lucht does not believe the damage could have been caused by a stray bullet.

His home is in a mountainous region in a wooded area in Hegins Township with no homes in close proximity. Hegins Township had no other recent reports of similar damage, according to Supervisor Vicki Harman.

According to Mark Klein, a webmaster from the National Weather Service, his agency does not track meteorites or meteor showers. Klein referred any inquiries about meteorites to www.spaceweather.com.

This time of year is favorable for meteor showers.

The website states, "Earth's magnetic field is still reverberating from (an) impact of August 3, which sparked auroras as far south as Wisconsin and Iowa in the U.S."

Another resource, www.imo.net, operated by the International Meteor Organization states the Perseids are seen at this time of year.

"The Perseids are one of the most exciting and dynamic meteor showers; producing fast-moving shooting stars through July and August. Based on IMO observations from recent years, we expect the 'normal peak' of (about) 100 meteors per hour to occur in the night of August 12-13."

The IMO was founded in 1988 and has more than 250 amateur members collecting accounts of meteor observations, according to the site.
                                               
Received on Tue 17 Aug 2010 03:49:05 PM PDT