(meteorobs) Fwd: Early Geminids Possibly Spotted in Mid-Atlantic

[Michael Boschat]

"Meteors light up the nighttime sky days before shower's expected peak"

... Early Geminid arrivals prompt calls to police
(Source, Baltimore Sunpaper, 12/12/04)

The sky is falling!  Not really - but Maryland police officials
fielded dozens of calls last night of that magnitude.

"They were calling and saying they saw fire in the sky," said Cpl.
John Young of the Baltimore County Police Department.

Sgt. Steve Seipp of the Maryland State Police said his Golden Ring
office also fielded a flurry of calls for about 10 minutes straight
about 8 p.m.

"Something green was falling from the sky," Seipp said. "They all said
it was green.""

If you happened to be one of the concerned callers who spotted flashes
of light in the night sky, stop the UFO talk. 

They were just meteors. More than likely they were early arrivals from
the annual Geminid meteor shower, scheduled to reach its peak starting
about 9 o'clock tomorrow night.

Young said calls came from Owings Mills and Parkville. Seipp said most
calls to the state police came from the White Marsh area. Carroll
County police heard of reports from Towson, Frederick and St. Mary's City.

"There may have been a few stray meteors," said Don Surles of Delmarva
Stargazers, a regional group of amateur astronomers. "They're usually
very fast and very bright. A few years ago, I saw a fireball come out
of them. They could have seen something like that."

The Geminid meteor shower occurs every December, according to a NASA
Web site. At its peak, there may be as many as five shooting stars
visible every minute, according to NASA.

The meteors, first identified in the mid-1800s, are a mystery to
astronomers, according to the agency's Web site. They result from the
Earth passing through the debris trail of an asteroid. Asteroids
typically don't generate a debris trail, and scientists aren't sure
why the one associated with the Geminid shower - 3200 Phaethon - does.

Most meteors are caused by dust-sized debris of comets burning in the
Earth's atmosphere.

Les Dorr, a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration, said
his agency had received two calls about the meteors.

"It's an annual meteor shower, but maybe the level of activity is
higher," said Dorr, adding that the meteors spotted last night had no
effect on air traffic.

//end//