(meteorobs) OT...Commodore Perry and the 'meteor' (or UFO)

Chris Crawford chrisc at storytron.com
Sat Aug 25 14:36:15 EDT 2007


Two points:

1. The term "meteor" was used prior to the twentieth century to refer  
to any object in the atmosphere; it was "meteor-ological".

2. I would think that any sailor in those times would have seen  
plenty of falling stars and lots of fireballs, so I don't think we  
can assume that the reporter was unaware of that. If it had been a  
fireball, he would certainly have reported it as a very bright  
falling star.

I suspect that it was a very large meteor, with enough mass to  
penetrate deep into the atmosphere. The reference to blue color is  
very strange and does suggest an electrical phenomenon such as ball  
lightning, but the linear path argues against that interpretation.  
The reference to the red tail and the sparks flying off is certainly  
supportive of the large meteorite hypothesis. It must have had a very  
shallow angle of attack.


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