(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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