(meteorobs) Anything unusual over Indiana tonight?

[Arlene Carol]

Well, This just landed in my mailbox. I wonder if it's connected to whatever
was seen in the Midwest...??

do it help solve the mystery?

arlene
south of troy

 [image: .] [image: .] [image: .]


Lights in the sky were no UFO after all

Space rock said to be likely culprit

HEATHER VANDERMEER
 <http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/mercury/front;tile=3;sz=300x250;ord=[timestamp]?>

GUELPH (Mar 13, 2007)

So, it turns out it wasn't little green men after all.

A bright light that blazed across local skies early Sunday evening and
spurred much UFO talk was a hunk of space rock or debris probably no larger
than a golf ball, said Chris Rutkowski, an author and UFO investigator.

"The object was what we call in astronomy a bolide. This particular bolide
was between the size of a marble and a golf ball," Rutkowski said.

Despite varied local witness reports of the meteor seemingly being at a low
altitude, Rutkowski said it was at least 50 kilometres above ground and
disintegrated in the atmosphere far above the ground.

Sightings of its fiery journey were reported from regions just north of
Toronto, across southern Ontario, and in parts of Michigan and New York
states, said Rutkowski, who is based in Winnipeg

In Wellington County and Guelph, witnesses saw a bright light race across
the sky, somewhat similar to a shooting star, spitting off sparks before
disappearing. The moments-long light show unfolded around 8 p.m.

Kelly Rutherford of Guelph described her experience in witnessing the
five-second event with awe.

"My first reaction was that something was burning in the sky, and by the
direction it was heading I could tell it wasn't fireworks," she said.

Rutherford had been stopped in her car at the corner of Woodlawn Road and
Woolwich Street when she and her daughter Cierra looked toward the sky to
see what she described as "a big white fireball heading toward the ground,
about three times the size of regular fireworks you would find in a store.

"I read an article with reference to Venus causing the lights in the sky,
but unless Venus is huge and moving very quickly, I don't think it was
that," Rutherford said.

Harriet Bradley, also of Guelph, reported seeing a "fireball-type" streak in
the sky through her living room window. It came from the northeast and
headed southwest.

"It was going so fast I thought it might hit something," Bradley said.

A retired science teacher, Bradley said it looked similar to a shooting
star, except very close, and concluded she believed it to be a meteorite.

Rutkowski explained a bolide's descent into the atmosphere can cause sparks,
such as those witnesses saw Sunday evening, as it disintegrates.

"Bolides are relatively common, with approximately three sightings a year in
Canada," Rutkowski said, adding that they rarely hit the planet before
disintegration.

hvandermeer at guelphmercury.com



 ) <http://www.guelphmercury.com/pdfs/2007Mar13/A01.PDF>