(meteorobs) Morse Code or Dash-DOT!!-Dash Meteor (N. Calif.)

Chris Peterson clp at alumni.caltech.edu
Mon Sep 24 19:49:21 EDT 2007


Hi Wayne-

Very nice. Looks to be several times brighter than the nearly full Moon. 
Quite a few people must have seen it that early in the evening. If you 
can get another angle on it, I think you'll find it was fairly deep in 
the atmosphere when it fragmented. This didn't skip or go back into 
space- it came down into denser air and fragmented, producing a bright 
burst. Most of the original mass was lost in under a second at that 
point. What was left continued, and then experienced a second 
fragmentation. The resulting terminal explosion probably consumed what 
was left. Most likely no meteorites were produced, but sometimes 
fragmentation events can produce meteorites because very small 
components may slow down fast enough to avoid ablating away.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Wayne Watson" <sierra_mtnview at sbcglobal.net>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2007 5:33 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Morse Code or Dash-DOT!!-Dash Meteor (N. Calif.)


A fireball blazed over our Sacramento skies late last night, and was 
caught
on my video camera. I would guess this one left the atmosphere. No 
reports
of debris that I know of yet. See a composite and QT mov (movie) file of 
the
event at <http://speckledwithstars.net/meteor_beginnings.html>. Scroll 
to
the bottom.

I suppose it might be possible some debris fell over somewhere by 
Redding;
however, presently this is just a guess. Perhaps visual observers saw 
it. It
occurred around 11:07 PM (PDT). It appears to have glanced off the
atmosphere and kept going after the burst (Dot). It was going NW from 
here
in Nevada City, CA.



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