[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) IMO-NEWS: "New Zealand hit by meteor or space debris"
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 16:59:58 +0200
From: dfischer@astro.uni-bonndot de (Daniel Fischer)
Message-Id: <9706131459.AA25052@aibn91.astro.uni-bonndot de>
To: imo-news@imodot net
Subject: "New Zealand hit by meteor or space debris"
http://www.nandodot net/newsroom/ntn/health/061397/health9_1732.html tells us:
New Zealand hit by meteor or space debris
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ) 1997 Nandodot net
Copyright ) 1997 The Associated Press
AUCKLAND (June 13, 1997 10:44 a.m. EDT) -- A brightly burning object crashed
into New Zealand's North Island Friday in what police and scientists believe
was a shower of meteors or space debris.
Astrid Burgess was driving home around dinner time when she saw a ball of
fire streak across the sky and crash with a "boom" into hills north of
Wellington, the capital.
"It was green and red at the back with smoke trailing out the rear of it,"
said Burgess. "I thought, 'Oh my God, it's a plane going down. They're going
to die."'
Emergency crews, responding to numerous similar reports, searched the area
but found nothing. Authorities planned to fly over the area Saturday
morning.
"It wasn't a plane crash," said Pat O'Neill, a police inspector. "It's more
likely from the advice we've been given that this incident is linked to
unusual atmospheric activity -- possibly meteors or space debris."
A meteor is the streak of light -- often called a falling star -- that
occurs when a meteoroid, a chunk of stony or metallic matter, enters the
Earth's atmosphere from space. Friction with the air causes the meteoroid to
heat up, creating a glow and leaving a trail of glowing gases.
While hundreds of fireballs are recorded around the world each year,
meteoroids rarely survive to hit the Earth's surface. Most disintegrate upon
reaching the atmosphere.
John Field, a spokesman at New Zealand's Carter Observatory, said he fielded
a number of calls about the object.
"I tend to believe ... it's just a bit of space debris because a greenish
glow tends to mean it has oxygen in it," he said today. "It could be a part
of one of the old space craft that had gone up, or a satellite."
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is anyone reading this list 'down there' and able to get more details?
Daniel Fischer
------- End of Forwarded Message