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(meteorobs) Denver Post UFO report.



Here is a transcript of the article on the Denver Fireball that was printed
in Monday's paper:


Denver Post, Monday, January 12, 1998
Section B, Denver and the West

Page 1B

Meteor may have lit up sky
Many see object, hear explosions
by Jim Hughes, Denver Post Staff Writer

	A mysterious object lit up the night sky up and down the Front Range early
Sunday--then starteld witnesses with a deafening explosion.
	There was no official explanation for the object Sunday.  Military
spokesmen denied the object was a military aircraft.  Local scientists
speculated it could have been a meteor or an illegal firework.  
	Douglas County resident Gunter Harz witnessed the phenomenon about 12:15
am "All of a sudden, there was an impact that shook our house and then a 
(Please see UFO on page 3B)


Page 3B

Many report mysterious object
UFO from Page 1B

double explosion immediately after the impact," Harz said.  "I don't know
if a meteorite makes that noise, but I do know that my house was shaking."
	Residents from Colorado Springs to Denver flooded area police dispatchers
and military oporators with calls about the object.
	But the phenomenon was not related to any of the military installations
around Colorado Springs, according to spokesmen fro U.S. Space Control at
Cheyanne Mountain and for Peterson Air Force Base.
	"There was nothing that would have created a loud noise or explosion,"
said Lt. Jason Medina, a Peterson Air Force Base Spokesman.
	Katy Garmany, director of the University of Colorado's Fiske Observatory
in Boulder, said the object could have been a meteor.  But Meteors normally
burn up 20 to 40 miles above Earth and don't emit any sound.
	"You have to consider the possibility that somebody was shooting off some
high-grade illegal fireworks," she said.
	Jack Murphy, curator of geology fro the Denver Museum of Natural History,
said he thinks the object may have been one of the rare meteors that
infiltrates the atmosphere and burns up closer to the ground.  If that was
the case, scientifically valuable pieces of the meteor may have landed in
the area, he said.
	Murphy said it would probably take him a few days to identify the object.
	"It's going to complicate my life for a few days," he said.
	The last big fireball that came this close to the ground in Colorado was
recorded by a security video camera in Colorado Springs in 1995, he said.
That same camera recorded Sunday's event too, he said.
	That videotape, combined with testimony from witnesses, should help
scientists figure out precisely what happened, he said.  He is hopint that
witnesses--particularly people east and west of Colorado Springs--will call
his office.
	If fireworks were the cause, they were bigger than most found at Fourth of
July celebrations, said Atom Abbott, who said he saw the phenomenon shortly
after midnight from Downtown Denver.
	"It was a big, blue fireball," he said.  "I thought it was a plane
crashing, at first."
	Abbott's visual report was confirmed by others who claimed to see a white
or blue light speeding through the sky early Sunday morning.
	Larry Sanders of Denver said Sunday's event was more dramatic than meteors
he has seen before.  He was driving in Weld County when he saw what he
described as "a very large bright light that lit up the clouds and several
smaller, secondary explosions."



Well, that's the article.  I've got a call out to Jack Murphy at the Denver
Museum of Natural History and he should return my call.  Since I'm close by
here I could ask questions about the event.  Does anybody have any good
recommendations for incisive questions to ask?  Please let me know ASAP and
I'll ask him.  Who else in the Denver area would be good to talk with?  Are
there any Denver affiliates to the IMO, NAMN or similar organization?

Keith.

References: