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(meteorobs) Alleged meteorite fall (continued)

Okay, this is the response Skeeter sent out today about the many emails he
has received.

Thanks for making this thread so active.  It's been very interesting!
--Terry Johnson



-----Original Message-----
From: nmastro@ptddot net [mailto:nmastro@ptddot net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2000 12:08 PM
To: The dome-l mailing list
Subject: [dome-l] Alleged meteorite fall (continued)


I would like to thank everyone for their responses regarding the alleged
meteorite/car incident here near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  To clarify, the
event happened at approximately 8 UT (3 am EST) on Saturday, November 18.
The responses have ranged from enthusiastic to legitimately skeptical.  I
would particulary like to thank Joe Rao of Skyway, Inc. and Alan MacRobert
from Sky and Telescope for their authoritative analyses.  Here is a summary:

1) I have redirected the local media to be more cautious about their
reporting, and have put out a plea for any quality reports of a fireball at
the time of the event, as one should certainly have been seen.  A few
reports have come to my attention, though not enough to form a conclusion.
It certainly would be appropriate to show from the trajectory that it was
NOT associated with the Leonid shower since, of course, the Leonid shower is
cometary in nature and would not be expected to produce an impactor like
this.  The timing of the fall coinciding with one of the predicted peaks of
the Leonid shower does raise a red flag.

2) Inspection of the car showed evidence of heating, including a melted
appearance to the glass around the hole in the windshield.  Discolorization
of the metal wiper arm blade seems significant, too, since the (alleged)
meteorite didn't actually make any contact with it.  Experts say that a
small meteorite will not be hot by the time it reaches the Earth's surface,
yet the evidence suggests something like a small explosion happened on that
windshield.  (It remains curious how an explosive device, if that is what it
was, could punch such a defined hole through the dashboard.)

3) Despite the negative evidence regarding the man's brush with the cosmic,
he himself remains a good sport.  (I am quite confident he was not the
author of a hoax, though - since the car was parked on the street - there is
no way to rule out a neighborhood prankster.)  And since he'll have to take
the dashboard apart anyway to fix its demolished innards, he will likely
take our advice to do it carefully, searching the debris with a magnet, and
photo-documenting the dissection. Should something actually be found inside
the car's dash, expertise here at Franklin and Marshall College will be able
to discern its nature.

4) I will have some .jpg photos of the car I can send to anyone interested.

Skeeter Eliason
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


North Museum Planetarium
North Museum of Natural History & Science
400 College Avenue * Lancaster, PA  17603
P.O. Box 3003 * Lancaster, PA  17604
(717) 291-4315  email:  nmastro@ptddot net
http://www.northmuseum.org/planetarium.htm
              &
Manheim Township School District Planetarium
Virtual High School   569-8231 (Ext. 3047)
School Road   Lancaster, PA  17606
email:  john_eliason@mail.mtwp.k12.pa.us
              &
Lebanon Valley College Physics Department
101 North College Avenue   Annville, PA  17003-0501
email:  eliason@lvcdot edu


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