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Re: (meteorobs) Fwd: Meteorite said to start backyard fire
Hello all,
I've been following this thread and there are a few points which seem to
stand out to me..
I think i would be correct in saying that any meteorite producing fireball
would have to be extremely bright ?!! ... In which case there would most
lightly be a few witnesses to the event spread over a wide area,taking into
account that it occurred over a populated area at a time of day when many
people would be out and about(I don't know the geography of the region but
am assuming this isn't an isolated community). The reports seems to
indicate that the event was extremely localized which would point away from
it being a meteorite fall i think??
The reports are also inconsistent with my limited knowledge of meteor falls
in that to be "glowing" or still ablating up till impact the meteor would
have too be moving at speeds well in excess of the 200-500 miles/hr quoted
by Terry Johnson(am i right in saying that this figure would be true for a
fall in which the majority of the time spent falling would be during the
"dark fall" period?)
From http://www.concordmonitor.com/stories/front0400/newmeteorite.shtml :
"Stunned residents described the falling ball of fire to Fire Chief Edwin
Bowne. "
>>Snip<<
"He said the falling rock had started a flame that burned about an 18-inch
area, and that the ground was muddy from residents pouring buckets of water
on the small fire."
Inconsistency #1
It would be more like a missile hitting if it was a meteor,no glowing balls
of fire free falling "gently" to the ground,this would be a major
impact,which i would have thought might appear more "streak" like than
seems to be in this case...in any case the reports seem sketchy so
far...I'm sure a more detailed account will surface at a latter date to
resolve this issue.
Inconsistency #2
They were throwing buckets of water over it to put out a fire only 18"
across,which suggests to me that a highly flammable substance must be
involved(this sounds suspiciously similar to the thread earlier this year
where another suspected meteorite burnt the low lying vegetation on a patch
of ground a few inches or feet across...some photos of the patch of ground
were available on the web as i recall)
My guess is that the most lightly explanation for it is some sort of flare
containing magnesium of perhaps even phosphorous ,from a military aircraft
maybe??
...but i wouldn't rule out meteorites altogether,at least until more
information is available ,however small the possibility seems to be..... it
might just be one of those rare once in a lifetime events,or on the other
hand it might just not be such a rare event as we think...records on such
past events may not have been kept,or reports may even have been ignored or
put down to cranks...after all who is going to believe you when you tell
them " a meteor set fire to my back yard" !!??.dot it wouldn't surprise me to
hear that people had been burnt at the stake for saying things like that
pre 1800,and consequently people might have been afraid to report such
incidents for fear of this !!
Clear skies,
Leo
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