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(meteorobs) Excerpts from "CCNet 96/2001 - 31 August 2001"
A disappointing issue - mostly meteorite related. The item about
the Colorado fireball was sadly confusing. It SEEMS to associate
our own Dr. Peter Brown, with the presumption that this fireball
actually dropped a meteorite over the region described. However,
a simple examination of the reports, such as when one witness is
quoted as saying he "watched the meteor until it disappeared some
where over the La Garita Mountains", seems to indicate that this
is yet another case of misunderstood eyewitness reports...
NOTE: For a discussion of why eyewitness reports like "I saw it
*land* just behind the mountains", do not generally seem to be
reliable for meteorite hunting, see our Web page on the subject:
http://www.meteorobs.org/fireballs.html
Of course, I am no meteorite hunting expert - at all! And Dr.
Peter Brown may actually have informed local authorities *HE*
thinks a meteorite fall in their area was probable? (In which
case, Peter would certainly have good reason to think so.)
Anyway, it would be interesting to hear more about this event.
Clear skies!
Lew Gramer
------- Forwarded Message
From: Peiser Benny <B.J.Peiser@livjm.acdot uk>
To: cambridge-conference <cambridge-conference@livjm.acdot uk>
Subject: CCNet 96/2001 - 31 August 2001
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 17:01:23 +0100
CCNet 96/2001 - 31 August 2001
------------------------------
[...]
(2) WITNESSES SAY METEOR MAY HAVE LANDED IN LA GARITA MOUNTAINS
Alamosa Valley Courier, 29 August 2001
(3) FALLING METEORITE TRACKED TO LA GARITA MOUNTAINS
The Denver Channel, 29 August 2001
(4) STAR OF BETHLEHEM 'WAS TWO BRILLIANT METEORS'
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utorontodot ca>
[...]
===========================================================================
(2) WITNESSES SAY METEOR MAY HAVE LANDED IN LA GARITA MOUNTAINS
>From Alamosa Valley Courier, 29 August 2001
http://www.zwire.com/news/newsstory.cfm?newsid=2282699&title=Witnesses%20say
%20meteor%20may%20have%20landed%20in%20La%20Garita%20Mountains&BRD=1190&PAG=
461&CATNAME=Top%20Stories&CATEGORYID=410
Aug 29 2001 12:00AM By By TERESA L. BENNS
By TERESA L. BENNS
LA GARITA - Geologists and star trackers are eagerly seeking the exact
landing field for a meteor they now believe fell near Storm King Campground
in the eastern La Garita Mountains.
The huge fireball was sighted by several Valley residents around 10:45 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 17, according to local officials.
Forty times brighter than a full moon, the meteor was seen as far away as
New Mexico, Wyoming and Idaho, according to a press release from Denver's
Nature and Science Museum.
The sighting sparked an influx of calls and e-mails to the museum.
Dr. Jack Murphy, a Nature and Science Museum geologist and Dr. Peter Brown
from Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico estimate the meteor
weighed one metric ton on entry and was traveling 11.25 miles per second.
Eyewitness accounts
Saguache Deputy Richard Sutton, patrolling along Highway 17 at County Road H
saw a "really intense, bright light like lightning," sometime between 10:30
and 11 p.m.
"It lit up the entire Valley but it lasted five to six seconds," Sutton
said. The meteor was directly over his head, causing him to crane his neck
to follow it.
"I actually saw debris coming through the atmosphere, and smoke with golden
sparks trailing behind the meteor. These gold and yellow sparks went very
slowly," Sutton said.
"The meteor passed over the town of Center to the north, slowed down to a
crawl and went down low, fading slowly before it went dark."
Sutton says he saw no small explosions, and given the amount of burning, the
elevation, and the meteor's lowness in the sky, he feels a chunk of the
object could be lodged somewhere in Saguache County.
The deputy believes the meteor landed east of Storm King campground.
Monte Vista resident Mike Valdez was relaxing in his hot tub that night when
he saw the meteor.
"It was just plain awesome," Valdez said. "It's so hard to describe because
there's nothing to compare it to."
Valdez said the light "was so bright it dwarfed the intensity of the city
light in my backyard. It was bright white, and after it finished burning it
spread apart into two reddish-orange balls."
About 15 minutes later, Valdez said he heard noises "like low thunder."
Del Norte residents Lance and Deanne Andersen were camping near Summitville
that evening when they saw the meteor streak through the sky and disappear
over the mountains.
"It lit up the Valley like daylight," Andersen said. "I could see along way.
It was pretty impressive."
He watched the meteor until it disappeared somewhere over the La Garita
Mountains.
Location of impact not exact
Originally it was believed the meteor went down somewhere in the vicinity of
the San Juans in Conejos County.
Later the site was better pinpointed, after studying eyewitness reports, to
the Storm King area.
While coursing through the atmosphere, the light generated lends this
falling space mass the name meteor. Once on the ground, it is referred to as
a meteorite, because it has disintegrated into numerous fragments.
Hoping to locate and examine some of these fragments, Murphy came to the San
Luis Valley last week to interview eyewitnesses, among them Andersen and
Valdez.
"We're looking for people who were stationary or sitting down and actually
saw pieces falling from the sky," Murphy said. "If we have some landmarks,
like between a chimney and a telephone pole, we can line it up with compass
bearings."
The museum hopes to do a scientific study on the meteor and would like to
tell people how to identify meteorites, Murphy emphasized.
Meteorites found will not be confiscated, only examined. The space rocks
belong to private property owners if found on private land and to the
federal government, if found on BLM or national forest land.
Eyewitnesses may contact Murphy at 303-370-6445.
)Alamosa Valley Courier 2001
===========================================================================
(3) FALLING METEORITE TRACKED TO LA GARITA MOUNTAINS
>From The Denver Channel, 29 August 2001
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/den/news/stories/news-93810220010829-090836.
html?subid=22100484
Some San Luis Valley Residents Reported Seeing Meteor Directly Overhead
LA GARITA, Colo. -- Geologists and meteorite hunters are looking for the
exact landing spot for a meteor they now believe fell near a campground
close to the San Luis Valley.
The huge fireball was sighted by many people around 10:45 p.m. Friday, Aug.
17.
Forty times brighter than a full moon, the meteor was seen as far away as
New Mexico, Wyoming and Idaho, according to a press release from Denver's
Nature and Science Museum.
The sighting sparked an influx of calls and e-mails to the museum.
Meteor or Meteorite?
A meteoroid is a piece of stony or metallic material which travels in space.
A meteor is a piece of stony or metallic material which enters the Earth's
atmosphere and burns up.
A meteorite is a meteor which doesn't burn up before hitting the ground.
Dr. Jack Murphy, a Nature and Science Museum geologist and Dr. Peter Brown
from Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico estimate the meteor
weighed one metric ton on entry and was traveling 11.25 miles per second.
Saguache Deputy Richard Sutton, patrolling along Highway 17 at County Road H
saw a "really intense, bright light like lightning," sometime between 10:30
and 11 p.m.
"It lit up the entire valley but it lasted five to six seconds," Sutton
said. The meteor was directly over his head, causing him to crane his neck
to follow it.
"I actually saw debris coming through the atmosphere, and smoke with golden
sparks trailing behind the meteor. These gold and yellow sparks went very
slowly," Sutton said.
"The meteor passed over the town of Center to the north, slowed down to a
crawl and went down low, fading slowly before it went dark."
Sutton says he saw no small explosions, and given the amount of burning, the
elevation, and the meteor's lowness in the sky, he feels a chunk of the
object could be lodged somewhere in Saguache County.
The deputy believes the meteor landed east of the Storm King campground.
Monte Vista resident Mike Valdez was relaxing in his hot tub that night when
he saw the meteor.
"It was just plain awesome," Valdez said. "It's so hard to describe because
there's nothing to compare it to."
Valdez said the light "was so bright it dwarfed the intensity of the city
light in my backyard. It was bright white, and after it finished burning it
spread apart into two reddish-orange balls."
About 15 minutes later, Valdez said he heard noises "like low thunder."
Del Norte residents Lance and Deanne Andersen were camping near Summitville
that evening when they saw the meteor streak through the sky and disappear
over the mountains.
"It lit up the valley like daylight," Andersen said. "I could see along way.
It was pretty impressive."
He watched the meteor until it disappeared somewhere over the La Garita
Mountains.
It was first believed that the meteor went down somewhere in the vicinity of
the San Juans in Conejos County.
Later the site was better pinpointed, after studying eyewitness reports, to
the Storm King area.
Murphy traveled to the San Luis Valley last week to interview eyewitnesses,
among them Andersen and Valdez.
"We're looking for people who were stationary or sitting down and actually
saw pieces falling from the sky," Murphy said. "If we have some landmarks,
like between a chimney and a telephone pole, we can line it up with compass
bearings."
The museum hopes to do a scientific study on the meteor and would like to
tell people how to identify meteorites, Murphy emphasized.
Meteorites found will not be confiscated, only examined. The space rocks
belong to private property owners if found on private land and to the
federal government, if found on BLM or national forest land.
Eyewitnesses are asked to call Dr. Jack Murphy at (303) 370-6445.
Copyright 2001, The Denver Chanel
===========================================================================
(4) STAR OF BETHLEHEM 'WAS TWO BRILLIANT METEORS'
>From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utorontodot ca>
>From The Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2001
http://portal.telegraph.codot uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/08/30/nstar30.x
ml
Thursday, 30 August 2001
Star of Bethlehem 'was two brilliant meteors'
By Victoria Combe, Religion Correspondent
THE Star of Bethlehem that led the wise men to the infant Christ was two
brilliant meteors following similar paths, according to a study by Sir
Patrick Moore.
The astronomer has investigated theories about the nature of the star in the
east described in St Matthew's account of the nativity in the Bible.
In his book, The Star of Bethelehem, published by Canopus in October, Sir
Patrick dismisses previous scientific explanations for the star as
improbable. He claims the star was two meteors, or shooting stars, rising in
the east and crossing the sky in a westward direction, leaving a trail
visible for several hours.
"Meteors are the only natural objects which show definite movement across
the sky over a short period of observation," he writes. While not proposing
to have found the definite answer, Sir Patrick, 78, believes his theory
cannot be disproved.
He has tested other theories against the criteria that the star must have
been unusual and conspicuous to the wise men and it must have appeared
between 7BC and 4BC, the dates between which Biblical scholars believe
Christ was born.
For the star to have been noticed by the wise men, and not by everyone else,
it must have appeared for a short time and have moved in a way quite unlike
that of any other star or planet. Speaking from his home yesterday, Sir
Patrick said the sight of a procession of shooting stars would have been
spectacular, brighter than a full moon.
"If these had appeared in a very sparsely populated area only those looking
up at the same time would have seen it," he added. The study offers no
explanation for the "unmeteoritic behaviour" reported in Matthew's gospel of
the star stopping at the place where Jesus Christ lay.
"We will have to allow Matthew a sufficient degree of poetic licence,"
writes Sir Patrick. His book is devoid of any cynicism about the nativity
and he does allow for the possibility that the star was a message from God
and so "beyond science".
The star is mentioned four times in Matthew's gospel, with little detail,
and not once in Luke's account of the nativity. The gospels of Mark and John
do not mention the nativity.
Mark Kidger, an astrophysicist who has been interested in the star of
Bethlehem for 20 years and last year published a book on the subject, is not
convinced by Sir Patrick's theory of the two meteors.
"A bright meteor you see for one or two seconds and in exceptional cases as
much as 10 seconds," said Mr Kidger. "It would have appeared and disappeared
so quickly the wise men would have had to have had jet propelled camels to
have followed it."
) Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2001.
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