WOW, I hope we get pieces of all of these falls, this would then be a bumper crop year for recovered meteorites! Mike Farmer, PS, what if they are all the same type?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Baalke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 10:38 AM Subject: [meteorite-list] Bright Fireball Seen Over Northern California > > > http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/6903000.htm > > Comet debris cited as fireball > METEOR SEEN MONDAY OVER THE SOUTH BAY > By Glennda Chui > The Mercury News (San Jose, California) > September 30, 2003 > > A bright fireball that streaked over the South Bay on Monday evening may > have been debris from a comet, according to an astronomer. > > The meteor -- commonly called a shooting star -- traveled east to west at > 7:57 p.m. Observers said it flared several times from three to 10 seconds > before disappearing over the horizon. > > ``It's by far the brightest and longest I've ever seen,'' said Jake Burkart, > 29, of San Jose, an amateur astronomer who has been watching shooting stars > since he was a child. ``It was really amazing.'' > > Meteors are streaks of light left by bits of space dust as they enter the > upper atmosphere and evaporate. The dust may come from a rocky asteroid or > from a comet, which is a loose conglomeration of rock and ice. > > Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer with the SETI Institute at NASA/Ames > Research Center, said the meteor's appearance is typical of comet dust, > which is more fragile than the dust from an asteroid and more likely to > break up and flare. > > Five hours earlier, he said, another bright meteor was seen over Europe, > where it reportedly glowed green or blue, broke into fragments and left a > persistent, shining trail. > > ``So maybe we have a bit of a shower of bright fireballs going on at the > moment, which is interesting,'' Jenniskens said. > > Although showers of meteors periodically light up the skies as the Earth > passes through a thick patch of cometary dust, no such shower was expected > on Monday night, he said. The next one, called the Draconids shower, is > supposed to arrive Oct. 9. > > Jenniskens said whatever caused Monday's fireball appears to have landed in > the ocean. > > Contact Glennda Chui at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (408) 920-5453. > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
