Posted on 10/06/2002 9:20:22 PM PDT by Lokibob
"People said it had a 500-foot tail and it was huge, like a meteor, and green and orange," La Plata County sheriff's dispatcher Kristy Lee said. Authorities in Chaffee and Alamosa counties got similar reports at about 7:30 p.m. The Colorado State Patrol in Alamosa got reports of a fireball with a purple tail and green and white lights, dispatcher Toni Sanchez said. "A meteor falling could be enough to surprise a lot of people," said Larry Esposito, a University of Colorado professor of astrophysics and planetary science. No man-made objects fell from space Sunday night, said Maj. Ed Thomas, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, which tracks satellites and thousands of pieces of space debris. "We don't have a mission to track meteorites, but that's got to be what it is," Maj. Ed Thomas said.
DURANGO - A fireball with a long tail of green, orange and purple flames raced across the sky over southwestern Colorado Sunday night. A scientist and a military spokesman said it was probably a meteor.
People in Utah swamped the local TV stations with phone calls.
'Meteor' lights up Midlands
Sunday, 6 October, 2002, 10:33 GMT 11:33 UK
'Meteor' lights up Midlands
The object was seen shortly before 0600 BST
A burning object seen streaking across West Midlands skies on Sunday morning may have been a meteor, astronomers have said. The streaking fireball was seen heading south shortly before 0600 BST.
Its passage was followed by a bright flash which lit up the sky. Andy Salmon, from the Birmingham Astronomical Society, said it may have been a meteor - space debris burning up in the atmosphere.
Space junk A meteor is a particle entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up at high speed Many meteors are the size of a sand grain Larger objects do not burn up completely, hit the ground, and become a 'meteorite' He also suggested it may have been a man-made object, such a satellite re-entering the atmosphere, or a rocket being launched.
"Meteors can happen at any time... there's no predicting when it may happen," he said.
One witness said the object had a tail.
"All of a sudden I've seen this light streak across the sky... the front of the light was much larger than what you would call the tail," he said.
'Like a film'
The BBC's Ben Godfrey saw the fireball as he arrived at work.
"It was reminiscent of a meteor you might see in a film... it was huge," he said.
Local aviation authorities confirmed the object was not aircraft-related.
It has been an eventful period for the West Midlands in nature terms, with the region shaken by an earth tremor on 23 September.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2303349.stm
There was a report of a large impact in Russia last week.
PS: Is it time to jump in the shower?
A piece of it hit the trunk of a car in New Jersey.
WFTR
Bill
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