Spectacular rare green meteor lights up morning sky

New Zealand Herald ^ | 6/13/03 | AMANDA KYNE

[Pro-Bush]

A rare bright-green meteor flew across the sky early yesterday, surprising early risers around the country.

Denise Buckton of Auckland's Blockhouse Bay said she gasped when she saw the meteor from her living room window.

"It was lovely to look at. It had the same brightness as a flare."

Stardome Observatory spokesman Warren Hurley said the meteor was particularly bright and larger than average, at 20-50cm in diameter.

It flew across at 7.07am, providing a rare daytime spectacle.

It was first visible at an altitude of about 80km in the north and at about 20km when last seen in the south.

"It's rare to see them of that size," Mr Hurley said.

It travelled from Whangarei to Edendale, near Invercargill, and was visible for 10 seconds down the East Coast of New Zealand.

Meteors, which are left-over debris from the solar system, travel at 17km a second.

[SquirrelKing]

Saw one when I was a kid. Had just read War of the Worlds. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

[b4its2late]

Are you sure it wasn't Hillary taking a new broom out for a test run?

[PoorMuttly]

Silly humans. Couldn't you see me waving?

[SquirrelKing]

Here's some recent local news:

Meteorite lands in back yard

Dianne Morris collected bits of a meteor from her back yard early Monday morning.

Published Tue, Jun 10, 2003
By CHRIS BENDER
Gazette staff writer

Dianne Morris saw something out of this world while walking her dogs early Monday morning. A meteorite landed in the Beaufort resident's back yard at about 3:40 a.m.

"I was only about 15 feet away from it when it came down," said Morris. "It had a smoky white tail."

Morris said small glowing flames dropped from it as it came down and it made a loud popping sound before hitting the ground. It didn't leave a depression, and she was able to pick up several pieces.

Morris plans on keeping the few extraterrestrial pieces. While reports like Morris' do come in on occasion, they usually aren't actual meteorites, said Christina Lacey, a professor at the University of South Carolina's physics and astronomy department.

"I've never heard of (the reports) panning out," Lacey said. "Certainly, meteorites do hit the Earth."

Nothing unusual was detected by the radar at the air station Monday morning, said Master Sgt. Terrance Peck, public affairs chief for Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort. Officials at the National Weather Service in Charleston said a meteorite would be moving too fast for them to track.

What a meteorite is made of is one of the factors that determines whether it makes it to the Earth's surface. Lacey said meteorites coming from passing comets, which are composed of ice, usually burn up, while iron-based meteorites that come from asteroids might make it to the surface.

Meteorites usually are made of melted minerals with some containing iron-nickel alloys.

"Most meteorites tend to be very simple" in composition, Lacey said. "Most meteorites do land in water."

According to the National Air and Space Administration's Web site, each day as many as 4 billion meteoroids, most minuscule in size, enter Earth's atmosphere. Most of these meteors burn up from atmospheric friction and never reach the ground.

The angle at which the meteoroid enters the planet's atmosphere can also determine whether it breaks up, skips back into space or explodes. Lacey said rarely do man-made meteorites make it to Earth, and when they do it's usually over water.

If someone does recover something they think is a meteorite, Lacey said geologists can usually tell whether it's from outer space or not.

"You could talk to the geology department at Clemson, the University of South Carolina or the College of Charleston and they could identify it," Lacey said. "A lot of times they can do it just by looking at it."

Morris said she doesn't plan on doing anything like that, though she does admit it's somewhat unbelievable.

"I just wish I had a video camera at the time," she said. "Without a movie, it's like no one believes you."

[Seti 1]

Saw one in the South Pacific one night while on lookout. I thought it was a flare and called it in as such (obviously the bridge had seen it but I had to show them I was awake).

[Man_of_Reason]

Green colour? Usually means copper or some similar mineral. Sounds like Soviet Space junk burning up.

[Pro-Bush]

Saw one when I was a kid.

Was it Green?

[Seti 1]

That thing in the picture is a UFO hubcap.

[SGCOS]

Spectacular rare green meteor lights up morning sky

Is that what that was? I thought the ex-wife ate Mexican again.

[Knightsofswing]

Darned!! I can't see crap here in Michigan, too many clouds. It either rains or snows in this G-D offal place.

[brbethke]

Check the garden. Have the triffids begun to exhibit unusual behavior?

[Seti 1]

Sounds like Soviet Space junk burning up.

Perhaps it was but the one I saw was a long time before space junk. It was green--bright green.

[stainlessbanner]

That thing in the picture is a UFO hubcap.

LOL!

[Pro-Bush]

Well, at least you don't have to deal with California's liberal lefto's that I have to deal with all the time. If that is any consolation.

[cmsgop]

I saw the last seconds of a green meteor on I-5 in Seattle last saturday morning. It's like a Firework.

[SquirrelKing]

Was it green?

Yup. Like a big, glowing booger.

[onedoug]

[JennysCool]

Ladies and gentlemen, that was no meteor.