From: roelle@uars_mag.jhuapl.edu (Curtis Roelle)
Subject: Green Fireball, NY & WV Meteorites
Summary: CNN's Coverage of Fireball plus more
Keywords: bolide, fireball, football
Organization: Johns Hopkins University
Date: 13 Oct 92 14:46:26 GMT

moersch@theory.TC.Cornell.EDU (Jeff Moersch) writes:

>In article <28666@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM> wats@scicom.AlphaCDC.COM (Bruce Watson) writes:

>>  From an AP article in the Sunday Denver Post: Michelle Knapp, 18,
>>  of Peekskill, NY, heard a loud crash, Friday, that shook the windows of her
>>  house. Her 1980 Chevy Malibu had suffered a hole straight through the trunk. 
>>  (Repo Man?) A small crater was seen in the ground underneath. The meteorite 
>>  was still "pretty hot" and was found to weigh 30 lbs and measured about 
>              ^^^^^^^^^^
>>  1 foot in diameter.

>Very strange.  The director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at
>Arizona State U. loves to talk about how he can always tell if a
>reported fall is a hoax because people who aren't describing a true
>meteorite hit invariably describe the sample as "still hot" when they
>found it, when in fact actual meteorites are usually very *cold*.  As
>he described it, only the outermost layer heats up on entry to the
>earth's atmosphere, and the rest of the rock is still the temperature
>it was in space - cold.  So immediately after landing, the hot outer
>layer gets cooled down from the cold inside, and the whole thing feels
>cold when you pick it up.

The energy absorbed by the object as it impacted the atmosphere at --
I haven't heard any velocity estimate, but -- say 5-50 miles per
second would make it warm.  Following impact, the process of heat
dissipating into the interrior of the meteorite I expect would take
longer to occur than the initial heating.  Since the young lady heard
the impact she was probably outside within a minute or two, so it
would not be unusual for it to still feel warm.

On another note, CNN Friday night broadcast an amateur video (taken at
a high school football game, and already mentioned on the net) of a
brilliant bolide that broke into several pieces that were visible for
some seconds.  The comments of the anchor man, and a "man in the
streeet" were interesting, and some misinformation was given.

The news anchor said (paraphrasing) "Observers on the east coast were
treated to a meteor shower tonight."  On the screen the bolide was
shown breaking up into a cascading herd of bright fragments as the
anchorman continued, "...and here is what the shower looked like"(!)
As if BOLIDE = METEOR SHOWER.  They next interviewed a fellow who
said, "Oh yeah, we watched the meteor shower for at least an hour",
giving the impression that the bolide went sailing around the sky all
night.  The bystander continued, "...We'd be sitting there and the sky
would turn all white, then a few minutes later the sky would turn
red"(!?)  They then switched to the anchorwoman who said, "If you
missed that one, astronomers say there will be two more showers in
October."  As if the night sky turning to daylight several times an
hour is a common event that people can plan for.  And if it doesn't
happen, "well you know those astronomers -- remember Comet Kahotek?"

Friday night it rained in Maryland.  But it apparently cleared enough
for it to be visible from the C&O Canal and Silver Spring, according
to reports on this newsgroup.  But from the tone of CNN's coverage it
sounded like Friday night was a bolide shower, because of the eye
witness report, and their repeated looping of the same footage. So,
Was there a bolide shower Friday night or was it sensational
T.V. fluff?  We do know that a teenager's car was hit by a meteorite.
(Anyway, I doubt it was a prank by her friends -- who would have
probably just soaped the windows.)

BTW, I just had a call from a friend who owns some land in West
Virginia.  Said she heard a rumor that a meteorite came down near a
National Guard post somewhere there.  Talk about cool V. warm
meteorites: she heard that when they found it it was still glowing
red!  (hmmm....she didn't mention any dead martians though).

Curt Roelle
roelle@sigi.jhuapl.edu