From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Mon Sep 09 2002 - 21:46:44 MDT
Hey Damien, is Adelaide in your neighborhood?
'Great fireball' spotted in South Australian skies
A leading Australian astronomer believes a large
meteor may have hit the earth near Adelaide last
night. Early yesterday evening, South Australian
police were inundated with reports of sonic booms,
earth tremors and sightings of a blue streak in
the sky. Ken, from Hindmarsh Island, 100 kilometres
south of Adelaide, says he heard a whoosh. "It came
straight over the top and left a huge smoke trail
and there was two huge sonic booms afterwards,"
he said. "It was incredible - I've never seen
anything like it."
Bryan Boyle from the Anglo-Australian Telescope
in New South Wales believes the explosion was a
meteor making contact with the earth's atmosphere.
He says it was within about 30 kilometres of the
ground or maybe even closer. "It does sound like
there could well have been an impact like that
on the ground," he said. He expects astronomers
to begin their search for any remnants today.
But he says regardless of whether it hit the
ground, it was an extremely rare event and
will go down in history. "The great fireball
of Adelaide 2002," he said. "You would not get
many events like this happening even over the
face of the earth in a year and for some people
to see it near a populated region, that's even
more remarkable. "I think the people that saw
it should count themselves very lucky."
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