Police On Meteor Alert After Huge Balls Of Fire Light Up Spanish Sky

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 1-6-2004 | Giles Tremlett

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Police on meteor alert after huge balls of fire light up Spanish sky

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Tuesday January 6, 2004
The Guardian (UK)

Was it a brightly shining star leading the present-laden three kings to the homes of millions of children at today's Epiphany, Spain's biggest gift-giving day of Christmas? As police scoured a remote mountainous district of the northern León province yesterday for remnants of a large, brilliant, burning object that fell to earth on Sunday, the most likely explanation was that it was part of a meteor.

The search concentrated near Renedo de Valderaduey after neighbours saw a huge ball of white fire passing close overhead before crashing into nearby mountains.

Some reported up to five explosions. "The ground shook, everything shook," said one.

Police expected to find a crater caused by a meteor of up to 100 tonnes that may have broken up as it shot across the skies. Experts said it might have been the size of a small house.

Emergency services were alerted by people who reported balls of fire leaving smoke trails across the sky. Some blamed small country fires in Lugo, in the north-west, and Castellón on smaller fireballs.

Football fans in Santiago de Compostela, north-west Spain, including José Angel Docobo, a university astronomer, also saw a big fireball. He said: "It must have been pretty big if we were able to see it by daylight."

Scientists said it had been travelling between 12 and 30 miles a second.

Epiphany, the 12th day after Christmas, is a public holiday in Spain and marks the day a star is supposed to have led the three wise men to Bethlehem.

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Great Balls Of Fire

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[NormsRevenge]

Goodness .. Gracious ..

[Normal4me]

*blinks*

Why are the police looking for meteorites?

[John H K]

One problem is that people will routinely claim that a meteor "landed just beyond the next mountain" when it never got closer than 60 miles to earth.

There's an overwhelming optical illusion from a bright fireball that's it's much closer than it actually was.

And meteorite impacts NEVER EVER start fires, unless it's a truly enormous worldkiller that would have killed half the people in Spain or whatever.

Meteorites basically always impact at room temperature. Seeing someone claiming small fires were started, or they saw a meteor land and it was a rock that was hot to the touch guarantees the story is 100% bogus.

[cmsgop]

Cause they flew over airspace without paying a tax....

[blam]

A painting of the Tunguska event a few minutes after it exploded...from eyewitness accounts TUNGUSKA

[WackyKat]

Meteorites basically always impact at room temperature. Seeing someone claiming small fires were started, or they saw a meteor land and it was a rock that was hot to the touch guarantees the story is 100% bogus.

A couple of years ago, I was backpacking in southern New Mexico

It was dark and I was sitting in front of my tent when I saw a large flaming object come overhead at a speed that appeared to be comparable to that of an aircraft at a few thousand feet.

Very large multi-colored flames were tailing behind it; I immediately thought it was an airliner on fire and about to go down

Only after it disappeared over the horizon did I realize that is was a meteor.

On another occasion, I was lying in a field in Germany during the Perseid shower and saw a meteor appear to come directly at me, get very bright, and explode with a very loud report.

You may be correct that bolides are cool when they hit the ground, but they certainly are not in the air