Posted on 09/12/2006 7:46:23 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A sonic boom rattled southern New Zealand on Tuesday, and hundreds of callers swamped emergency services about the noise, which scientists said was probably caused by a small meteor plunging toward earth.
Residents in the southern city of Christchurch, 190 miles south of the capital Wellington, told police and fire services that the boom shook the ground and their houses.
The resident superintendent of the Mt. John Observatory, Allan Gilmore, told National Radio the sonic boom indicated the meteor was traveling "very low" and was probably between the size of a baseball and a basketball.
Witnesses said they saw a streak of light in the sky above the sparsely populated region, which then appeared to burn out.
Sonic booms are created when an object moves through the air faster than the speed of sound, about 700 miles per hour.
Christchurch police spokeswoman Maggie Leask said an unusual rock object found on a farm near where the object had streaked through the sky would be handed to the National Radiation Laboratory Wednesday for analysis.
A farmer who found the object, which measures 4 x 2 inches, in a field of his farm south of Christchurch, described it as like nothing he had ever seen before, she said.
A Christchurch Fire Communications spokesman said calls from the public began flooding in at 2:53 p.m., with people reporting windows rattling and the air "shaking."
"I saw the end of it, it was quite big and bright and it was just shooting across the sky, then the light went out," Matthew Miller, who was working about 50 miles south of Christchurch, told National Radio. "Then a minute later we heard the boom from it."
Richard Taylor, a member of the Hinds volunteer rural fire brigade west of Christchurch, said there were unconfirmed reports that an object had fallen from the sky into a paddock in the region, starting a small fire. But he said firefighters had not been called to respond to a fire.
Mt. John Observatory's Gilmore said reports from witnesses seemed to confirm the meteor burst into a "terminal fireball" while traveling over Canterbury.
Thicker air closer to the earth could have slowed it down to about 25,000 miles an hour, he said.
This rapid deceleration often causes meteors to break up.
Meteors low and bright enough to be seen during the day occur once every three to four years in New Zealand.
"If this had happened at night, it would have lit up the whole countryside," Gilmore added.
Space rock boomage bump!
Unusual rock? Maybe an old shuttle tile? That would be interesting.
BOOMp
That section of the report is DEFINITELY bogus then; actually, when you get small pieces of these hitting the ground, they land at room temperature, and NEVER start fires (the material doesn't retain heat well and the smaller pieces reach terminal velocity and just cool in the breeze as they fall in the lower atmosphere.) However people have seen so many bad movies showing glowing meteors landing that the idea takes hold that they land hot and start fires.
For any incident like this, any mention of a fire being started by pieces is a dead 100% certain giveaway the report is bogus.
This is the posted speed limit in celestial residential areas.
Y'know, I was going so fast that I didn't even see the sign.
Didn't mean to, but my dew claw got stuck in the accelerator pedal as I reached for another olive for my martini. Safety first, don't 'cha know. We canine aviators need to pay close attention to our in-flight bodily fluid chemistry.
I mean, it's not like I didn't wave to everybody...but if there is a speed limit, I am glad they are blaming it on a meteor, for a change. That excuse never seems to work for me. Nor does "I was cleaning it and it just sort-of went off." I have given up on that one too....almost.
"For any incident like this, any mention of a fire being started by pieces is a dead 100% certain giveaway the report is bogus."
It has nothing to do with their internal heat from reentry, but rather what they strike and how much energy is given off when their terminal velocity is immediately converted into heat.
Sonic boom: Democratic response to President Bush's speech.
Actually, I recall an interview with a metorite hunter who stated that they are actually a frosty, deep-space cold to the touch when they first hit the ground. The outer layers are indeed vaporized but what isn't stays frigid till after it lands.
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