Posted on 04/01/2004 9:27:05 AM PST by CherylBower
"Suddenly there was this flash, it's the only way I can describe it – it was so bright it was a white flash and it lit everything up. It was like somebody had turned on 50,000 spotlights."
That's how Elsa Nelms described the bright light in the Australian outback around 7 p.m. local time last night, as a huge fireball reportedly crashed to Earth somewhere in the state of Queensland.
"We all looked up in the sky and there was a white smoke trail coming from the Northeast – like a firecracker smoke trail but it was too high to even be an aircraft," the Winton resident told the Australian Associated Press.
Some citizens thought they might be under attack.
"[My friend] thought we were getting bombed and it just come over this big fire with a big tail about the size of a semi-trailer and we heard this big explosion," a witness said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "The ground was just vibrating and there was this big vapor trail and it stayed in the air for about 10 minutes ... we didn't know what was happening."
Grazier Peter Crombie told ABC the light show was fantastic.
1966 meteor seen above Wrightwood, Calif. (NASA photo: James W. Young)
"It just lit up the whole garden here like an arc light ... with that really brilliant light," he said. "I was talking to one lady or two ladies driving along, they said it lit up the whole inside of the car. You could just see everything you know, you could honestly read a newspaper."
"It actually shook buildings," George Schafer of Winton told the Townsville Bulletin. "There was a bang like you wouldn't believe."
Mike Barton of Australian Search and Rescue says the pilot of a Virgin Blue passenger jet reported the unidentified object flying over him at about 25,000 feet, and told ABC it "looks like some sort of meteor space re-entry."
Murray Smith from the town of Roma described his experience to the network.
"I actually had my back to it, but somebody yelled out what's that?" he said. "I looked around and I said what the hell is it? It was a big fireball. I don't know how big you'd say it was, as big as the sun anyway with the front end of it and a pretty long comet like tail on it. But all I can say was it was big. Nothing like I'd ever seen, and I've seen a few satellites and this and that, but I'd never seen anything as big as that one."
Back in Winton, Nelms told AAP her house shook and the entire town either witnessed or felt the event, as phones instantly started ringing and people jumped out of their homes.
"The neighbors came over and they were white-faced," she said.
Nelms said she spoke with others some 80 miles away from Winton who saw the flash but didn't feel any vibration.
"There's probably is a big hole somewhere – but had this fallen on Winton we probably wouldn't be sitting here talking about it," she said.
While no one has confirmed what the object was, officials suspect it was a meteorite, though the location of impact has yet to be determined.
The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God
by Hugh, Ph.D. Ross
Book Description "THE HEAVENS ARE TELLING THE GLORY OF GOD; AND THE FIRMAMENT PROCLAIMS HIS HANDIWORK."-Psalm 19:1 Few of us can venture outside on a clear, dark night and not pause for a silent, reflective look at the stars. For countless centuries people have felt a sense of wonder about the heavens. How did our universe come into being? Has it always been here? Is our existence due to random chance or supernatural design? Is God "out there"? If so, what is He like?
Traditionally, the church has answered such questions with Scripture, while science has contributed theories and formulas of its own. Torn between a deep respect for church doctrines and an intellectual need for answers that support what their senses are telling them, many Christians have avoided such discussions altogether.
Actually, the two sides are no longer that far apart. In The Creator and the Cosmos, astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross explains how recent scientific measurements of the universe have clearly pointed to the existence of God. Whether you're looking for scientific support for your faith or new reasons to believe, The Creator and the Cosmos will enable you to see the Creator for yourself.
"A compelling summary of scientific evidence that supports belief in God and the Word of God, written on a level even the non-technically trained lay person can understand."-Walter L. Bradley, professor and head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University
"In The Creator and the Cosmos, Dr. Hugh Ross shows how recent cosmological discoveries clearly indicate the universe was created with many characteristics fine-tuned for our life. Though many scientists may resist the logical conclusion, the Creator implied by the scientific evidence is exactly consistent with the God revealed in the Bible."-Dr. Kyle M. Cudworth, Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago
"The Creator and the Cosmos constitutes a remarkable journey through the most recent scientific findings, providing overwhelming support for design in our universe. Dr. Ross has documented the evidence for design in our universe in such a thorough yet readable style that it will prove to be of great value both to the science student as well as to the interested layperson."-Dr. David H. Rogstad, physicist, Caltech Jet Propulsion Laboratory TABLE OF CONTENTS: Chapter 1: The Awe-Inspiring Night Sky Chapter 2: My Skeptical Inquiry Chapter 3: The Discovery of the Century Chapter 4: The Matter Mystery Chapter 5: The Beautiful Fit Chapter 6: Einstein's Challenge Chapter 7: Closing Loopholes-Round One Chapter 8: Closing Loopholes-Round Two Chapter 9: Science Discovers Time Before Time Chapter 10: A God Outside of Time, But Knowable Chapter 11: A Brief Look at A Brief History of Time Chapter 12: A Modern-Day Goliath Chapter 13: The Divine Watchmaker Chapter 14: A "Just Right" Universe Chapter 15: Earth-The Place for Life Chapter 16: Building Life Chapter 17: Extra-Dimensional Power Chapter 18: The Point
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