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From: Kenny Young <task@fuse.net>
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 17:06:12 -0800
Fwd Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:38:03 -0500
Subject: Increasing Fireball Sightings - AP Article

More Fireballs Seen in the West
Sunday, February 15, 1998
The Associated Press

By MARTHA BELLISLE Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) -- The phone lines to Denver's Museum of Natural
History have been buzzing since a fireball streaked across the
Colorado sky last month.

That flash of light, caught on a homeowner's security camera, was
not an isolated incident; it was followed by at least four more
fireball sightings, said Jack Murphy of the museum's geology
department. He hopes to find pieces of the celestial objects for
the museum's collection.

As new reports of sightings keep coming in, scientists are
debating the meteorites' origin and the meaning of the increased
activity. There is more at stake, they say, than where a piece of
rock fell to the ground.

"These little things are the little brothers and sisters of the
bigger ones," said Doug Revelle, a scientist at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. "The reason for the interest is eventually a
big one is going to hit, a real big one. And the question is: Can
we protect ourselves?"

If a large meteor hit Earth, "life as we know it would be very
different," he said.

When a fireball fell into the Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 11, a
Front Range resident's home security camera documented the bright
light and shadows along with the sonic boom caused by the
apparent meteorite, Revelle said.

Scientists will use the time between the flash and boom -- 132
seconds -- to help determine where the meteorite touched down,
assuming it didn't burn out before landing.

Then, at about noon on Jan. 27, a commercial airline pilot flying
over Wyoming spotted "a ball of flame trailing smoke."

"He reported he did get some turbulence from the object," Jim
Patton, operations supervisor for the Federal Aviation
Administration's flight service center in Casper told the
Rawlins, Wyo., Daily Times. "He saw the debris and felt the shock
wave from it."

Residents in Breckenridge, Colo., also reported seeing that
daytime fireball. Murphy said they believe the space rock was
heading south to north and landed just north of Hanna, Wyo.

That night, another fireball broke into the Earth's atmosphere.

Scientists believe that meteorite came down in southern Colorado
or northern New Mexico, Murphy said. People in Breckenridge
spotted that fireball, too.

"That one was seen traveling east to west," Murphy said. "It has
been a long time since we've seen one moving like that."

Another meteorite was seen and heard at sunrise in eastern
Colorado on Jan. 30. And Murphy is investigating a report that
came in earlier this month.

So what's happening?

"I don't know," Murphy said. "We can't attribute it to anything.
But it is unusual to have so much activity."

University of Denver astronomer Robert Stencel suggested that
Earth may be getting pelted with pieces of the Hale-Bopp comet.
Early in January the Earth passed through the part of space the
comet had traveled.

"Comets are like kids with muddy boots," Stencel said. "They
leave a trail of debris in their wakes."

Meteorites from asteroids breaking out of the orbital belts
between Mars and Jupiter are made up of metals, mostly iron. A
meteorite from a comet would have a lighter element composition,
Stencel said.

Such space debris is rare and would be of great scientific value,
he said. Scientists will test the composition of the meteorites
-- if they can get their hands on them.

Revelle said he's excited about the meteorite activity, but he
can't account for it.

The reports describe a smoke trail following the fireballs -- or
bolides, which are exploding meteors.

"The smoke trail is an indication that the object was quite big
and strong," Revelle said. "Over the globe we see objects that
are about a meter across an average of only 12 times a year."

Last Oct. 10, a meteorite crashed near West Texas and New Mexico;
then on Dec. 9, a large fireball crashed near Greenland, and on
Dec. 13, a meteorite was seen across hundreds of miles, from
Minnesota and Wisconsin south into Iowa and northern Missouri.

Revelle said history may give us some insight into the meaning of
the increase in fireball activity.

About 60 million years ago, an asteroid crashed into the Earth
and kicked up enough dust to blot out the sun. Some scientists
believe this resulted in the death of more than 80 percent of all
animals and led to the extinction of dinosaurs.

"These events seem to occur every 60 million years, give or take
10 million," he said. "We're about three million years short of
60 million.

"In order to defend the Earth from a large meteor, we would need
to know about it while it was months away to deflect it," he
said. "If we knew about it when it was weeks away, it would be
too late."
End of article

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