Fire in the SkyS


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Eastern Oregonians urged to forage for meteorite scraps


Associated Press
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:24 UTC
Meteorite scientist Dick Pugh says Chicken Little may have had a point: The sky really is falling. Well, part of it, anyway.

At a recent talk here he urged people to look to their rooftops for pieces of the fireball that came thundering down on northeast Oregon at 5:31 a.m. on Feb. 19.

Pugh, with Portland State University's Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory, says he thinks it hit between Tollgate and Elgin but that its fragments could be widely spread.
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Oregon: Fireball in sky brings meteorite man to region

Samantha Bates
The East Oregonian
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:20 UTC
Dick Pugh enthralled about 50 people Tuesday night with his presentation on the fireball that lit up the sky on the morning of Feb. 19.

Adults and children crowded into the children's section of the Pendleton Public Library to hear Pugh, a scientist with the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory. He provided the latest facts on the meteor and gave suggestions about how to find pieces of the space rock.
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Oregon: So what happened to that meteorite that lit up the sky in February?

Michael Rollins
The Oregonian
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:09 UTC
The LaGrande Observer has a story where Dick Pugh, PSU prof and celestial expert extraordinaire, suggests where the bits ended up.

Pugh, who is with Portland State University's Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory, believes the meteorite hit somewhere between Tollgate and Elgin. He said its fragments could be as far east as the mouth of Lookingglass Creek and as far south as Summerville.

Image
©Dick Mason/Observer
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Canada: Meteorite may have hit near Parry Sound


The Canadian Press
Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:56 UTC
Astronomers at the University of Western Ontario are asking residents near the Central Ontario town of Parry Sound to help find meteorites that may have recently fallen in the area.

The astronomers have captured rare video of a meteor streaking through the Earth's atmosphere.

They are hoping people in the area can help recover one or more possible meteorites that may have hit the ground.
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Turkey: Meteorite lands in village; sent for analysis


Today's Zaman
Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:07 UTC
A small meteorite that recently landed in a village in Muğla's Fethiye district will be analyzed by the Mining Exploration Institute (MTA), stated an official from the region.

Fethiye Deputy District Governor Halil İbrahim Çomaktekin reported that the meteorite fell in the Türbe neighborhood of Yaka Village after a making a thunderous noise. "The muhtar [head] of the village called and informed us, saying that the meteorite was black. He is going to bring it to the city center for analysis. We'll have it analyzed by the MTA," Çomaktekin added.
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Meteor

Australia: Experts baffled by orange UFO

Andrew MacDonald
Gold Coast News
Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:39 UTC
What glows orange, scours the skyline and leaves a black plume of smoke?

Annette Van Zetten is not exactly sure what she saw shooting across the Tweed skyline on Wednesday evening, but it certainly grabbed her attention as well as the police and rescue authorities.

The Kingscliff woman was home entertaining friends about 5.30pm when she saw a bright orange object, seemingly not far from her Pacific Street home.

Fearing a plane was in trouble, Mrs Van Zetten's friend, Greg Swaney, called police, who immediately began searching the area with the aid of a crew from the RACQ CareFlight helicopter.

Mrs Van Zetten said she was sitting on her back deck when she spotted the unidentified flying object.
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Telescope

Mystery remains after a massive fireball smashed into southeastern Peru

Andrew Westoll
Globe and Mail
Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:28 UTC
After a massive fireball smashed into southeastern Peru last fall, scientists dismissed a shot-down spy satellite as the cause. But many questions remain about the unusual crater it left behind. Andrew Westoll reports

When the Pentagon announced last Monday that it had successfully shot down a wayward U.S. spy satellite, political-conspiracy theorists went wild. Officials called the cosmic potshot a matter of international security - the bus-sized satellite, too big to burn up on re-entry, was carrying more than 500 kilograms of toxic hydrazine gas - but America-watchers worldwide wondered aloud whether the satellite story was a pretext for the U.S. military to flex its space-racing muscles.

For me, though, the event reminded me not of the Star Wars debate, but instead whisked me back to a tiny farming village in southeastern Peru I had visited last November.
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Telescope

Arctic meteor: Another 'event of the century'

Ed Struzik
Edmonton Journal
Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:38 UTC
Murray Balsom was trying to launch a weather balloon when a huge fireball burst across the sky over his small Arctic village of Resolute. "This was humungous," he said of the gaseous light show he witnessed 10 days ago.

meteor
©Unknown
A Geminid meteor streaks across the sky against a field of star trails in this 1 1/2-minute exposure early Dec. 14, 2006, near Willow Beach, Arizona.
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Better Earth

Flashback Planetary Defense: Preventing a World of Trouble

Salvatore A. Vittorio
CSA
Fri, 25 Nov 2005 19:21 UTC
Our mission, should we choose to accept it: (1) Make up to six billion people understand the danger that faces this world. (2) Make them care enough. (3) Keep them caring long enough for it to matter. (4) Give them what they need to stop what's coming.

- Larry Niven, February 20, 2004 (from a presentation at the 2004 Planetary Defense Conference, sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics)
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Attention

Ice "meteor" nearly killed our kids

Tony Collins
Birmingham Mail
Sat, 23 Feb 2008 10:58 UTC
TEACHERS and pupils at a Birmingham school will this week be analysing fragments of "meteor" ice which crashed into a playing field, narrowly missing stunned pupils.

It ploughed into the field at Yardleys Secondary School, in Tyseley, yesterday.

The ice is believed to be a megacryo-meteor - the name given to abnormally large chunks of ice which fall from a clear sky.

Pieces of the ice have now been stored in a freezer at the specialist science college in Reddings Lane for possible further analysis.
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