[meteorite-list] Alaska Residents Say They Saw Meteor

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/010905/sta_20050109013.shtml

Residents say they saw meteor
Juneau Empire State News (Alaska)
January 9, 2005

JUNEAU - Some Juneau residents saw a fiery ball traversing the sky at
about 7:45 a.m. Friday.

Apparently, it was a meteor. The comet Machholz has been visible with
the naked eye recently, but it would be just a fuzzy, small light even
with a telescope, astronomy buffs said.

Karen Ross said she saw the light to the north as she was driving north
on Egan Drive near the Pioneers' Home. The light was large enough that
she thought at first it could be an airplane about to crash.

"I see this big ball of light coming down," she said. "There were
flashes of green and red. It was really colorful. The sky was clear. It
was gorgeous."

Ross said the light was huge and round. It streaked quickly from the
west to the east in a steep downward arc, and soon wasn't visible behind
the mountains. There was a little trail of light behind it, she said.

KINY Radio reported hearing from a Yakutat man who saw it. The light
wasn't noticed at the U.S. customs station in Haines or reported to the
mounties in Whitehorse, those agencies said.

Meteors are pieces of rock or space debris that enter the Earth's
atmosphere, heat up from the friction, and become visible. Meteors often
are called falling stars or shooting stars. If the debris hits the
Earth, it is called a meteorite.