[meteorite-list] re: Mystery Surrounds Green Meteor in Australia

[Marco Langbroek]

 > Astronomers are uncertain whether the object was a piece of space junk
 > or a meteorite, however Jim Barclay from the Maidenwell Observatory
 > suspects it was part of a satellite or some rocket casing.
 >
 > "The description that I received from phone calls was that it was of a
 > greeny blue colour which typically suggests something metallic," Mr
 > Barclay said.
 >
 > "Over 20,000 pieces of space junk are currently hurtling around the
 > earth and they have to come back down. If this had landed on someone's
 > house though it could have killed someone," he said.


I don't understand why space junk, rather than a meteoric fireball, is almost 
always being picked out as the most likely explanation by these observatory 
spokesmen whenever a bright fireball has been sighted. The point is that space 
junk decays are relatively rare compared to meteoric fireballs - so they are 
picking the least likely option.

Moreover, these commenters do not seem to be aware that you can actually *check* 
whether something is a space junk decay or not. That stuff is being tracked! 
Virtually everything larger than a football in Low Earth Orbit has been catalogued.

In this case there is no reason at all to consider a space junk decay, not in 
the observation itself (the colour argument is nonsense), nor when checking 
pertinent sources for space junk decays.

- Marco

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Dr Marco Langbroek
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS)

e-mail: meteorites at dmsweb.org
private website http://home.wanadoo.nl/marco.langbroek
DMS website http://www.dmsweb.org
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