[meteorite-list] re: Mystery Surrounds Green Meteor in Australia
Matson, Robert
ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com
Wed May 17 13:55:40 EDT 2006
Hi All,
Regarding reentering manmade satellites or "space junk", Ron
replied:
> It is more common than you think. For example, in the past
> month, 9 pieces of space junk have reentered into Earth's
> atmosphere.
Bolide events outnumber manmade debris reentries by thousands
to one. How many on this list have ever seen a satellite
reentry? I'd be surprised if the answer is more than one.
On the other hand, I think pretty much everyone has seen at
least one bolide in his/her lifetime. I've seen more than a
dozen, and despite ACTIVELY looking for satellite reentries --
which are predictable, by the way -- I've never seen one.
Ron checked for potential matches to the latest Australian
event:
> There was a SL-12 debris reentry scheduled for May 15, which
> may be a possibility for the meteor observed in Australia.
It's good that you checked, but in this case it was probably
overkill: the trajectory was from east to west, eliminating
all but a handful of highly retrograde objects.
--Rob
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