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

[Chris Peterson]

Our cameras have caught at least four space junk reentries is five years, 
all of which also produced witness reports. In that time we've recorded over 
1000 fireballs and 35000 bright meteors.

I've personally seen a handful of fireballs, but no space junk.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matson, Robert" <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 11:55 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] re: Mystery Surrounds Green Meteor in Australia


> 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