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

[Alexander Seidel]

> If you are refering to the SL-12 r/b 2003-060F (#28199): this reportedly
> decayed on May 13th and nothing decayed since.

I believe NORAD is fairly reliable with these informations, and then again
most (if not all) of the classified near earth orbit satellites for military
purposes, for which no two-line-element data sets from NASA are officially
available, are under "visual control" from a bunch of dedicated satellite
trackers worldwide by virtue of their usually big dimensions and hence
brightness alone (see e.g. the heavens-above site on the internet). This
means almost any real optically spectacular decay from artificial orbit
should well be "judgeable" against natural fireballs, and as the satellite
orbital parameters are well known until very shortly before the end of
lifetime (...where they still won´t change very dramatically to produce a
very different orbit), there are quite narrow constraints when judging about
the origin of a notable fireball phenomenon - as to whether it was caused by
a decaying satellite or a big meteor.

Alex
Berlin/Stade, Germany