[meteorite-list] Bright Light Observed in Alabama Sky

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/061129/light.shtml

Light in sky probably space junk or meteor
By Eric Fleischauer and Seth Burkett
The Decatur Daily (Alabama)
November 29, 2006

LACON - At 5:28 p.m. Tuesday, Morgan County 911 lines began ringing. A
brilliant lime-green light had appeared, callers said, possibly a downed
aircraft.

Callers to The Daily described the same thing, some saying they saw an
object falling from the sky and breaking into pieces before the light
appeared.

No airplanes crashed, and astronomers said the event was probably a
"bolide," a random meteor that could have been natural or man-made.

Morgan County Sheriff Chief Deputy Mike Corley said the reports came
from southern Morgan County and Cullman County. Firefighters and various
police agencies searched the area but found no crash site.

"(We found) no fires, no explosions or anything to explain it," said
Corley. "It was like a falling star."

Decatur astronomer Loren Ball said the bolide likely came from "space
junk." He said the North American Aerospace Defense Command is tracking
9,000 pieces of man-made junk including nuts, bolts, gloves and pieces
of expired satellites that, because of friction with the upper
atmosphere, are gradually approaching Earth.

The lime-green color, Ball said, is consistent with the color that would
come from burning aluminum as it entered Earth's atmosphere.

The fact that the object broke into pieces is no surprise, whether the
object was natural or man-made. Moving at 10 to 40 miles per second, it
would generate tremendous energy, much of it in the form of light. He
said a bolide the size of a golf ball generates enough light to trigger
calls to the media.

"Something like this happens every day, but there are not always people
around to see it," Ball said.

Space junk

According to some studies, there are 4 million pounds of space junk - as
many as 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter - in low-Earth orbit.
They provide a brilliant display on Earth, but can be hazardous to
astronauts.

A small speck of paint from a satellite shooting around the Earth once
dug a quarter-inch pit in a space shuttle window.

Earth's atmosphere extends 250 miles above its surface, Ball said, a
fact that forces the International Space Station and the Hubble Space
Telescope to periodically correct their orbit so they won't be pulled
into a downward spiral.

Gene Byrd, professor of astronomy at The University of Alabama, said the
sightings were too late to be explained by a meteor shower that took
place last week.

Bolide explanation

He said the composition of the bolide could explain its greenish color,
but the human eye might also explain it. The eye has greater sensitivity
to blue and green colors, he said.

Byrd's guess was that it was "a large, sporadic meteor." He said such
meteors occasionally emit a sonic boom, and usually are rock fragments
from the asteroid belt.

In the 1950s, he said, a small meteor actually struck a woman in
Sylacauga, sending her to the hospital with a severe bruise. Astronomers
believe a 10-mile-wide meteor that hit Mexico caused the extinction of
the dinosaurs, Byrd said.

Corley said he saw the event from his home.

"It did have an unusual color. It had a bright, glowing, lime-green
color to it," Corley said.

The Alabama sightings came a day after a similar green fireball was seen
in the skies above Australia.

Meteorologists there identified the object as a meteor, likely produced
as the Earth passed through the tail of the comet Tempel-Tuttle
according to news reports.

Last week, a Russian cosmonaut hit a golf ball into orbit from the
International Space Station as part of a publicity campaign to raise
money for the Russian space program.

The golf ball joined the other pieces of space junk that will eventually
burn up in the upper atmosphere.