[meteorite-list] YAMAQMA subtitle:Possible Meteorite Lands In Fluvanna
Darren Garrison
cynapse at charter.net
Sat Sep 23 14:36:50 EDT 2006
Meaning "Yet Another Meteorwrong And Questionable Meteorite Authoity", of
course.
http://post-journal.com/articles.asp?articleID=7200
Possible Meteorite Lands In Fluvanna
By PATRICK L. FANELLI
9/23/2006 - FLUVANNA Fluvanna resident Brenda Barden doesnt know for sure if
whatever left a smoldering hole in her backyard was a meteorite from outer
space.
It seems to be a pretty good guess, though.
We think thats what it was, or what was left of a falling star, said Ms.
Barden, a resident of Old Fluvanna Road.
Whatever it was left a hole roughly three feet deep and the size of a manhole in
her backyard a couple weeks ago and set fire to a tree trunk that was buried
underground. She said she smelled it during the night and thought a neighbor was
having a bonfire nearby but sure enough, there was a hole there the next day
that wasnt there before.
It left a big hole in our backyard, Ms. Barden said. The fire department
came and put it out. It had burned all night I guess.
Gary Nelson, amateur astronomer and president of the Marshal Martz Memorial
Astronomical Association, said it might indeed have been a meteorite a piece
of rocky debris that penetrated the atmosphere and struck the surface of the
Earth.
Thats not uncommon, Nelson said. Eventually, it burns down to the size of
a rock, but it hits with such an impact that it can leave a hole in ground.
Meteoroids which are any sort of small debris in the solar system hit the
Earths atmosphere all the time at speeds of up to five miles or more a second,
though it is far less common for them to penetrate the atmosphere and reach the
Earths surface. Its even less likely for anyone to notice.
What they do is they hit our atmosphere, and what will happen is, if they
don't come in at a certain angle, it will skip like a stone going across water
and light up across the sky, Nelson said.
When the object leaves behind a fiery, glowing trail, they are referred to as
meteors or shooting stars, but when one reaches the ground, they are referred to
as meteorites. They dont have to be very large to penetrate the atmosphere
without completely burning up, according to Nelson.
If it hits the atmosphere at just the right angle, it doesnt have to be very
large, he said.
Scientists estimate that 500 meteorites as small as a pebble and as big as a
soccer ball hit the ground every year, sometimes causing damage to property. In
fact, the famous 1908 Tunguska Event involved a meteorite or a small asteroid
causing an explosion in Siberia that was equivalent to roughly 10 megatons of
TNT and scorched an area 30 miles in diameter.
According to Nelson, if it really was a meteorite that caused the smoldering
hole in Ms. Bardens backyard, it was certainly a noteworthy and rare
occurrence.
It was probably burning about 18 to 20 hours. By that time, you couldnt
really see anything. Everything was burnt, Ms. Barden said. (The fire
department) had no explanation. It was just a hole. Its in the middle of
nowhere.
Send comments to pfanelli at post-journal.com
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