[meteorite-list] MISSOURI, ILLINOIS FIREBALL ALSO SEEN IN KANSAS, MINNESOTA

[Sterling K. Webb]

Hi, List,


    We now have reports from all or parts of Missouri,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, and Minnesota 
of the Superbowl Meteor (3rd Quarter)!
    Here's the Kansas report (below). Interesting that it
contains accounts of rumbling and popping noises when
the object being described is likely 400 miles or more away! 
It must be an instance of the much-argued-about indirect
generation of meteor sounds, electrophonically:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast26nov_1.htm
    The reports seem to span about 1200 kilometers
which my rusty trigonometry tells me must mean that 
the object "lit up" at a minimum of 42 miles up, probably
at 50+ miles up. It must have been big, or steep, or fast,
or all three in some degree.
    I'm beginning to suspect it was a big one. We have two
factors that "inhibit" the likely number of observations: 
1.) very cold weather, and 2.) the distraction of the Superbowl!
Yet, there seem to be no shortages of reports. It was even
called a "flood" of reports in the St. Louis area.

Sterling K. Webb

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/16630902.htm

Aerial sight was a meteor
One mystery remains . where did the falling object end up?
By KEVIN MURPHY
The Kansas City Star
    That dazzling object seen falling from the sky 
over Missouri, Kansas and other Midwestern states 
Sunday evening was a meteor, though where it 
ended up is uncertain, experts said.
    Many people reported seeing the round, orange 
object or hearing a thunderlike sound, some of them 
while watching the Super Bowl on TV.
    Astronomers and space buffs said Monday the 
description was consistent with either a meteor or 
debris that sometimes falls to Earth from old spacecraft.
    The North American Aerospace Defense Command, 
however, determined Monday that the object was not 
man-made but rather a meteor, spokesman Michael 
Kucharek said. The command monitors the re-entry 
of man-made debris.
    People from Kansas to Minnesota to Indiana 
saw the object. Locally, the time of the reports 
varied from shortly after 7 p.m. to closer to 8 p.m., 
indicating there may have been more than one.
    Tom Pisciotta of Kansas City said he was 
driving home on the Kansas Turnpike south 
of Emporia when he saw a large orange fireball 
fall from the sky and disappear over the horizon
to the northeast. It had a tinge of green, he said.
    Patty Brasell was heading home early from 
a Super Bowl party at 151st Street and Mission 
Road in Leawood when she and a friend also 
saw the falling round, orange object with a bright 
white tail.
    "It was an incredible sight and really wonderful," 
Brasell said.
    Several people in the Kearney and Liberty areas 
said they heard periodic popping and rumbling 
sounds coming from outside.
    "I thought it was a neighbor shooting off fireworks," 
said Richard Specker of Kearney. Others thought 
the sound was an explosion.
    Russ Bixby of Leavenworth County was not 
far from home when he saw the meteor fall and 
then disappear with a flash, as if it had hit ground.
"It was one of the more impressive things I have 
ever seen," Bixby said.
    Randy Korotev, research associate professor 
of Earth and planetary science at Washington 
University in St. Louis, said a flash doesn't mean 
a meteor landed. Meteors can flash while bursting 
apart in the sky, he said.
    The rumbling sounds people heard, he said, 
were probably sonic booms.
    Meteors that reach the Earth are usually never 
found because the Earth is covered mostly by 
water and undeveloped land.
    Steve Arnold, noted for finding a pallasite 
meteorite in Kansas in 2005, said pinpointing 
where a meteorite lands is very difficult.
    "These things will burn out 12 miles or so 
above the Earth," Arnold said. "If someone 
is in Emporia and it looks like it disappears 
over the horizon, it could literally be in Illinois. 
It's an optical illusion that it looks super near. 
It sounds like you guys got a light show a 
dozen other states got."