[meteorite-list] OT: Concorde contrail from Wales making the rounds AGAIN

[Robert Verish]

Another tidbit which shows how this kind of misinformation can "snowball":

My story takes place several years after this fiasco appeared in the Press. In 2006 I was was contacted by certain astronomers at the Griffith Observatory to review the design plans for the proposed meteorite displays
that were going into the "refurbished G.O."

Those meteorite displays were expertly done and I had nothing but praise for the planned design.  But before I departed, they wanted to show me the designs for the "Comets and Meteors" display which they were very proud of (but I hadn't been a consultant).  

Lo and behold, very prominent in the center of the display was this image of the "Concorde contrail", but it was being used as an example of a "meteorite-dropping fireball"!  Before I could think of a more tactful phrase, I blurted-out, "You can't use that image; it's been debunked!"

Unfortunately, that ruffled some feathers. And I didn't score any points when I detailed how Rob confirmed that it was a contrail from a specific Concorde flight.  They got defensive.  They were deciding to side with NASA's opinion, instead of my "story".  But when they found out that my "story" was true, then they were really put-out. 

Needless to say, I wasn't invited back - "my services were no longer needed"...
... but they did replace the debunked image with a genuine fireball image.

- Bob V. 


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[meteorite-list] OT: Concorde contrail from Wales making the rounds AGAIN
MexicoDoug mexicodoug at aim.com
Fri Sep 9 17:49:36 EDT 2011


http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article147272.ece

I remember this scandal; you got to have a good laugh when the British
tabloid, The Sun, pokes fun at NASA for screwing up by sticking it up
as the Astronomy picture of the day and calling it an awesome fireball
(which was not claimed by Jonathan Burnett who was skateboarding and
pulled out his camera to snap a few shots and emailed them to NASA -
super reflexes!):

"NASA boffins who hailed a British lad’s photo as a dramatic snap of an
exploding meteor were exposed as duffers last night."

Classic!

With the Concorde, the whole thing was further made interesting in that
Stradling continued to explain that the Concorde fired up it main
engines right about at that point to achieve supersonic flight in the
typical flight plan, so it is possible that the latger "head" observed
in the Sunlight just happened to form with perfect lighting from that
perspective to enhance the fiery look of the photo.

Rob was tipped of by an aircraft enthusiast, Mike Stradling who
immediately explained in The Sun that it was the Concorde which
regularly flew over there and gave that appearance. Steve Salter also
got press at the time supporting the same theory. Rob checked the
airline timetable and posted there was a flight right then!

Marco, before all of this, was immediately skeptical of NASA's theory:

"a sofa-sized rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet
Earth and disintegrated...one of the more spectacular meteor images yet
recorded."

Marco explained its appearance as contrails:

"It is a bit worrying that apparently, within the team responsible for
the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, nobody seems to have taken the
care to contact an expert meteor astronomer first before declaring this
publicly a certified 'daylight fireball' on their website," Langroek
said. "NASA did not live up to its reputation" as "the major
representative" for professional astronomers worldwide, he said."

Kindest wishes
Doug

-----Original Message-----
From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>
To: Meteorite List <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Fri, Sep 9, 2011 4:50 pm
Subject: [meteorite-list] OT: Concorde contrail from Wales making the
rounds AGAIN


Marco is correct. If you check the archives from umpteen years ago, you
will see that I not only posted that it was a Concorde flight out of
Heathrow,
I believe I indicated the flight number and departure time. --Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Marco
Langbroek
Sent: Friday, September 09, 2011 8:07 AM
To: Meteorite List
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorite, satellite or...? 9/1/11, ,
around 9.30 pm, Mykolaiv district, Odessa - Ukraine

Jay Tate wrote:

> The photograph was taken by a Welsh schoolboy in South Wales in 
> October 2003. It was claimed to be a meteor, but turned out to be a
> sun-illuminated aircraft contrail.

More precisely, the contrail of one of the last Concorde flights.

- Marco