Showing posts with label Dorchester County Maryland meteor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dorchester County Maryland meteor. Show all posts

31 March 2009

East Coast Event NOT A ROCKET 31MAR09

NOT A ROCKET
by Dr. Tony Phillips
SpaceWeather.com 31MAR09

News reports that a Russian rocket fell over the US mid-Atlantic coast on Sunday evening, March 29th, are probably incorrect. A spent Russian rocket booster did reenter Earth's atmosphere on March 29th, but apparently not over the USA. According to data published by US Strategic Command, the reentry occurred near Taiwan (24° N, 125° E) at 11:57 p.m. EDT. So what were those lights in the sky over Maryland and Virginia two hours earlier? Eyewitness accounts of the Atlantic Coast fireball are consistent with a meteoritic bolide--a random asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding in flight.
http://www.spaceweather.com/

East Coast Event May have been Space Junk 30MAR09


Soyuz-FG rocket booster AP/NASA photo, Bill Ingalls

Blame 'space junk' for those flashes and booms
March 30, 2009 - 11:45am
WASHINGTON - The flashing lights and booming sounds that astounded people up and down the East Coast Sunday night...
(read more)...http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1636442

30 March 2009

Night sky phenomenon remains unexplained 30MAR09

Night sky phenomenon remains unexplained (29MAR09)
Richmond Times Dispatch
By Bill Mckelway
Published: March 30, 2009

No one's sure what caused last evening's flashes in the sky. The National Weather Service said today it has seen no evidence of any naturally occurring phenomenon to explain reports of a bright flash of light in eastern Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.... (More)http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BOOM30_20090329-234409/244022/

Streaking lights, explosions reported Dorchester County, Md., to the Virginia/North Carolina border 29MAR09

By Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot© March 30, 2009

Were they meteors? A comet? UFOs?
People from Maryland to Hampton Roads heard loud explosions and saw brilliant, streaking lights in the sky Sunday night.
There was no immediate explanation, the National Weather Service office in Wakefield said. The Virginia Beach 911 center had numerous calls waiting just before 10 p.m., a supervisor said.
The Weather Service said reports were made from Dorchester County, Md., to the Virginia/North Carolina border. People said they saw a streak in the sky and heard an explosion.
“It was orange, like a fireball,” said Steve Wagner, who lives in the Great Bridge area of Chesapeake and said what he saw was too close to be a shooting star. Wagner was outside cooking with family when he saw the streak. He said he went inside when his daughter called, then heard an explosion that sounded like thunder.
Chris Wamsley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Wakefield office, said there could be various causes of the explosions and lights. A team of people is looking into what happened, he said.
Lindsey Hosek of the Great Neck area of Virginia Beach was jogging along the water with her dog when the sky lit up, she said.
“The bright light at first terrified me because I thought somebody was shining a light on me, and then I saw it, and I was in complete awe because it was so beautiful,” she said.
Then she saw something that looked like a comet moving low toward the ground; it was blue in front followed by orange and appeared to be the shape and size of a refrigerator.
“It was just so low. It was like where a bird should be,” she said. “It was definitely heading downward.”
She was on the phone with a friend a minute later when she heard an explosion.
Kenneth Martin of Chesapeake’s South Norfolk neighborhood said he saw what appeared to be lightning, then the sky turned blue.
Then, he said, a white ball of fire shot close to the ground and appeared to burn out. He said he’s sure it was a meteor.
“It was so vivid in the sky, blinking,” he said. “It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”
No damage was reported, the Weather Service said.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 446-2957, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com