Clareton, TX - Meteorite 760 Pounds One of the Largest ever found in Texas
A 760 pound meteorite, a chondrite, has been found near Clareton, Texas reports Ruben Garcia, a meteorite hunter from Arizona. The meteorite has been named Clareton (c) as it is the third meteorite found in the area.
Clareton (c), Texas Chondrite Meteorite pictured with the finders, DeeDee and Frank Hommel.
photo credit- Ruben Garcia
De
760 lb Texas Meteorite - The largest Chondrite ever found in Texas Posted to YouTube by Ruben Garcia 7,442 views
2 x Major USA fireball events: Sunday 06-March-2016
reported by meteordetective
INITIAL POSTING: Mon-07-Mar-2016: 07:20GMT
Update 6) Tue 08-Mar-2015, 19:35Z
A video of what might be a third event at 21:45 Pacific has been posted to Youtube on XenonRocket's Channel. I'm unable (no e-mail address available) to contact the YouTuber directly, but here's the embedded video. According to the directions & location provided, the meteor seems to be travelling NE->SW.
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Update 5) Tue-08-Mar-2015, 05:00Z
Overnight, I had a witness from the Dallas event e-mail me a full set of answers to the Sightings Questionnaire, which was invaluable in assessing the Texas sighting of 20:45 Central Time on Sunday 6-March-2016.
It would appear to have been a large bolide (-4 mag.) travelling South-North on a moderate descending trajectory. The witness described the bolide as "Light orange in front with blue long tail. Very blue almost totally round in front then narrowing tail. Not like a far away shooting star." Note the use of the word "round". With regard to size, the witness states that it was: "Rounded front part was about size of thumb" (at arm's length), so the bolide was clearly large in size.
I'm still struggling to find any photos or videos of the event, so if you should find any, please let me know?
Thank you.
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Update 4) Mon-07-Mar-2015, 19Z43.
Second confirmation that the 8:15 pm is a distinct and separate (and I believe to be space-trash at this point) event - compared to the slightly later 20:26 event (which looks like a proper fireball). Second witness suggests that the space-trash landed east of route 101 - after coming-in at a steep angle.
No media coverage??
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Update 3) Mon-07-Mar-2016, 18Z53.
Well, it seems that at least one of the California events was something man-made re-entering our atmosphere. I've also had a report by e-mail of a potentially earlier event - around 8:10pm Pacific Time. Here's the first video I've seen of what I strongly suspect is NOT a meteor/meteorite (at least for one of the California sightings).
It looks like 2 events, 2 hours apart. Initial reports are that the California fireball' was very large, although the 15-20 seconds sighting-length of the CA event suggests space-trash? More data needed, please!
a) Texas, 20:45 Central Time / 02:45GMT
b) California, 20:25 Pacific Time / 04:25 GMT
I've checked by telephone with Vandenburg AF Base and they were not aware of any launches etc.
AMS' pending queue does not reflect the traffic that LunarMeteoriteHunters has been receiving, but AMS has both events in pending status.
END UPDATE
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Website traffic & a couple of e-mails suggest that there's been a major event over California USA on Sunday evening at +/- 8:30PM local time, with a second report from Dallas, TX for a similar time (don't know whether the events are related/same at this point).
If you witnessed this event and/or have images / video which you are happy to be posted (with credit) here on Lunar Meteorite Hunters website/blog, then please e-mail meteordetective@gmail.com with the following information, if possible.
1) Time and location of sighting
2) Angle from observer to the object in the sky - i.e. 90 deg. = overhead to 0 deg. = ground-level.
3) Estimated elevation/height of the object(s)
4) Apparent direction of travel: decent angle (e.g. 45 deg. down) + azimuth (N to S etc)
5) Estimated size of the object(s) - using your thumb/thumbnail at arm's length as a comparison.
6) Velocity: How many seconds to cross what portion (e.g. 1/2) of the sky
Thank you for your contributions and information. My intention is to post more information, along with the best images & videos - once I have more detail.
2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!
Fantastic Mr. George Hall!!! And Nancy Atkinson for reporting! Way to go! -LunarMeteorite*Hunter, Tokyo, Japan
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(click on image to enlarge)
Wunderwurld und Alice
THULTH ΔB Twinkle, twinkle, little bat! How I wonder where you're at! Up above the world you fly, Like a teatray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle little bat! How I wonder where you're at!- Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) 2012 THE Year of Meteors!
Astronomer / Weatherman Jim Gamble of El Paso, Texas - the operator and owner of ELP Allsky has died at age 60 on 15AUG2012
- Funeral Service Announced
Funeral Service Monday, August 20, 2012 9:00am - 9:45am @ Christ Our Redeemer Lutheran Church 2500 George Dieter Dr El Paso, TX 79936-3203
Jim Gamble (l) Thomas Dorman (R)
After a full night of sky gazing... Those were the nights!
Some of you that read this may have had the pleasure of knowing or working with Jim Gamble. Jim has passed from this earthly life into Heaven, The Infinite Dimension.
Rejoice in this news, as Jim now is.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Jan, mother Molly and his two sons Chris and Steve (and their families).
I have considered Jim a close and good friend, knowing him now for over three years, we spent daily Skype telephone calls sometimes lasting 8-10 hours! He was a very smart man with extreme motivation and skills. He was a true living man, a teacher, a friend, a loving father and husband.
Jim you were a blessing! A true bolide!
He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered. RIP, Jim Gamble! Amen!
Dirk Ross...Tokyo
Jim Gamble - Your Eye On El Paso - Tinseltown CBS Live 4
GAMBLE James A. Gamble, born December 30, 1951 in Athens, Georgia, went to be with our Lord on Wednesday, August 15, 2012. He moved to El Paso when he was six years old. Jim attended Bliss Elementary, Ross Middle School, graduated from Burges High School, and then enlisted in the United States Air Force. In 1983, James began his career in weather broadcasting after working for El Paso Natural Gas for ten years. He pursued other interests after leaving television in 2003. Most recently he was a contract weather observer for the FAA. He is survived by his wife, Jan; their son, Chris and wife Angela and their four children; his son, Steve and wife Lisa and their two children. He is also survived by his mother, Molly. The Gamble family will receive friends and relatives on Sunday, August 19, 2012 from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Funeraria Del Angel Martin East. Funeral Service will be held on Monday, August 20, 2012 at 9:00 am at Christ our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 2500 George Dieter Drive. Interment will immediately follow at Fort Bliss National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Multi-Language Publications, 2500 George Dieter Drive, El Paso, Texas 79936. This ministry publishes the gospel in 45 languages around the world. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/elpasotimes/obituary.aspx?n=james-gamble&pid=159261653#fbLoggedOut JAMES A. GAMBLE
Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas, USA Meteor 12:30 AM CST 28NOV2011
Fireball south of Angleton, Texas spotted. It seemed unusually close and it's color was green at the tail and orange/red at the front. Movement was from west to east and was observed for less than two seconds. It was much more luminos than any stars around it. -Johnathan Thank you Johnathan!
Any other sighting reports? Please report: Date and Time of event? Location name (town,city) where you were when saw the meteor? Start and Stop location in sky? Direction of movement? Duration of Event (seconds)? Brightness ( in comparison with Venus, Moon, Sun) color, sounds? Photos? Videos? please email LunarMeteoriteHunter@gmail.com Your reports make it possible for all to check what they saw as well. Thank you! 2011 The Year of Meteors!
MBIQ (Meteor Bot Internet Query) Indicates Green Meteor Outbreak in Florida, Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama 25SEP2011
We need your sighting reports to confirm; thank you:
Date and Time of event? Location name (town,city) where you were when saw the meteor? Start and Stop location in sky? Direction of movement? Duration of Event (seconds)? Brightness ( in comparison with Venus, Moon, Sun) color, sounds? Photos? Videos? please emailLunarMeteoriteHunter@gmail.com Your reports make it possible for all to check what they saw as well. Thank you! 2011 The Year of Meteors!
Meteor Event 1 (Florida - Daytime): Milton, Florida Meteor ~7:30 EDT 25SEP2011
I was driving east on hwy 90 in milton florida around 7:30 pm 9/25/11 when a bright green light came shooting across the sky. It started at the clouds and shot down to the ground. It almost looked like a green shooting star
-Matthew Brown Thank you Matthew!
Meteor Event 2 (Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas - Daytime): Baton Rouge, Louisiana Meteor USA 7:21 CDT PM Sept 25, 2011
It was bright red-orange, with a little blue and gold. It lasted two or three long seconds, traveling westward, it was bright as fireworks in the early evening sky I guess you can say, and before it shot out of view, sparks, or pieces seemed to break from it, as though breaking apart. It almost seemed mechanical because of the color. Thanks!-JoAnn Thank you JoAnn!
We driving on interstate 45 headed south and in the southeast sky the was a large bright falling object. It was still daylight and the object seemed to move slowly before it disappeared. -Frank I. Thank you Frank!
Baton Rouge, LA Green Meteor 7:20 pm CDT
In back yard and saw meteor for a few seconds. White with tail and green leading edge. Looked fairly close. -Ken Armstrong Thank you Ken!
Pass Christian, Mississippi blue/green and also some red fireball 7:20 P.M. (CST)
We live on the beach, on HWY 90 in Pass Christian MS. and at 7:20 P.M. (CST), we saw a flaming object falling towards the west. It was blue/green and also some red. It certainly seemed more metallic to me as the flame behind was "organized" in that it was a rather "structured burn" instead of other meteors I have seen. Very bright and extremely easy to see. It was visible for at least 3 seconds, and it appeared that it may have "impacted". -Richard Stange
Thank you Richard!
Missouri City, Texas Bolide 13 seconds 7:19 pm 25SEP2011
I was in Missouri City, Texas which is Southwest Houston. It was 7:19pm on Sept. 25, 2011.
The meteor started as a point just less than 15 degrees off the horizon when I was looking East South East. There were no clouds present, but a nice sunset...Venus Belt in the East that the bolide crossed through. I thought it was a bright plane at first, but quickly realized it was moving too fast and had a slight tail to it. It was in the sky for about 13 seconds total heading towards the horizon at roughly a 45 degree angle. It was brighter than Venus and about two times as large. The last few seconds it was in the sky it broke apart into smaller pieces...I'm guessing about 4 or 5. I didn't notice any particular color against the Venus Belt sky, except when it broke apart. The smaller trailing pieces turned red/orange Awesome show!!!!. -Christie B Thank you Christie!
Scott, Louisiana
I was sitting on my patio facing South. I saw a bright green light with a red tail that was falling southwest. It was around 7:20 PM. No one has a explanation. -Chris Thank you Chris!
New Orleans, Louisiana
We were walking tonight in New Orleans Garden District (with our backs to the French quarter) and we saw a huge fireball falling from the sky (left to right). Another patron at the coffee shop and a police officer saw it too. It's a mystery and we are left wondering what it was and found nothing online thus far. -Kerry Orlyk Thank you Kerry!
LaPorte, Texas
@ 19:20 I saw a reddish orange fireball moving roughly north east. Sun had not set yet, yet it was easily visible. I would say it travelled about 60 degrees above the SW horizon to within 20 degrees of the north east horizon where it disappeared. Brightest meteor I have ever seen.
Shalom b'Yeshua haMoshiach! +Mar Michael Abportus Thank you Mar Michael!
New Orleans, LA
At 7:21, While on break at work, I was sitting outside just kind of gazing in the sky when I saw a big bright blue green flaming meteor slowly descend from the atmosphere. As it slowly came downward it changed hues and all the sudden it burst into blazing orange flames then broke apart into like 4 or 5 smaller bits then faded out. It lasted several seconds. Was this part of the NASA satellite? I have never seen a meteor that was this brilliant. -Robert Thank you Robert!
Katy, Texas Meteor ~7:15
Driving east on Clay Road, saw a bright blue object falling diagonally
towards the east. It was moving slower than I had seen other falling
stars and was brilliantly blue. It was around dusk. - Alx Thank you Alx!
New Orleans, LA ~7:20
I was driving in Mid-City at around 7:20 p.m. and saw a large orange fireball in the sky. It was traveling left to right and was very bright. -Brittany Thank you Brittany!
Arcola, Tx
I am a flight instructor and we were landing on runway 09 (facing East) at Arcola, Tx airport (indentifier KAXH) at 7:21pm CDT, Sept. 25, 2011 when we saw a very bright light appear from the Southeast. It was low on the horizon and moving Northward. It was so bright we thought it was a flare, or maybe space junk that was burning up. Very bright, with a trail, then faded out. Not sure of the colors. It's trajectory had a slight arc to it. -Valerie Thank you Valerie!
Houma, Louisiana
Last night @ approximately 7:25-7:30ish 9/25/11 in Des Allemands, Louisiana heading toward Houma, it wasn't quite dark yet we witnessed a huge fireball in the sky. It lasted a good 10-15 seconds before it appeared to burn out. It was moving slowly. We weren't sure of what it was but were all so amazed. My 8 & 19 year old children got to see it too. I found you website a.d it seems as though we weren't the only ones. What was that thing??
Thank you for your help, Christa Falgout Thank you Christa! LaPlace, Louisiana
Around 6:30 PM headed home from Metarie as we exited I-10 in LaPlace, Louisiana, for about 3-5 seconds we saw lights off in a South Southeast direction. The lights were a yellowish to white color, no spectacular firework colors. There were 3-4 lights in a horizontal position then suddenly the lights appeared to be in an almost vertical alignment. Then all the lights went out. We thought it was a plane crash with a nearby airport Northeast of where we saw the lights. But there were no such reports. I investigated with my FB friends and was directed to this site.
Beth Bourgeois Thank you Beth!
Baton Rouge, LA
We were traveling south on Staring Lane , at intersection of Highland Road , Baton Rouge , 7:20ish pm on 9/25. It was bright green and white lasting for about 5 seconds from when we noticed it. Kate Landry/ Kirk Landry Thank you Kate and Kirk!
Baton Rouge, LA
I was on millerville heading towards the interstate from harrels ferry rd, and saw an object going westward. it was very bright and had a long green tail. as it finally broke up and died off i swear i could see a silhouette falling agianst the sunset. this happened at around 7:19 pm. i figure it was remnants of the satellite? Answer- NO. -Graham Black Thank you Graham! Paulina, Louisiana
My husband and I were on our way home from church around 7:20pm yesterday, and we took the river rd being on our motorcycles, as we passed the funeral home, a bright something caught our attention, it was very clear, very bright, like a huge and long lasting firework. It was a bright white ball about the size of a beach ball at first, with orange and red in the center and blue/greenish and some silver throughout it. It visibly shrank in size as it came down from the west side of the Mississippi river, until right before hitting the levee, when it just disintegrated into nothing. Amazing to see...disappointed that i was on nu motorcycle and couldnt take some pics! But we had a nice fairly long view, aad saw great detail! Where it was was actually in Paulina, louisiana...on the river rd. Sunday September 25, 2011...7:20p.m...thanks, amyo:) Thank you amyo=)!
Mississippi/Alabama State line heading to New Orleans on Interstate 10
I was driving across the Mississippi/Alabama State line heading to New Orleans on Interstate 10 at 7:20/21pm Central Time when I saw a green glowing meteor falling across the sky. It lasted aprox 5-7 seconds... Enough time for me to think about getting my phone out for a picture before remembering my iphone was broken and my digital camera was in the backseat out of reach. Has anyone checked with the New Orleans/Mobile tv news stations regarding their sky cameras? It was fairly low in the horizon where I was so it would likely show up on a camera aimed at the west. - Stephen Thank you Stephen!
Meteor Event 3 (Oklahoma, Missouri): Cleveland, Oklahoma Large Green Streak shortly after 8:00 pm CDT 25SEP2011
Shortly after 8pm cst 9/25/11 large bright green streak seen from Cleveland, Oklahoma.
- Amanda K Thank you Amanda!
Missouri meteor ~8:20 pm CDT 25SEP2011
We are in Missouri & we saw saw what appeared to be a meteor falling from the sky at around 8:20 p.m. Thanks, Loretta Thank you Loretta!
Mississippi 39475 ~8:15 Central Time
I`m in mississippi 39475 an from here looking west there was something huge white/blue edges falling thru the sky at about 8.15 central time,,this lit the sky up a good 3-4 secs,,has anyone else reported this,,or what is really was? -Torie Thank you Torie!
West Plains, MO, sometime between 8:15-8:20pm.
Saw through a window facing south, the object moving from east to west.
It was a bright blue-green, almost like a flare. Much bigger than stars,
etc., and looked like a ball instead of the streak that a meteor usually
makes. I did not see a tail, but rather it seemed perfectly round.
Moved slower than a flare or meteor (shooting star) usually does.
Slow enough for me to notice, stand up and move closer to the window, before
it appeared to burn out. It looked like it just "turned off" but turning orange and smaller right
before it disappeared. -Sherry Thank you Sherry!
I-30 in Arkansas between Arkadelphia and Malvern between 8-9p.m. on 9/25/2011
Driving east on I-30 in Arkansas between Arkadelphia and Malvern between 8-9p.m. on 9/25/2011 and witnessed a bright green fireball with a tail shoot across the sky north of the interstate. It was falling toward the West and lasted about 5 seconds. It looked to be very large in size. Weird color, was almost slime green. -Matt Huskey Thank you Matt!
New Bloomfield, Mo
Last night at 2030 in the SW sky seen a large green meteor streaking across the sky. We are located in New Bloomfield Mo. -Rick Thank you Rick!
Bakersfield, Missouri
At about 8:20(cst) Sunday September 25, 2011 we saw a bright white meteor with a green tail streak from northeast to southwest in the Bakersfield, Missouri area. Duration was probably 2-3 seconds and it got very bright and lost its tail as it ended. If a star is a "pencil dot", this was "pencil eraser" sized. -Mike S. Thank you Mike!
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MBIQ Data:
Baton Rouge, Louisiana arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for meteor baton rouge september 25.
10:35:54 -- 36 seconds ago
Baton Rouge, Louisiana arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for flaming ball in sky, september 25, 2011.
10:41:31 -- 5 minutes ago
Ozark, Arkansas arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for sep 25 meteorite.
11:01:53 -- 7 minutes ago
San Antonio, Texas arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for Falling to earth 09/25/2011 over san Antonio texas.
10:20:55 -- 17 minutes ago
Jackson, Mississippi arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for what was bright light in southeastern sky about 7:20pm central time on September 25, 2011.
10:21:27 -- 17 minutes ago
Dallas, Texas arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for meteorite over arkanses september 25 2011.
10:23:34 -- 15 minutes ago
Houston, Texas arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for have you just seen something falling down the sky.
10:25:19 -- 14 minutes ago
Pearland, Texas arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for saw bright light in sky houston.
10:26:06 -- 13 minutes ago
Lafayette, Louisiana arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for what's falling from the sky in lafayette la.
10:27:15 -- 12 minutes ago
Malvern, Arkansas arrived from google.com on "Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News" by searching for green meteor 2011.
10:27:35 -- 12 minutes ago
We need your sighting reports to confirm; thank you:
Date and Time of event? Location name (town,city) where you were when saw the meteor? Start and Stop location in sky? Direction of movement? Duration of Event (seconds)? Brightness ( in comparison with Venus, Moon, Sun) color, sounds? Photos? Videos? please email LunarMeteoriteHunter@gmail.com Your reports make it possible for all to check what they saw as well. Thank you! 2011 The Year of Meteors!
West, Texas Meteorite found by (c) Michael Farmer 2009
I just spoke with Mike Farmer on the telephone and they have found three more meteorites today. He said that the area is mostly farm and pasture land making it not the most idea for hunting conditions.
UNT astronomy workers say they found 2 samples of meteor 03:14 PM CST on Thursday, February 19, 2009 By SARAH PERRY / The Dallas Morning News
Ron DiIulio slept for only an hour last night. The director of the planetarium and astronomy lab program at the University of North Texas couldn’t help but stay awake and study the pieces of a meteorite he found with a co-worker Wednesday.
MAX FAULKNER/Special Contributor Ron DiIulio (left), director of UNT's planetarium and astronomy lab program, and UNT observatory manager Preston Starr found these fragments, believed to be from a meteor that burned up in the earth's atmosphere earlier this week, in a pasture in West.
DiIulio and Preston Starr, the observatory manager at UNT, discovered the remnants of a meteor spotted shooting across the Texas sky Sunday. They found the two walnut-sized fragments off a road in West, a town about 70 miles south of Dallas. DiIulio has found other meteorites before, but these pieces are special. “To get something from space ... that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he said. “And these are pristine.” Immediately after learning about the sighting, the two men began to pinpoint the possible location with information from witnesses. The pair systematically mapped the locations and narrowed down the spot to somewhere near Fayetteville, about 230 miles south of Dallas.
They guessed wrong. DiIulio said he and Starr wound their way to West and stopped at the Czech Bakery for a snack. A farmer, who noticed their official NASA-UNT outfits, approached them and asked what they were doing. “Are you guys looking for the sonic boom that rattled my walls?” DiIulio recalled the farmer asking. The farmer told the professors they should head southeast of West. DiIulio and Starr spotted the sheriff and a deputy at a gas station near the location provided by the farmer. The deputy owned some land nearby and offered to help them find the meteorite. At 5 p.m., after walking a few minutes down a gravel road, Starr and DiIulio spotted it - a small, charcoal-colored ball. Five minutes later, they found another. They didn’t use any fancy electronics - just a map, truck and their eyes. “Imagine that,” DiIulio said. “A little piece of charcoal sitting on a gravel road right there.” The pair were lucky they found the pieces first, he said. Scientists from Moscow and two men from Tucson were also on the prowl. DiIulio and Starr wrapped the pieces in a Ziploc bag and took them back to UNT, where they are conducting a radioisotope study today. The study will give clues about other matter in space. DiIulio said it was important to find the pieces quickly because they start to lose certain characteristics once they hit the earth’s atmosphere. Alan Rubin, a research geochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the meteorite that landed in Texas is among the most common kinds -- an ordinary chondrite. He said his lab had been called on to analyzed a piece of the substance -- not from the chunks that DiIulio and Starr found -- and "it's a real meteorite, not a piece of a satellite." Though meteorites are found all over world, DiIulio considers himself lucky. Mostly what's out there are tiny pieces -- some as small as a grain of sand. “Every once in a while ... you get this,” he said.
DALLAS — Two samples of fresh material the "size of large pecans" from a meteor that alarmed numerous residents when it streaked across the Texas sky on Sunday have been found by two University of North Texas astronomers in a pasture east of the small town of West. "The pieces that we found have beautiful ablation crust. And it's black like charcoal. Underneath this crust the color of the rock is concrete like gray," said Ron DiLulio, director of the planetarium and astronomy lab program at the University of North Texas in Denton. DiLulio and Preston Starr, UNT's observatory manager, said they found the pieces Wednesday about 5 p.m. after starting their search from Fort Worth at 3 a.m. using calculations from all of the calls they had received. DiLulio said they had just about given up looking and were driving back when a friend called and asked to meet them at a certain intersection. They said that coincided with conversations they had had earlier that day with citizens at a restaurant. "We decided rather than try to get permission from landowners, there would be pieces in a line that would spread out a mile across. We decided to just do the county roads and we just started walking down that road and it's fairly easy to see. It jumped out at us within 15 minutes," DiLulio said. "We came back to where our gut instinct told us," Starr said. He said the McLennan County sheriff and deputies confirmed what citizens had told them. "The sheriff told his deputy to take us out there," DiLulio said. The astronomers placed the samples in ZipLoc bags to keep out the air. They plan to transfer the samples to membrane cases and take them to the university for additional study. People on Sunday reported seeing a fireball streak across the sky and DiLulio said the reason it created such a fireball was because the meteor expanded and broke into pieces. The pair said they were not alone in the search and ran into others including "a commercial meteorite hunter and we wanted to get there so we could have it first for science," DiLulio said. Starr said the pair had been gathering information since they initially learned of the meteor's appearance. "We did a lot of pre-planning. We looked at the angles of what they saw in the sky and we were able to map it all out. We put a plan together and we drove around small country roads. Texas has lots of small farm to market roads," Starr said. DiLulio said he thinks there are larger pieces still to be found. "We feel that there are probably several hundred pieces. What happens when these things fall — they may break apart. We want to find these early and study the primitive material before our atmosphere affects them," DiLulio said He said the pair planned on returning to the areas where they had searched. "Everytime we find one we mark where it is on the map and we can measure how much material actually hit the surface of the earth," DiLulio said. West is about 70 miles south of Dallas. ____ On the Web: University of North Texas, http://www.unt.edu/
Fiery debris seen in Texas skies not from satellite collision, officials say11:20 PM CST on Sunday, February 15, 2009 By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News
Fiery debris burned through the Texas sky Sunday morning, alarming some and enchanting others but resulting in no apparent injury or damage. Video from Dallas to Austin and beyond, sightings were reported of a red and orange fireball with a small black center speeding toward Earth before burning out in a trail of lingering white smoke. Roland Herwig, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration’s southwest division, said the fireball was probably superheated debris from a broken satellite falling to Earth.The FAA could not directly link the debris to the reported collision last week of Russian and U.S. communications satellites, however. “It’s yet to be proved it’s those satellites,” Herwig said. However, a spokeswoman for U.S. Strategic Command said the fireball spotted in the Texas skies Sunday was unrelated to the satellite collision. Air Force Major Regina Winchester said that Joint Space Operations Center at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base has been monitoring the debris from the collision, and that could not have caused the dramatic sight. She also said the fireball was not related to the estimated 18,000 man-made objects that the center also monitors. “There was no predicted re-entry,” Winchester said about the objects in Earth’s orbit.She said it could possibly have been a natural phenomenon such as a meteorite. It’s unclear exactly how many pieces of debris tumbled toward Texas or whether any more are on the way.The potential danger from debris did prompt the FAA to warn pilots nationwide to be aware of the hazard and to immediately report any sightings. State emergency management officials and local law enforcement agencies also were on alert across much of Texas. Based on reports of a fireball near Waco, local law enforcement officers searched for debris but found nothing, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said. Though no one could pinpoint where the debris fell or if it even remained intact through the burnout, the fireball left an impression on those who saw it. They say it burned anywhere from a few seconds to nearly a minute. And in some areas, particularly in East Texas, there were reports of a sonic boom. While it may not be clear for some time what fell from the sky, it seemed to be a singular event.Most sightings in Texas were reported about 11 a.m. Some people thought it was a meteor. Others thought perhaps it was a plane crashing. Doug Schmidt of Richardson was driving south on Central Expressway near the Bush Turnpike when he saw a flash of light in the sky. “It was like a ball of flame with a tail. It looked like a meteor,” he said. “There was flame and then a flash and smoke trailing it. I said ‘Wow, look at that.’ ”Farther south, in Ovilla, Chris Weaver said he stepped outside and just by chance looked south. That’s when he saw a flash of orange moving fast in the sky before burning into a streak of white smoke. “If you were looking up at the southern sky, you couldn’t miss it,” he said. There have been scattered reports across the country of debris falling to Earth since the Russian and U.S. satellites collided Tuesday about 500 miles above Earth. The collision occurred over Siberia and sheared thousands of shards of debris through Earth’s orbit.Pieces of that debris will continue to float through orbit for thousands of years or more, while other pieces will at times fall to Earth, probably likely burning up as they pass through the atmosphere, experts say.
Staff writer Jeff Mosier and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Limestone County sheriff's office reported contact from someone who claimed to have a picture of the fireball and a smoke trail and a Plano,Texas, police cruiser may have capture images from a dashboard camera.
What must be sonic booms were reported in Hill and Navarro counties, south of Dallas, Texas. Two towns named in one TV story (a Fox station in the Dallas, Texas, area) where sonic booms were heard were Hubbard and Penelope.
One private report I've seen mentions what I guess was a smoke trail that lasted about ten minutes. That report said the fireball was visible for about eight seconds and that it was going south to north when seen to the east of Austin. Another report from people who apparently were in a car says they saw going NNE while they were traveling northeast.
This was a significant fireball, and I hope another video was made from somewhere. I saw a mention that a police-car dashboard camera may have captured it. This was at 11:00 AM local time -- broad daylight. By the way, online reports now cite the FAA and STRATCOM as saying it was a nature event completely unrelated to the collision of the satellites. I would tend to thank that this might have been detected by a DSP satellite, but if so we might never hear about it.
Source: Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA
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Other Report:
Astronomer Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office is stating that this event was asteroid of about 1 meter, 20 Km/s.
Source: Space weather.
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UPDATE 17FEB09
Two local TV weather blogs have radar images from 11:03 AM (local, 17:03 UTC) Sunday that show two echoes, one in southern Hill County near Hubbard and another, larger one in the northern corner of McLennan County (Waco), just north of the small town of West and south of the small town of Abbott in Hill County.
They both agree that in one pair of images from Fort Worth radar the right-hand or eastern echo is higher in the atmosphere than the larger one to its left. They say that the one of the left was at about 4,000 feet and the one one the right at about 7,000 feet above the ground. I assume these are echoes of a smoke or debris trail, but maybe they could be plasma (?).
I don't know why there are two separate echoes. I believe that weather radars rotate once per minute. In the KVUE-24 blog, there are two pairs of images, each from a different radar center, and the altitudes of the echoes are given different altitudes for the Granger radar than for the radar from Fort Worth.
However, in this one it appears that the blogger or his source has mis-stated (reversed) the altitudes of the echoes in the second pair of images (from Granger radar).
Now, here is a second-hand report from an eyewitness in Hearne, Robertson County, Texas, who reports that the fireball went near the zenith, lasted about 10 seconds, and lit up the ground in broad daylight: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Feb-2009/0354.html
From Hearne to West in McLennan County yields a more or less SSE to NNW track, and the two radar echoes seem to have it descending as it went in that direction. I've read one report in which the eyewitness says she saw five streaks. Another story on one of those websites says that so many 911 calls were received in Williamson County (immediately north of Austin) that they sent out a helicopter to search for a fallen aircraft. It would be very nice, if this was detected by DSP satellite, if they would report it as has been done in the past (several years ago).
GAMBLE James A. Gamble, born December 30, 1951 in Athens, Georgia, went to be with our Lord on Wednesday, August 15, 2012. He moved to El Paso when he was six years old. Jim attended Bliss Elementary, Ross Middle School, graduated from Burges High School, and then enlisted in the 
