El año 1492 cayó un meteorito de más de 100 Kg cerca de Ensisheim, ciudad de Alsacia. El rey Maximiliano interpretó que se trataba de una prueba de la ira divina hacia sus enemigos. El mismo año, mientras cruzaba el Atlantico, Colón vió "una maravillosa rama de fuego" que caía al mar.
Un
meteorito atraviesa un tejadoOtros dos meteoritos cayeron aproximadamente a la misma hora en la zona oriental de New Mexico, uno en una cabaña y otro en un patio. Se supone que se trata de fragmentos del mismo objeto.
I
magen del meteoro captada por un radar meteorológico.
El jueves pasado se vió en pleno día un brillante meteoro sobre Nuevo Méjico y el oeste de Texas. Muchos se lanzaron a los teléfonos para informar de lo que creían haber visto: un avión incendiado, o quizá un choque aéreo.
Robert Simpson lo vió desde su casa, cerca de Fort Davis, y le encantó, porque tenía una idea más precisa de lo que se trataba. Simpson es informador del McDonald Observatory, situado 175 millas al sudeste de El Paso.
El meteoro apareció a las 12:47 p.m. como un destello de luz casi tan brillante como la superficie del sol cuando se pone, dijo.
Los informes -- de la luz, la explosión y la estela de humo -- confirman que se trató de un bólido.
"Si hubiese pasado de noche se habría visto el paisaje como si fuese de día" dijo Bill Wren, que también trabaja en el mismo observatorio.
From CNN
Interactive
10 de Octubre, 1997
Este choque se considera uno de los dos más destacados del siglo. El meteorito, de hierro, se desintegró a unos 8 kilómetros de altura, y los fragmentos quedaron esparcidos en una zona de unos 1600x800 metros. Produjo más de 100 cráteres. El más grande tenía un diámetro de cerca de 30 metros. No se produjo ningún incendio o destrucción similar, como en Tunguska, sólo árboles pulverizados y ramas rotas. Se recuperaron 23 toneladas de fragmentos de hierro. Se calcula que su masa antes de romperse era de unas 70 toneladas.
(from Sky Publishing Corporation and George Zay)
Hal Levinson, del Southwest Research Institute, Carolyn Shoemaker y Eugene Shoemaker han hecho una simulación que incluye cerca de 200 asteroides Troyanos y han llegado a la conclusión de que sus órbitas no son tan estables como se pensaba. Dentro de unos 4.000 millones de años, aproximadamente el 10 por ciento de estos asteroides abandonará el enjambre. Algunos saldrán del Sistema Solar, expulsados por la interacción gravitatoria con Júpiter u otros planetas, pero algunos se dirigirán hacia los planetas interiores, con el consiguiente peligro de colisión con la Tierra.
961015054 Santa Fe Fireball
From: healrth@nm-us.campus.mci.net (Jim Cummings)
Date: 4 Oct 1996 04:50:31 GMT
Thursday Oct 3, 8:00pm Saw what appeared to be a low-altitude fireball, heading north from the plains, into the southern end of the Sangre de Cristos, just southeast of Santa Fe.
When I first saw it, it was in full glory; I don't know how much I missed. It burned brilliant green, with active, changing head and tail, for several (3-6) seconds, then disintigrated in a show of gold, into 4 or 5 smaller pieces, glowing white, spread out in a line, until they seemed to burn out, another 3-5 seconds later.
Distance is of course unknown, to me it seemed that the final shards were not far over the foothills. It seemed to be travelling as fast as a low flying airplane.
Looking for another viewer, to help confirm position and height. Any one else happen to see it?
It was surely the most thrilling 10 seconds of my five years of amateur viewing!
Meteor Lights Up Western Skies
A brilliant meteor seen in the skies of the western U.S. on the evening of October 3 was likely a piece of an asteroid or comet, or even a piece of space junk, astronomers said. The meteor was seen from California to New Mexico at around 9pm PDT (4am GMT October 4). It was described by many as a long green streak bright enough to light up sky for several seconds. Hundreds of people contacted local authorities, believing the streak to be the result of a mid-air plane accident. The flash, however, took place too high to be possibly caused by a plane. John Mosley, an astronomer at the Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles, attributed the flash to a chunk of comet or asteroid material that burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. JPL officials added the possibility that the meteor was a piece of space junk reentering the Earth's atmosphere. No debris from the meteor was found on the ground.
From: klopes <carlos.lopez@mest.unizar.es>
To: cosmos@rcp.net.pe
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 96 20:00:44 +0100
Yo disiento de la opinión. Cuando cayó el platillo volante (¿o fue un globo sonda...?) en Roswell, aparecieron unos 300 testigos, asi que tiene que ser un desierto singularmente poblado.
961101047 Caltech Seismology Lab Helps Pinpoint Location
of Meteorite Fall
From: Ron Baalke <BAALKE@KELVIN.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 23:05:38 GMT
For Immediate Release Caltech Seismo Lab gets location data on Oct. 3 meteor
PASADENA- Should anyone be inclined to do a bit of meteorite hunting this weekend for a $5,000 reward, Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton thinks she can provide some help.
According to Hutton, any larger chunks from the meteor that lit up the Western skies on the night of Oct. 3 may have landed in the Rose Valley area near Little Lake. Hutton figured this out by analyzing data from 31 of the seismic stations belonging to the Southern California Seismographic Network (operated by Caltech and the U.S. Geological Survey). "As it fell, the atmospheric drag caused the meteroid to explode in mid-air at least twice," Hutton says. "The explosions generated sound waves in the air similar to a sonic boom, which were detected by the seismographs. Using a procedure that is very similar to the one used to locate earthquakes underground, I used the arrival times of the sound waves at the various seismic stations to estimate where the explosions occurred." Two of the explosions were well located, Hutton adds. Both were 20 to 30 miles above the Fivemile Canyon area in the eastern Sierra foothills. The explosions were separated by about 25 seconds, and the second was about five miles lower than the first and about a mile further eastward. Based on this data and on eyewitness accounts provided by John Wasson of UCLA and Mark Boslough (Ph. D. from Caltech, 1984) of Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, Hutton thinks that any larger fragments that survived the firey entry into Earth's atmosphere would have landed to the east-northeast of the explosions, perhaps in the Rose Valley area near Little Lake. Smaller fragments may have fallen more or less straight down from where the explosions occurred.
The Little Lake area would probably be the more seductive area to search, and for a very good reason. UCLA has offered a $5,000 reward for the first fragment that weighs at least four ounces.
Hutton says the seismographic instruments didn't pick up a meteorite impact on Earth, but this is not surprising, since a single fragment would probably have to weigh several tons in order for its impact to be detected. The term "meteorite," by the way, refers to chunks of extraterrestrial debris that survive the entry into the atmosphere and end up on the ground. "Meteoroids" are chunks that travel through space, while "meteor" is the proper designation for the light show produced by a rock from outer space slowing down in the Earth's atmosphere.
Any surviving meteorite fragments would probably have a fresh black matte crust. If the meteorite struck something on the ground, part of the crust might have chipped off to reveal a lighter interior. If anyone finds a meteorite fragment weighing at least four ounces, he or she should get in touch with Dr. John Wasson at UCLA. Wasson's e-mail address is wasson@igpp.ucla.edu.
Contact: Robert Tindol (818) 395-3631 tindol@caltech.edu
Los informes se podían clasificar en dos grupos: uno correspondiente al bólido observado en Texas y en la zona oriental de Nuevo Méjico, y otro, 104 minutos más tarde, en Bakersfield (California). Algunos científicos supusieron que se trataba del mismo objeto que, tras penetrar en la atmósfera sobre Texas, había rebotado, había dado la vuelta a la Tierra y había vuelto a entrar sobre California.
Sin embargo, tras analizar cuidadosamente un video obtenido desde El Paso (Texas) y las entrevistas con los testigos, Mark Boslough (que trabaja en los Sandia National Laboratories) y Peter Brown (de la universidad de Western Ontario), han llegado a la conclusión de que el primer bólido penetró en la atmósfera con un ángulo demasiado vertical para poder rebotar. Por lo tanto, debe tratarse de dos bólidos distintos.
También determinaron la zona donde es más probable encontrar fragmentos de uno de los meteoritos, al sur de Amarillo y cerca de las ciudades de Hereford y Canyon. El viento podría haber desviado los fragmentos en su trayectoria de caida. Mientras que los fragmentos pequeños ocuparían un área alargada al este-sureste de Hereford, los más grandes podrían encontrarse incluso 10 millas al este de Canyon. Esta zona de Texas es famosa por la frecuencia con que se encuentran en ella meteoritos. Se trata de una región plana, con escasa vegetación y casi desprovista de piedras. Al sudoeste de Plainview se recuperaron 900 fragmentos tras la "lluvia" de 1903, y se siguieron encontrando hasta 1949.
Al menos 60 objetos penetraron en la atmósfera en un intervalo de pocas horas alrededor de la caída de los dos bólidos principales, según se deduce de las explosiones registradas en baja frecuencia por los científicos de Los Alamos National Laboratory y de la National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, dos de las cuales también fueron detectadas por los satélites del Defense Department.
Aunque ha quedado eliminada la hipótesis de que un mismo objeto entrase en la atmósfera dos veces, sigue teniendo interés recuperar muestras de esta "lluvia" de meteoritos, para determinar si se trata de fragmentos de un asteroide. El profesor John Wasson, de Institute of Geophysics UCLA, en Los Angeles, California, ofrece una recompensa de 2.000 dólares al primero que encuentre una muestra de más de 4 onzas. Recomienda mirar en los campos de cultivo, en los tejados y en depósitos de agua, lugares en los que no suele haber piedras. También recuerda a los cazadores de meteoritos que lo más probable es que sean de color negro y superficie mate, y que deben pedir permiso a los propietarios de las tierras, pues también son propietarios de los meteoritos que caen en ellas.
Meteorite Falls From Oct 1996
From: Ron Baalke <BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 1997 14:14:51 GMT
NEWS RELEASE OCT. 1, 1997Albuquerque, N.M. After a year of detective work involving scores of eyewitness reports from across New Mexico and Texas, a group of scientists has concluded that the Earth collided with a swarm of cosmic debris on the night of Oct. 3-4, 1996.
The most widely-reported fireballs were ones over eastern New Mexico and the Texas panhandle, and another near Bakersfield, California, exactly 104 minutes later. The relationship among the times, locations, and trajectories of the meteors seemed too unlikely to be mere coincidence, and had initially led some scientists to believe that a single object skimmed through the atmosphere and re-entered after a single orbit.
After careful analysis of a videotape taken from El Paso, Texas, together with eyewitness reports, Mark Boslough of Sandia National Laboratories and Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario found that the first meteor entered at too steep of an angle to skip off the atmosphere. They are now convinced that the two fireballs observed over New Mexico/Texas and over California were two different objects.
They also determined the most likely location in the Texas panhandle where meteorites might have fallen, and John Wasson (UCLA) has re-issued a reward for a sample. Brown and Boslough believe that any meteorites reaching the ground in the Southwest would most likely be found south of Amarillo, near the towns of Hereford and Canyon, where they were carried by winds to the east of the visible trajectory. The most likely place for small meteorites to have landed would be in an oblong area about 10 miles ESE if Hereford, but any larger meteorites would be in a strip that stretches as far as 10 miles east of Canyon.
This part of the Texas Panhandle is well-known for its abundance of meteorite finds because it is flat, with little vegetation and few natural rocks on the surface. The most famous area is southwest of Plainview, where over 900 meteorites were recovered after they fell in 1903, and were still being found as late as 1949.
Over the past year, two groups of scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have also reported low-frequency sound data showing that the Earth's atmosphere was hit by at least 60 objects within several hours of the two that were originally reported, two of which were also observed by Defense Department satellites.
Most of the infrasound-producing meteors occurred during daylight hours and were not seen by witnesses, but the large number of collisions taking place that night helps explain why two bright ones with such similar trajectories would be seen so closely spaced in time. Although the scientists eliminated their hypothesis of a single object bouncing off the atmosphere and re-entering it later, they are still very interested in the events of one year ago because it means the Earth collided with a cluster of objects, perhaps pieces of a broken asteroid. A sample of one of these meteorites would help scientists determine what kind of asteroid spawned the fragments and better understand how they break apart and explode in the atmosphere, says Sandia's Mark Boslough.
Prof. John Wasson is seeking such samples and is offering
a reward of $2,000 for the first confirmed sample as large as 4 ounces,
and he urges persons living within the calculated fall area to look in
their fields, on the roofs of buildings, in stock tanks and other locations
where stones would not be expected. Meteorite hunters are reminded to get
permission of land owners, and that any stones automatically belong to
the owner of the property on which it is found. The stones are most likely
to be black with a fresh matte texture. Samples should be sent to Prof.
Wasson at the Institute of Geophysics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, or
to Dr. Adrian Brearley, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, NM 87131. Each sample will be acknowledged, but those that
are not meteorites will not be returned unless a return self-addressed
envelope is provided.
In 1962, a meteorite landed near Zagami, Nigeria about 10 feet away from a farmer who was trying to chase crows from his corn field. The farmer heard a tremendous explosion and was buffeted by a pressure wave. After a puff of smoke and a thud, the meteorite buried itself in a hole about 2 feet deep. The Zagami meteorite was later identified as a Mars meteorite. Weighing at about 18,000 grams (40 pounds), the Zagami meteorite is the largest single individual Mars meteorite ever found.
The new photos include Zagami, Chassigny, Nakhla, Lafayette, ALH 84001, ALHA 77005 and QUE 94201.
I have photos of 11 of the 12 known Mars meteorites, and the one I'm missing is Yamato 793605. If anyone has a photo of this meteorite, I'd appreciate it if you contact me.
Ron Baalke baalke@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov
¿Logrará alguien encontrar algún resto del bólido del 3 de octubre de 1996 y ganar los 5000 dólares de recompensa?...
¿O se volatilizó por completo en una explosión dorada?