Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2012 3:48:35 GMT -5
Fireball blazes across San Diego sky
www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-fireball-shoots-across-san-diego-sky-20110914,0,6739969.story
FOX 5 San Diego Staff
9:42 a.m. PDT, September 15, 2011
( Photographer Brien McElhatten / September 14, 2011 )
SAN DIEGO - Thousands of people in San Diego and across the Southwest from Phoenix to Los Angeles watched a fireball blaze across the sky Wednesday evening, prompting lots of speculation about UFOs.
Witnesses told Fox 5 News they saw a large meteor, object on fire, shooting star or a possible burning satellite crossing from the western sky to the east just before 8 p.m.
"We saw it from Grossmont High School way out in the southeast," Lane Adams said on Facebook. "I thought maybe a falling flare ... strange."
Dennis Mammana is an astronomer in Borrego Springs. He said the flare was a normal meteor that burned up in the atmosphere.
Sign up for FOX5 Breaking News alerts
"These things happen frequently. Apparently this one put on a big show," Mammana said, adding that meteors rarely hit the ground and if they do - you won't see it.
Don Yeomans, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Fellow who manages NASA's Near Earth Object Program, agreed with Mammana. He told the Los Angeles Times that the object was probably a near-Earth asteroid no bigger than a basketball. Yeomans said any object smaller than 30 meters isn't going to cause damage on the ground.
"No one should be concerned," he told the Times. "We basically ran it over."
Residents from San Diego, Phoenix, and Los Angeles said the object was blue, teal, white, red and orange in color.
"The color of the object can tell you about the chemical composition of the meteor," Mammana said. "The bluish-green color could mean it was nickel."
Federal Aviation Administration officials immediately reported that it was not an aircraft.
San Diego Sheriff's dispatcher said was kept busy after receiving an increased number of calls regarding the unusual light in the sky.
Copyright © 2012, KSWB-TV
www.fox5sandiego.com/news/kswb-fireball-shoots-across-san-diego-sky-20110914,0,6739969.story
FOX 5 San Diego Staff
9:42 a.m. PDT, September 15, 2011
( Photographer Brien McElhatten / September 14, 2011 )
SAN DIEGO - Thousands of people in San Diego and across the Southwest from Phoenix to Los Angeles watched a fireball blaze across the sky Wednesday evening, prompting lots of speculation about UFOs.
Witnesses told Fox 5 News they saw a large meteor, object on fire, shooting star or a possible burning satellite crossing from the western sky to the east just before 8 p.m.
"We saw it from Grossmont High School way out in the southeast," Lane Adams said on Facebook. "I thought maybe a falling flare ... strange."
Dennis Mammana is an astronomer in Borrego Springs. He said the flare was a normal meteor that burned up in the atmosphere.
Sign up for FOX5 Breaking News alerts
"These things happen frequently. Apparently this one put on a big show," Mammana said, adding that meteors rarely hit the ground and if they do - you won't see it.
Don Yeomans, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory Fellow who manages NASA's Near Earth Object Program, agreed with Mammana. He told the Los Angeles Times that the object was probably a near-Earth asteroid no bigger than a basketball. Yeomans said any object smaller than 30 meters isn't going to cause damage on the ground.
"No one should be concerned," he told the Times. "We basically ran it over."
Residents from San Diego, Phoenix, and Los Angeles said the object was blue, teal, white, red and orange in color.
"The color of the object can tell you about the chemical composition of the meteor," Mammana said. "The bluish-green color could mean it was nickel."
Federal Aviation Administration officials immediately reported that it was not an aircraft.
San Diego Sheriff's dispatcher said was kept busy after receiving an increased number of calls regarding the unusual light in the sky.
Copyright © 2012, KSWB-TV