(CNN) — Authorities in several Midwestern states were flooded Wednesday night with reports of a gigantic fireball lighting up the sky, the National Weather Service said. The fireball was visible for about 15 minutes beginning about 10 p.m., said the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin, just west of Milwaukee.
“The fireball was seen over the northern sky, moving from west to east,” said the NWS in the Quad Cities area, which includes parts of Iowa and Illinois.
“Well before it reached the horizon, it broke up into smaller pieces and was lost from sight,” the service said. “Several reports of a prolonged sonic boom were received from areas north of Highway 20, along with shaking of homes, trees and various other objects including wind chimes,” it said. There has been no official determination as to what caused the fireball, the NWS in Sullivan said.
It’s obviously an omen.
Damn ! Where is Klaatu when you need him ?
Sorry, I was testing the new torpedo launchers, when I should have spent that time with the guidance systems. Don’t worry though – we leave the antimatter out while we’re within the confines of the solar system.
#30. Yes Bubba, wish I could find it. I could use the money.
Hey, what is THIS?
Dunno, Drake.
Then it Must Be Mysterious.
Careful with that, Drake. You know what the boss said after the last time we called something “Mysterious.”
No! Did he say something? What did he say?
Maybe you should ask him.
And get fired? Are you nuts? I guess whatever he said will forever be a mystery.
# 27 Floyd:
“#25: Serial hookup.”
I used to have a serial hookup between my Dell Linux box and my old Commodore Amiga 3000!
= = = = =
# 30 BubbaRay:
“Technical term for this is “bolide.” And it was a nice one. Estimates I’ve seen seem to agree it was the size of a Volkswagon. Looks about right to me. I’ll bet small pieces of the meteorite will be found, maybe as large as a brick.”
How about a peanut?
Wisconsin man finds rock believed to be meteor fragment
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100417/ap_on_re_us/us_midwest_meteor_2
Sat Apr 17, 12:37 am ET
MILWAUKEE – Scientists say an apparent fragment from a meteor that lit up Midwestern skies this week has been recovered in southwestern Wisconsin.
The fragment weighs 0.3 pounds and is about the size of an unshelled peanut. The meteor had streaked across the sky about 10 p.m. Wednesday and was visible from southern Wisconsin and northern Iowa to central Missouri.
University of Wisconsin geology professor John Valley says fragment has a so-called fusion crust. The paper-thin blackened coating results when a meteor superheats as it speeds through the atmosphere.
Valley says the man who found the fragment lent it to university scientists for a two-hour analysis.
Based on preliminary tests, the meteor appears to have come from the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The sound of a meteor when it hits the troposphere can be anything from a “boom”, to a series of loud “pops” to a “whistle”. Because they are just big chunks of mixed up rock and minerals, like concrete, parts of them heat up faster than others and can explode or pop. Either way, you don’t want to be in an aeroplane in the re-entry vector cone when this stuff is hurling past.