#Meteor #Alabama #Jussta EDIS CODE: CO-20140808-44843-USA Date & Time: 2014-08-08 04:08:08 [UTC] Area: USA, State of Alabama, Near to Henagar (This event happened on 02.08.2014) Last Saturday night, something bright streaked across the sky over north Georgia. Meteor sightings are not terribly rare, but astronomers think this one hit the ground. Its pretty unusual, says Tellus Science Museum astronomer David Dundee. The majority of meteors that come into our atmosphere burn up. Dundee says several cameras and radar tracked the object. Tellus is a member of NASAs network of fireball cameras, and several of the networks cameras picked it up. That allowed scientists to triangulate the object and learn quite a bit about it. It came in from the asteroid belt about a half billion miles away and came into the atmosphere traveling about 47,000 miles per hour, says Dundee. The object quickly decelerated to about 11,000 miles per hour before cameras lost contact. The rapid deceleration is what makes scientists think it landed, and they believe it hit somewhere near the Alabama/Georgia state line. Theres a probability that this object dropped pieces from south of Lake Weiss down to Haralson County probably as far south as Tallapoosa, says Dundee. Estimates are that pieces as large as 22 pounds may have hit the ground intact. NASA thinks some small meteorites fell to earth near this east Alabama town after a fireball broke up in the skies over Alabama last Saturday night, and the space agency will gladly help you decide if youve found one. But that doesnt mean you get to keep it. A NASA scientist reached out to AL this week to clarify that after this reporter posted tips for finding a meteorite from the fiery breakup. That report didnt include the important fact that meteorites are considered minerals and are thus the property of the landowner on whose land they are found, Dr. Barbara Cohen of the Marshall Space Flight Center said in an email. It might be obvious that anything on private property belongs to the property owner. But Cohen pointed out that any meteorite found on public property (parks, forests, roads, etc.) belongs to the owner of that property, i.e., the city, county or federal government. So be aware of the property lines where youre hunting, and dont remove anything (rocks, fossils, minerals or meteorites) from public land without a permit. A meteorite wont be certified as legitimate without a location, Cohen said, and a location on public land is illegal. Saturday nights fireball broke up over Henagar and could have scattered meteorites anywhere between Fort Payne and Rome, Ga. Look below for Cohens worksheet on deciding if your rock is from space.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 04:15:38 +0000
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