Another Meteor Spotted Monday Night
Skywatchers Disagree On Significance
POSTED: 5:18 a.m. MDT October 8, 2002
UPDATED: 8:22 a.m. MDT October 8, 2002
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- It's happened again.
A fireball shot through the Colorado sky Monday evening for the second consecutive night at nearly the same time.
The second meteor was spotted around 7:15 p.m., but traveling in a different direction than the meteor that fell Sunday night, 7NEWS reported.
Monday's meteor was traveling towards New Mexico, and was described as blue-green with a yellowish tail.
Skywatchers disagreed over the significance.
Chris Peterson of the Cloudbait Observatory in Guffey, Colo., said he
saw Monday's meteor himself and by 10:45 p.m., he had received 60 reports of sightings, mostly from Front Range cities.
The Cloudbait Observatory Web site reports that the Rocky
Mountain region "has experienced a very unusual burst of fireball
activity."
The observatory received a total of 560 reports of Sunday night's fireball from seven states.
"This rash of fireballs is very unusual. There is no reason to
think this is anything other than an odd coincidence, however,"
Peterson said. "None of the fireballs appear to have anything in
common with each other."
Robert Stencel, a professor of astronomy at the University of
Denver, said two similar events on consecutive nights was not
necessarily unusual, especially for this time of year.
"We are into about a six-week period where two highly prominent
meteor showers are occurring," Stencel said.
Two annual meteor showers, the Giacobinids and the Leonids, increase the probability
of meteors striking Earth's atmosphere, he said.
Preliminary analysis of witness reports suggests the Sunday
fireball was a meteor that may have exploded 10 to 20 miles above
eastern Utah or western Colorado, said Peterson, a member of the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science meteorite investigation team.
Peterson, who operates the Cloudbait Observatory west of
Colorado Springs, designed a sky-scanning rooftop camera to catch
such displays, but Sunday's fireball appeared at 7:22 p.m., before
the camera is programmed to start recording.
The "all-sky camera" is the first of at least 10 planned for
schools across Colorado in a joint project with the Museum of
Nature and Science. All will be in place by the end of this month,
Peterson said.
The scientists at the Museum of Nature and Science are interested in hearing from anyone who saw Monday's meteor, especially if that person has pictures.
If you have a snapshot or video of any of the meteors, send 7NEWS an e-mail at newstips@thedenverchannel.com.
Additional Resource:
The second meteor was spotted around 7:15 p.m., but traveling in a different direction than the meteor that fell Sunday night, 7NEWS reported.
Monday's meteor was traveling towards New Mexico, and was described as blue-green with a yellowish tail.
Skywatchers disagreed over the significance.
Chris Peterson of the Cloudbait Observatory in Guffey, Colo., said he
saw Monday's meteor himself and by 10:45 p.m., he had received 60 reports of sightings, mostly from Front Range cities.
The Cloudbait Observatory Web site reports that the Rocky
Mountain region "has experienced a very unusual burst of fireball
activity."
The observatory received a total of 560 reports of Sunday night's fireball from seven states.
"This rash of fireballs is very unusual. There is no reason to
think this is anything other than an odd coincidence, however,"
Peterson said. "None of the fireballs appear to have anything in
common with each other."
Robert Stencel, a professor of astronomy at the University of
Denver, said two similar events on consecutive nights was not
necessarily unusual, especially for this time of year.
"We are into about a six-week period where two highly prominent
meteor showers are occurring," Stencel said.
Two annual meteor showers, the Giacobinids and the Leonids, increase the probability
of meteors striking Earth's atmosphere, he said.
Preliminary analysis of witness reports suggests the Sunday
fireball was a meteor that may have exploded 10 to 20 miles above
eastern Utah or western Colorado, said Peterson, a member of the
Denver Museum of Nature and Science meteorite investigation team.
Peterson, who operates the Cloudbait Observatory west of
Colorado Springs, designed a sky-scanning rooftop camera to catch
such displays, but Sunday's fireball appeared at 7:22 p.m., before
the camera is programmed to start recording.
The "all-sky camera" is the first of at least 10 planned for
schools across Colorado in a joint project with the Museum of
Nature and Science. All will be in place by the end of this month,
Peterson said.
The scientists at the Museum of Nature and Science are interested in hearing from anyone who saw Monday's meteor, especially if that person has pictures.
If you have a snapshot or video of any of the meteors, send 7NEWS an e-mail at newstips@thedenverchannel.com.
Additional Resource:
Copyright 2002 by TheDenverChannel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
