6degrees Astroblog
Early Morning Flash in Sky was Meteor
By Irwin Horowitz, 2-19-08
When I woke up this morning, I found a voicemail message on my cell phone left by someone named “Steven.” He informed me that he had observed a bright flash of light earlier and was wondering if I could help him figure out what it was.
While checking out the Idaho Statesman website, I came across this report describing a bright flash seen across western Idaho and eastern Washington around 6:30 a.m MST. A pilot for Horizon Airlines observed an object hit the earth somewhere in Adams County, Washington.
There have been numerous phone calls made to local authorities and news outlets inquiring as to the source of the observation. It seems quite likely that a piece of space debris, perhaps the size of a grapefruit or a basketball or a large boulder, came hurtling through our atmosphere at several dozen miles per second. The friction with air molecules caused it to heat to incandescence and eventually to explode in a shower of debris.
This object is known as a meteor. Meteors can consist of tiny flakes of dust or small rocks or objects as large as a football stadium. In fact, anything under 1 kilometer in diameter that passes through our atmosphere is known as a meteor. Prior to arriving in the atmosphere, such a body is known as a meteoroid. Should any of it survive the passage and strike the ground, it is then called a meteorite. All three terms refer to the same object, but the difference is simply a matter of location.
I e-mailed Dr. Guy Worthy, an old friend who is an astronomy professor at WSU and asked if he was going to attempt to retrieve any fragments that may have fallen and received the following reply:
“Not as far as I know! Maybe we will have to await word from a farmer to see if there was an actual fall. The pilot could easily have seen a low-altitude burst/destruction and there may be no large fragments at
all.”
According to local news stations, the police are currently undergoing a search for any such fragments, so we will wait to see whether the eyewitness reports of an impact have any validity.
UPDATE: According to scientists from the University of Washington, the meteor apparently disintegrated at an altitude of about 19 miles above La Grande, Oregon. It is unlikely that any fragments would have managed to make it to the surface.
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