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Meteor Crashes in New Jersey

Rocco Fanucci – Thu, 2007 – 01 – 04 10:48

 

One of my Brooklyn buds sent me this from the Asbury Park Press:

It fell from the sky! Mystery object hits Freehold Township house

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/3/07
BY JAMES A. QUIRK

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — The Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating the origin of what appears to be a lump of metal that fell from the sky and through the roof of a home on Kentucky Way last night.

The metal object is about the size of a golf ball and weighs nearly as much as a can of soup, authorities said. Nobody was injured when the oblong object, weighing more than 13 ounces, crashed into the home.

Police received a call Wednesday morning that the metal object had punched a hole in the roof of a single-family home and damaged tiles on a bathroom floor below.

The object was heavier than a usual metal object of that size, said police Lt. Robert Brightman. He added that investigators with the Monmouth County Office of Emergency Management this morning brought in Geiger counters to determine if the object posed any radiological hazard to the homeowners or responders, and the object was found not to be radioactive.

Brightman would not immediately disclose the address or the names of the people who lived at the home, other than to say that a couple and their adult son live there. He said a man who lived at the home found the object at about 9 p.m. Tuesday after returning from work and hearing from his mother that something had crashed through the roof a few hours before.

The Federal Aviation Administration sent a team to the home this afternoon to check whether the object came from an airplane, said spokeswoman Arlene Murray.

"We won't know what it is until our inspectors have a chance to look at it,'' she said. If the investigators cannot identify the object on sight, it may be sent for testing, she said.

 

Meanwhile, over Colorado, there was a spectacular meteor shower. Fox31 has the video.

Score: 7.0, votes: 1
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Denver Fireball: not Quandrantid meteor

Here's an update from Spaceweather.com:

DENVER FIREBALL:  A spectacular fireball streaked over Denver, Colorado, this morning.  Observers described it as "brilliant, slow, twinkling, sparkly and full of rainbow colors."  Contrary to some reports, it was not a Quadrantid meteor.  It was the decaying body of a Russian rocket that launched the French COROT space telescope on Dec. 27th. Links to video and a ground track may be found at http://spaceweather.com.

Rocco Fanucci – Thu, 2007 – 01 – 04 16:13

two questions

This noteworthy news inspires two questions:

  1. How often does something like this happen? 
  2. Do satellites need protection from space matter or is the chance of a collision so remote that it isn't worth it?
bubba – Thu, 2007 – 01 – 04 16:52

Two answers

1. Happens all the time. People monitor space debris, both natural and man-made,  constantly.

2. Yes, collision probabilities are remote. But when the chances increase, such as with the Leonids, satellite operators do take extra precautions.

Rocco Fanucci – Fri, 2007 – 01 – 05 10:18