Re: East coast US Fireball
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 20 Nov 1997 21:15:19 +0000
In message <vines.G5i8+Id6RoB@bangate2.tek.com>, Wayne T Hally
<wayne.t.hally@bangate.tek.com> writes
>Greetings Satellite gurus;
> A large number of reports have been received in meteor land regarding
>a Fireball visible in the Northeast US at about 2047 LST Monday Nov 17th.
>(0147 UT Nov 18). The descriptions could be consistent with a
>satellite/space junk reentry. Is anyone aware of anything that might have
>come down around this time? It was seen in Ottawa, Canada, Vermont, New
>Hampshire, Mass, NY and NJ, and as far as I have been able to determine so
>far was heading generally toward the south. I'm just trying to determine
>whether it was a natural fireball, or man made.
>...
The Usenet reports I saw of this event implied a steep descending
trajectory in the WNW as viewed from Cambridge, MA, and a very quick
motion - hardly promising characteristics for a re-entry.
In fact, I can identify no known unclassified objects with decays within
a few hours of this time. The closest significant decay was #24749, the
Centaur 2nd stage of the Atlas 2a from the Tempo-2 launch (not "Tempo-1"
as stated incorrectly in my current SatEvo decay list), which decayed on
the 18th at around 18h UTC. Decaying on the 17th UT (well before the
fireball) were #24999 (Pegasus debris) and #25015 (Foton N11 debris),
while #23902 (Mir debris) re-entered on the 18th, I think shortly after
the Centaur.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
Edinburgh | Home: alan@wingar.demon.co.uk +44 (0)131 477 9144
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