Flagstaff Fireball: Impact?
May 2nd UPDATE: After days of exhaustive research, interviews, reports and countless phone calls I believe we’re closing in on the possible fall location. We’ve received many reports via our fireball report hotline at 904-236-5394 and many people have sent us email describing their experience of this exciting event.
The reports generally suggest that this fireball was heading almost straight down. Those witnesses closer to the event location report that the fireball seemed to be heading “almost straight down”. Some of those further away (100 miles or more) stated seeing the fireball appearing to have an almost 80 degree angle of decent. There are one or two reports stating a 45 to 60 degree inclination, but I would say 95% of the reports say 85 degree angle of decent on average. This suggests that if the meteoroid did survive entry it will be a very small meteorite strewnfield, making it much harder to locate.
What’s a Strewnfield? A strewnfield is and area of ground that multiple meteorites have impacted from a single meteorite fall. When a meteoroid breaks apart in the air it gets distributed across the land in an eliptical pattern known scientifically as a distribution elipse. Depending on the angle of decent and altitude of the meteoroid during break-up, this dictates the size and shape of the strewnfield. You can imagine that if a meteoroid breaks apart coming in straight at the ground at 90 degrees, that the impact area will cover a relitively small circular area. However if the meteoroid breaks apart at high altitude and at a shallow angle the strewnfield will be much larger, sometimes covering tens of miles or more. On average though, a 5 to 7 mile long and 1 to 4 mile wide elipse is normal. Meteorites can be found strewn across this area, hence the name, strewnfield.
What’s The Difference Between A Meteor Fireball and Meteorite? When a meteoroid enters our atmosphere it encounters tremendous resistance from the air. The speed of a meteoroid is somewhere around 17,000 to 26,000 MPH. In fact this is what causes the fireball phenomenon called a meteor. The air in front of the meteoroid cannot move out and around the object fast enough. This superheats the air to thousands of degrees producing the meteor phenomenon. A fireball is actually a large meteor, and depending on the angle of decent, speed, and composition of the meteoroid, this will determine it’s survivability. If the meteoroid survives impact with the ground, it then becomes what’s called a meteorite.
We’re hoping of course that meteorites will be found. Keep checking back, as the hunt is on right now…
Stay Tuned…
May 1st UPDATE: I’ve been tracking this fireball for the past 5 days and have many conflicting reports. There are reports from Flagstaff to Albequerque NM to Kingman, Tucson, Phoenix and Sedona. Some say this fireball landed, some say it was headed North some say south. They all point to somewhere in AZ. The times vary widelyof the sighting but they’re all within the margin of human error for estimating time. Reports are across the board from as early as 10:30pm to as late as midnight. Some people have even suggested multiple fireballs, most probably based on the multiple times being reported. I attribute this to the large range in reported sighting time. Not 2 fireballs, but 1 reported at different times.
The other time discrepancy is caused simply by the different time zones. Arizona being on PST and not MDT.
Another factor to consider is human error. If someone is driving down the freeway and witnesses an event they might not think to look at the clock until a few minutes later, or worse they might wait until they arrive at their destination and try to “guesstimate” the time and location of the sighting adding to the likelyhood of a wrong time being reported. Not to mention that if the report is mistaken on the time, the probability of an inaccurate location being reported goes up as well.
The good thing is there is video of the event. Not just one video, but two all sky cameras in New Mexico have captured the event on film.
VIDEO: http://www.heliotown.com/Fireball_April_26_2009_Ash.html
Jeff Hall’s – The Sun Blog : http://www.lowell.edu/users/jch/sss/blog/?p=446
Jeff Hall’s Original Blog Post: http://www.lowell.edu/users/jch/sss/blog/?p=411
ORIGINAL REPORT: April 26th 2009
Reports are sketchy, but there’s been confirmed reports of a meteor fireball over Flagstaff Arizona around 11:30pm last night. I’ve been in contact with multiple agencies and all confirm that reports started pouring in around 11:30pm and lasted for around 2 hours. One agency dispatched a crew to the area and they reported nothing out of the ordinary.
Reports are still coming in. If you witnessed this meteor fireball, you are encouraged to contact us immediately:
FIREBALL REPORT HOTLINE: 904-236-5394
REPORT A FIREBALL HERE: Fill Out Our Fireball Report Form
More to come…
Again if you have any information regarding this fireball please contact us immediately.
FIREBALL REPORT HOTLINE: 904-236-5394
REPORT THE FIREBALL HERE: Fill Out Our Fireball Report Form
More To Come…
hello, I found what i beleive is a meteorite. according to websites i have visited in the past 3 days, the one i found may be a pallasite. it has yellow ruby type jewels in the dimples. the location i found it fits very nicely with your extrapolations. i have pictures of this find. is there an email address i could send photo’s to?