Dec 29th 2008 Fireball! Looks like the year is going out with a meteoric bang. There’s been multiple significant fireball sightings over the last few days and the one in New England looks to have even more eye witnesses than the last one in northern California. Don’t forget about the new Meteorite Fall in Canada last month which might just be the largest meteorite fall in Canadian history. This is a very interesting time for the meteorite community. In New England, witnesses are saying things like “…it lasted more than 7 seconds. It was very bright with a long tail…” and “…falling straight to the ground with a tail of green sparks stretching up and to the left (east)…”
This is very exciting. The prospect of multiple new meteorite falls are perhaps a dream of many scientists and meteorite hunters. The value to science if a new meteorite is found is very great indeed. The fact that large meteors are rare, and fireballs such as this one are even rarer, mean the significance of these events are very important. If meteorites are found from either of the fireballs from the Merced Fireball Sighting or this one in New England, it’s a great boon to the meteorite community, and to the world at large.
Which meteor was bigger I wonder? And does this mean we might have two meteorite falls within 3 days in the US. Why were there so many reports on this meteor versus the one in Merced? There might be a good reason the New England meteor has more reports. The population density in that area of the country is much greater than in northern CA, therefore it’s easy to see why more people have reported it.
Regardless of whether these meteors touched down, the sheer number of new fireball sightings, and the new meteorite fall in Canada just over a month ago makes 2008 a good year for the meteorite enthusiast and scientific community at large. I don’t thnk there’s a person on this planet that isn’t amazed and awed at the sighting of a large fireball in the sky.
There are many reports of this New England Fireball and a map too located on SpaceWeather.com here: http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/fireballreports_29dec08.htm?PHPSESSID=gi35mbq0j367fqb7noqfnpnuv5
