[Scan-DC] meteor (bolide)

[Cliff Jennings]

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=25&sid=25146

Bolide Lights Up Morning Sky
Updated: Monday, Dec. 2, 2002 - 8:26 AM EST.


WASHINGTON - The bright light many people saw streaking across the sky early
morning Monday was a bolide or fireball, said Geoff Chester, a spokesman at
the U.S. Naval Observatory.
"This is basically a large meteor. We're talking about a rock here that's on
the order of size of a suitcase or something like that. It's been orbiting
the sun for billions of years," Chester said.

"In reality, this object is entering the Earth's atmosphere. At an altitude
of between 80 to 100 miles or so it is vaporizing and leaving a very bright
trail of light behind it," Chester said.

"In a way it's kind of similar to the Leonid meteors that we just had a
couple of weeks ago. Instead of being a little bit of fluff that sputtered
off a comet that we run into every year, this is just a random, fairly large
rock that runs into the Earth's atmosphere," he said.

WTOP callers in Virginia and Maryland reported seeing the natural phenomenon
between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. Callers described it as a very big ball of
blue-ish green with a tail 300 to 400 yards long.

"It was absolutely beautiful. It looked like it was going to hit the
ground," said one listener who called from Culpeper County, Va.

She described it as a lot longer than the meteors seen during the recent
Leonid meteor showers.

One Waldorf, Md., caller said when people saw it, they started pulling off
the road.

Chester said the last time a bolide was seen was on July 23, 2001, between 6
p.m. and 6:30 p.m. People reported seeing it from New York to Virginia.

(Copyright 2002 by WTOP. All rights reserved.)