- SEATTLE - A meteor about
the size of a computer monitor flashed across the Northwest sky early Thursday,
setting off booms that stunned witnesses.
-
- "There was some question as to whether it was a
piece of space junk burning up, but it was not," said Geoff Chester,
a spokesman for the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. "As far
as I've been able to figure out, it was simply a rock falling out of the
sky, as they are wont to do on occasion."
-
- Chester said it was a type of meteor called a bolide,
one that appears like a fireball in the sky, and was about the size of
a small piece of luggage or a computer monitor.
-
- Nothing unusual was detected on National Weather Service
radar, and authorities also ruled out aircraft problems or military flight
tests.
-
- Toby Smith, a University of Washington astronomy lecturer
who specializes in meteorites, said the skybursts were reported over a
wide area around 2:40 a.m.
-
- Witnesses along a 60-mile swath of the Puget Sound region
from the Tacoma area to Whidbey Island and as far as 260 miles to the east
said the sky lit up brilliantly, and many reported booms as if from one
or more explosions.
-
- "It made a pretty big bang," said Petty Officer
Andrew Davis at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, 40 miles north of Seattle.
-
- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121639,00.html
-
- Comment
- From David
- 6-3-4
-
- Meteor over Washington:
- http://www.kiro710.com/news.jsp
-
- Harbinger of doom? Are we looking at the first chunks
of a massive asteroid hitting the planet on or about 6-19-04?
-
- The wife and I woke up at 2:45 am 6-3-04 to a low frequency
rumble. I thought maybe an earthquake since we are at a very low tide with
the full moon. I find out later, it was probably a meteor and the sonic
booms as it entered the atmosphere. Keep up the good work.
-
-
- Meteor Over Washington State
- KIRO Local News
6-3-4
-
 (Left: Night Video Cam captures moment meteor turns night
into day) A spokesman for the U-S Naval Observatory in
Washington, D-C, say the object that lit up the sky over Western Washington
early today was a type of bright meteor called a bolide. Geoff Chester
says it was not space junk. He says the fireball was a rock about the size
of a computer monitor. He says it's possible parts may have reached the
earth but it probably burned up in the atmosphere. Brilliant flashes were
reported about 2:40 a.m. along a 60-mile swath of the sound from near Tacoma
to Whidbey Island and as far as 100 miles to the east near Ellensburg.
Officials at the National Weather Service ruled out any weather-related
causes, and duty officers at the Federal Aviation Administration and the
Whidbey Island Naval Air Station say they know of no civilian or military
airplane problems. An F-A-A duty officer says civilian pilots reported
seeing the flash from Ellensburg, east of the Cascade Range. It also was
seen by Petty Officer Andrew Davis at the naval air station near Oak Harbor.
He says he also heard a loud bang and adds that he and others at the base
thought it might have been a meteorite.
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