Hectic meteorite activity sets Denver abuzz

Denver, Feb 27: The phone lines to Denver's museum of natural history have been buzzing since a fireball streaked across the Colorado sky la...

Denver, Feb 27: The phone lines to Denver8217;s museum of natural history have been buzzing since a fireball streaked across the Colorado sky last month. That flash of light, caught on a homeowner8217;s security camera, was not an isolated incident. It was followed by at least four more fireball sightings, said Jack Murphy of the museum8217;s geology department. He hopes to find pieces of the celestial objects for the museum8217;s collection.

As new reports of sightings keep coming in, scientists are debating the meteorites8217; origin and the meaning of the increased activity. There is more at stake, they say, than where a piece of rock fell to the ground.

8220;These little things are the little brothers and sisters of the bigger ones,8221; said Doug Revelle, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The reason for the interest is if eventually a big one is going to hit, a real big one. And the question is: Can we protect ourselves if a large meteor hits earth? Life as we know it would be very different,8221; he said.When afireball fell into the earth8217;s atmosphere on Jan 11, a front range resident8217;s home security camera documented the bright light and shadows along with the sonic boom caused by the apparent meteorite, Revelle said.Scientists will use the time between the flash and boom 8212; 132 seconds 8212; to help determine where the meteorite touched down, assuming it didn8217;t burn out before landing. Then, at about noon on Jan 27, a commercial airline pilot flying over Wyoming spotted a ball of flame trailing smoke.8221;

8220;He reported he did get some turbulence from the object,8221; Jim Patton, operations supervisor for the federal aviation administration8217;s flight service center in Casper said.

He saw the debris and felt the shock wave from it.8221; Residents in Breckenridge, Colorado, also reported seeing that daytime fireball. Murphy said they believe the space rock was heading south to north and landed just north of Hanna, Wyoming. That night, another fireball broke into the earth8217;s atmosphere. Scientists believe that meteorite camedown in southern Colorado or northern New Mexico, Murphy said. People in Breckenridge spotted that fireball, too.

That one was seen travelling east to west,8221; Murphy said.

It has been a long time since we8217;ve seen one moving like that.8221; Another meteorite was seen and heard at sunrise in eastern Colorado on January 30. And Murphy is investigating a report that came in earlier this month. So what8217;s happening?

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I don8217;t know,8221; Murphy said. We can8217;t attribute it to anything. But it is unusual to have so much activity.8221;

University of Denver astronomer Robert Stencel suggested that earth may be getting pelted with pieces of the Hale-Bopp comet. Early in January the earth passed through the part of space the comet had travelled.

Comets are like kids with muddy boots,8221; Stencel said. They leave a trail of debris in their wakes.8221; Meteorites from asteroids breaking out of the orbital belts between Mars and Jupiter are made up of metals, mostly iron. A meteorite from a comet would have a lighter elementcomposition, Stencel said. Such space debris is rare and would be of great scientific value, he said.

In order to defend the earth from a large meteor, we would need to know about it while it was months away to deflect it,8221; he said. If we knew about it when it was weeks away, it would be too late.8221;