SCI/TECH: Meteorite impact in the Iberian Peninsula

Thousands of persons in Northern Portugal and all across Spain and even in the Baleares claim to have seen lots of fire balls falling down on Earth,in some cases small fires broke out.The biggest one was seen in
Portugal were a burning object with a 3 meter tail "crashed" in a forest.Authorities are investigating
the event,it`s all over the news in Spain and Portugal.


www.alertnet.org... (tks William One Sac!)

www.publico.pt
ultimahora.publico.pt...

www.elpais.es





[Edited on 4-1-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

This is the second meteorite impact report in the past week! The first one was in Iran a few days ago.

What the hey is going on here???

linkavich?!!


valhall already took my other comment

Maybe Mars got mad for us sending our junk there so they're sending their junk here...

Checked a few news sources in Portugal and found nothing on this yet, so we'll have to wait and see I guess.

www.alertnet.org... (Reuters)

MADRID, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of witnesses reported seeing fireballs cross the skies of northern Spain on Sunday in what authorities said may have been a disintegrating meteorite, Spanish radio said.

The bright flashes were spotted at around 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) in a swathe across the northern half of Spain, from the eastern city of Valencia to the northwestern pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela.

In some cases, objects were reported to have fallen to earth.

[Edited on 1-4-2004 by William One Sac]

Originally posted by tracer
Checked a few news sources in Portugal and found nothing on this yet, so we'll have to wait and see I guess.

ultimahora.publico.pt...

www.elpais.es

Strange for there to be another one and it seems worse this time..

Well spotted PAX good reporting..

It could be just a few large fragments from the Quadrantids shower tis all.



The 2004 Quadrantid meteor shower is due to peak on the morning of January 4th near 6h Universal Time. The �Quads� have a very sharp peak lasting only a few hours, so this year�s timing favors European observers. But deviations of up to six hours from the predicted time have been noted in past years, so North Americans should be on the lookout as well.

skyandtelescope.com...

Reuters News Service MADRID� - Hundreds of witnesses reported seeing fireballs cross the skies of northern Spain today in what authorities said may have been a disintegrating meteorite, Spanish radio said. The bright flashes were spotted�in a swathe across the northern half of Spain, from the eastern city of Valencia to the northwestern pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela. In some cases, objects were reported to have fallen to earth. www.chron.com... Okay now this is getting funky. Alright people... what's going on? [Edited on 4-1-2004 by SkepticOverlord]

Yeah it's starting to look worrying. Now that I'm in paranoid mode I can't help think about the sudden flurry in space activity we've had from different nations over the past year. Were they really doing the missions they were officially meant to be doing? Or could they have been smokescreens for missions far more serious?

Found this and perhaps this is the possible reason for the couple of 'events':

"Modest Geminid Meteor Shower this Weekend"
Link:
story.news.yahoo.com.../space/20031212/sc_space/modestgeminidmeteorshowerthisweekend

Excerpts:

""If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor," write astronomers David Levy and Stephen Edberg.

The Geminids stand apart from other meteor showers in another way: The meteors seem to have been spawned not by a comet, but by 3200 Phaeton, an asteroid that crosses the orbit of Earth. Then again, the Geminids may be comet debris after all, for some astronomers consider Phaeton to really be the dead nucleus of a burned-out comet that somehow got trapped into an unusually tight orbit.


Shower underway

Whatever its origins, the Geminids have a reputation for being rich both in slow, bright, graceful meteors and fireballs as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness. Many appear yellowish in hue. Some even seem to form jagged or divided paths."


Also found this for which they might also be a possible cause:

"The Quadrantids"
Link:
comets.amsmeteors.org...

Small excerpt:

"The duration of this meteor shower covers the period of December 28 to January 7. Maximum usually occurs on January 3/4 (solar longitude=283.16 deg), from an average radiant of RA=229 deg, DEC=+49 deg. The maximum is usually quite sharp and, depending on the observer's location, the hourly rate can range from 45 to 200."




regards
seekerof

Nobody knows exactly what happened.The Quadrantids
are probably the cause of the event,which in this case is not over yet...so,heads up !!!