Huge UFO reportedly crashes in Queensland

It will be interesting to see what comes of this...

www.heraldsun.news.com.au...

Wow - the women said it shook the house. Sounds like a big chunk of something hit nearby. I'm looking forward to pictures of what's left.

Apart from the fact its april fools day, describing every meteorite that falls to earth as a "UFO" (another article about the Canadian PM's plane seeing a metiorite as well said this), does nothing for the reputaiton of UFO researchers and interested parties; who just get catagorised under the label of gullible kooks....

Is the sonic boom theory plausible?

An astronomer says a fireball seen across large parts of Queensland's north and west last night was probably a meteor.

Police and aviation authorities were inundated with callers who reported seeing the sky light up before hearing a loud explosion and feeling the ground vibrate.

Dr Michael Drinkwater from the University of Queensland says it could have been a tiny piece of rock coming in from the solar system and hitting the atmosphere.

"They're actually pretty tiny pieces of rock, they actually don't hit the ground," he said.

"If it was low enough so that people could hear the sonic boom, maybe there's a bit more chance that something survived."

"If they could still see it was 25 or more kilometres up, so wherever it hit the ground was a long, long way away and that's why we generally can't find them unfortunately."

www.abc.net.au...

[Edited on 31-3-2004 by AceOfBase]

Originally posted by AceOfBase
Is the sonic boom theory plausible?

yes, yes it is... also, if the meteroite were to explode in the atmosphere in a thin layer of clouds you would be able to see the shockwave. i've seen that once, and probably never will again.

no earthquakes in aulstralia

Net chicken is probably right. Australia is a day ahead which makes it April (fools) day and that story does sound more like an joke. I don't think our papers would print that for a joke, but that might be okay over there. I guess will find out in a few hours.



[Edited on 1-4-2004 by outsider]

Just after seven last night a huge fireball ripped through the sky over Winton and surprised everyone.

Many describe the light slowly building up until it was almost daylight and then a massive clap of thunder followed.

The streak was also seen as far south as Charleville.

There was a lot of conjecture as to what the object was from bomb to a downed fighter jet but the most probable explanation is that it was a meteor.

Although the fireball was massive experts reckon if it was a meteor it was only the size of a tennis ball and would have broken up before impact.

www.abc.net.au...

I was reading about this earlier........ MX ( the free paper we get here in Melbourne) reported the brightness was like 50,000 spotlights.

I'll be interested to see what comes of this......

very interesting. unfortunately if this was in fact a ufo, i'm sure the goverment will be covering it up with some bs story so we'll probally never know what exactly happened.

here is another link to this story:
worldnetdaily.com...

I know it's a little old.

Hmm, interesting. Its been a few days and I haven't heard anything about it on American News Channels. And you guys haven't posted any updates on it.

Any new findings about this?

Nothing about it on TV here in Australia either.

Article cut and pasted from news site.

UFO like '50,000 spotlights'

01apr04

RESIDENTS of the outback town of Winton saw a flash 'like 50,000 spotlights' as a huge fireball crashed to earth somewhere in central Queensland late yesterday.

Authorities are trying to track down the source of a large fireball seen in the sky over the state's north and central west.
Speculation has ranged from space junk to a meteorite.

"We only know it wasn't an aircraft," a spokesman for the Australian Search and Rescue Organisation said.

But in Winton Elsa Nelms and her partner Graeme East had front row seats for the spectacular light show, sitting on their verandah at dusk talking business with a friend.

"Suddenly there was this flash, it's the only way I can describe it � it was so bright it was a white flash and it lit everything up," Ms Nelms said.

"It was like somebody had turned on 50,000 spotlights."

"We all looked up in the sky and there was a white smoke trail coming from the north-east � like a firecracker smoke trail but it was too high to even be an aircraft."

Ms Nelms said she had gone into her backyard to lock her dog in a pen when the house shook.

"While I was putting him away there was a rumble like thunder a long way away.

"I missed the action up in the house but my partner said the eaves shook and the roof rattled."

She said the whole of Winton either saw or felt the event, with phones ringing all over town and people coming out of their houses to see what was going on.

"The neighbours came over and they were white-faced," she said.

Ms Nelms said she later spoke by phone to friends living 130km outside Winton who had seen the flash but not felt the rumble.

"There's probably is a big hole somewhere � but had this fallen on Winton we probably wouldn't be sitting here talking about it," Ms Nelms said.

Is this anywhere near Alice Springs.

could there be hollow meteors or asteroids? if so, the heat could've caused the gas inside to expand and blow up and maybe a huge chunk just continued to fly.

sure as # it was a hoax.. every year our local paper does a arpils fools spoof. this year it was a creature of the lagoon type thing eating dogs..

I laughed at it straight away but it had a few people fooled.