Meteor or piece of spacecraft caused fireball, boom, expert says

[underpants]

Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch

A fireball and big boom that people witnessed Sunday night could have been caused by a meteor or even a falling part from a Russian spacecraft, experts say.

"I know it's one of the two," said Geoff Chester, an astronomer and public relations officer with the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington. "I just can't tell you definitively which one it actually was."

Stefan Bocchino, a spokesman for the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, said experts there do not think the light was caused by a manmade object. The Joint Space Operations Center tracks manmade objects that enter the atmosphere.

The National Weather Service has ruled out any weather-related cause.

Read more: http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BOOM31_20090330-223316/244771/

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From yesterday
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3806725

[trotsky]

1. What about that toolbag? n/t

[icnorth]

2. Couldn't be the toolbag...

it has to be Russian.

[Javaman]

7. Yeah, I don't think newt gingrich was in space anytime recently.

:rofl:

[Hugin]

3. You mean it was the "Tunguska Toolbag"?

Hey! That would be a great name for a Rock Group!


:rofl: I just kill myself with the puns today.

[Skip Intro]

4. "I know it's one of the two." Ok, as long as you're sure...

[Politicalboi]

5. BEWARE Of The

BLOB!

[leveymg]

6. Disappointed. Thought it was SG-1 nuking it out with Goa'uld time-travellers

This lack of a coherent enemy is why we need to triple the present budget for ABM and U.S. Space Command. Can't be caught short when the aliens do, in fact, enter orbit through stargates floating around earth disguised as space junk.

Fund the F-302 space fighter program!

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. So they've finally decided on a story -

and by gawd they're gonna stick with it!



Why can't I stop thinking of that old British SF series 'UFO'?

[Tab]

9. No, they've since determined what it was

The second stage of the launched Soyuz craft was supposed to hit the atmosphere around 8 p.m., and that would have been the proper size and timing to have caused what was seen. They'd already ruled out any meteors (technically meteorites), and was looking at scheduled drops when they found about the Soyuz stage.

Exciting, I'm sure, but nothing magical.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. And a re-entering 2nd stage rocket would be moving fast enough

to cause sonic booms?

Wouldn't it be just falling, after hitting its apogee? Can a falling object, with no other force than gravity working on it, hit supersonic speeds?

[Tab]

13. When you're orbiting at 10,000 mph falling into a 20,000 mph object

I'd think sure, if it was fast enough and at the right angle.

The atmosphere's thinner up there. Gravity and momentum are very different stories up there. For instance, a space object (specifically the space shuttle) reenters from a low-earth orbit at hypersonic speeds - such as 17,500 mph - far faster than the speed of sound. This is why they have the heat shields - they're not just fluttering down at 180 mph, they're shooting in like a bat out of hell. The speed of sound is 768 mph, and terminal velocity is much lower (like if you just dropped something off a building).

But to be scooting along at 20,000 m.p.h. when you enter a thin atmosphere - sure. Boom, baby!

Note: a lot of this happens over isolated areas, like the ocean, I don't know why this one deorbited where it did, but it made a hell of a show.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. As I understand it, the 2nd stage never enters orbit, and doesn't ever

attain such velocities. Of course, I could be wrong - it has happened once or twice before.

[Wednesdays]

11. But weren't there reports of similar events two times previously?

I read another thread on this, and someone pointed out that it happened three times, something like March 6, 15, and 23. (Not sure of the dates, I'll have to look up that thread).

Edit: here it is. Dixiegrrrrl googled it and found news stories from March 10, 17, 23, and 29.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3806725#3807186

[certainot]

12. WTF-if it could be a piece of a spacecraft it could also be a whole spacecraft!

[Garbo 2004]

15. USAF Joint Space Operations Center says it was not result of man-made object.

The Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California responded to inquiries this morning:

The JSpOC tracks over 19,000 manmade objects in space. The "bright light" that was reported on the East Coast on Sunday, 29 March at 9:45 p.m. EST was not a result of any trackable manmade object on reentry.

Natural phenomena are not tracked by JSpOC professionals.

http://www.examiner.com/x-504-Space-News-Examiner~y2009m3d31-Fireball--not-part-of-Soyuz-rocket-Air-Force-says

And from http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1636442 : "In an e-mail sent to WTOP, Stefan Bocchino of the USAF Joint Space Operations Center says the "bright light" seen over parts of the East Coast Sunday night was not a result of a man-made space object.

The Joint Space Operations Center tracks more than 19,000 man-made objects in space, but no natural phenomena."

[Downwinder]

16. Last month, they'd have us believe

that they are tracking everything out there that is incoming. This month, "hey, what was that."