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Meteor-like object observed locally, across state
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By WENDY MITCHELL Staff Writer
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For those who were outside Wednesday night, there was a local light show of meteoric proportions.
According to witnesses from Maysville to Frankfort, a ball of flame streaked low across the sky between 7:30-8 p.m, leaving a flickering trail of questions across the region.
"We were on our way home from my mother's house in Maysville about 8 p.m. and were going east on the AA Highway when it came into sight," said Sherry Hornback of Tollesboro. "At first I thought it was a falling star, but it looked more like a big bottle rocket that was fired off sideways. It was dropping pretty fast."
As the image appeared to lose altitude and disappeared, Hornback thought any remains may have come to rest south of Maysville.
"It was bright white, then it turned to red and a really green color before it faded out," said Hornback.
In Augusta, Wic Wachs was walking his dog along Riverside Drive when he spotted the light show.
"It was 10 times brighter than any shooting star I have ever seen," said Wachs. "It was so much brighter and more of a blue-white color than I have seen in the past."
While he watched, a small piece of the core appeared to break free and drop earthward before burning out, said Wachs.
"I watched the glare of where it went; it was very low on the horizon when I saw it."
Those driving on Kentucky 9 near Maysville also reported seeing the meteor pass over Maysville Community and Technical College in a north to south direction, though Maysville 911 dispatch said it received no calls reporting the event.
Because of the angle of the display, some witnesses believed the object had crashed to earth near where they saw it, but because of the numerous sightings over a long distance it is believed the object was a meteor.
The speeding streak of flame brought alarm to Frankfort emergency personnel when one caller reported that she observed what she thought was a plane crash, south of Interstate 64, said Daryl Hensley, dispatch communications director for Frankfort.
"She said she witnessed a plane crash in a ball of flames," said Hensley. "We scrambled emergency personnel, EMS and the deputy that was closest to the area, but they were called off when the first ones to the scene reported finding nothing."
Hensley's crews also followed through with the Bluegrass Airport tower supervisor, Capitol City Airport and the Federal Aeronautics Administration to be sure all of their aircraft were safe and accounted for.
"The FAA said they had also received several reports about the sighting," said Hensley.
Kia Gentry of Frankfort, was just returning home from church about 7:40 p.m., with her daughter when the sight stopped her in her tracks.
"It was really round with broken streaks of light coming from it. It was so bright and clear ... a ball of fire," said Gentry.
Thoughts of anything more extraterrestrial were not a consideration, said Gentry.
"I didn't get that UFO feeling, but it was a huge something on fire. We watched it for a long time to see if there may have been an explosion but there was none," said Gentry.
Her daughter mentioned that her science teacher had been talking about comets, but Gentry was sure the spectacle was not a distant comet.
"It made you go 'Wow!'" said Gentry. "It freaked me out."
Though comet McNaught was reported to be visible in the southern hemisphere a few days ago, in the New Zealand region, what Kentuckians saw was most likely a meteor, said officials.
"It's not terribly unusual; worldwide there are a few incidents like this reported every day," Thomas Troland, director of graduate studies for the University of Kentucky Physics and Astronomy Department, said. "They burst into flame when they collide with the earth's atmosphere."
While space junk was a possibility, due to the description it was most likely a meteoroid or bolide, a very bright meteor, said Troland.
Missing the sight was a disappointment, said Troland.
"I wish I had seen it," he said.
Contact Wendy Mitchell at wendy.mitchell@lee.net or call 564-9091, ext. 276.
Kentucky is pockmarked with meteor landing sites.
According to the Kentucky Geological Survey at the University of Kentucky, meteors have created areas like Jeptha Knob, about 425 million years old, and sites in Middlesboro and Versailles that are 300-440 million years old.
Middlesboro is in the middle of such a crater.
Modern day meteor remnants have been discovered in nearly two dozen Kentucky counties:
-- Bath County, Nov. 15, 1902, a piece of a meteor, was found that weighed 13 pounds; a year later the main part of the meteorite was found. It weighed 181 pounds.
-- April 9, 1919, a meteor was seen over Tennessee and Kentucky. It was reported the sound of the impact was heard from Lexington to Tennessee. A fragment was found near Cumberland Falls that weighed 54 pounds.
-- In 1892, a 359 pound chunk of meteorite was found on a Kenton County farm and analyzed by the Rochester Academy of Science, in New York.
According to the American Meteor Society, the Alpha Centaurids meteor shower should begin Jan 28.
For information and the 2007 Meteor Shower Calendar, go to www.amsmeteors.org. |
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