Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

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Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby David Entwistle » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:59 pm

As reported by the Herts and Essex Observer

A MUCH Hadham motorist had the shock of his life when a meteorite plummeted from the sky just outside the village.

Anthony Baxter, who was driving north on the B180 towards Little Hadham, says the object hurtled towards the ground just a few hundred yards from his car at 1pm this afternoon (Thursday, March 15).


Interesting, especially as this was reported to have been seen in broad daylight.
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Re: Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby PeterN » Sat Mar 17, 2012 2:19 pm

Would be interesting to find out if anyone else witnessed this one so the location could be narrowed down somewhat. If the actual location on that road where the guy saw it was known and if he managed to gauge the distance with any accuracy which is not easy for any object thats airbourne and falling at those speeds and observed for just a few seconds then a search radius of a few hundred metres would give excellent chances of a find and would be well worth a look. As with any of these situations once a location can be narrowed down the main problem is gaining permission to search on any private land etc. I'll keep an eye for any info on this one as its not too far away from me.
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Re: Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby Kieron » Sun Mar 18, 2012 12:26 pm

OK, I had dismissed this as fanciful, but having checked Dirk Ross's site there are three other observations from about the same time and all in East Anglia.

http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.co.uk/

What I would say is that if this chap saw a fireball 'travelling almost vertically' (as he says in his lunar meteorite hunters report) then it didn't fall anywhere near his location.


Regards, Kieron
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Re: Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby David Entwistle » Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:11 pm

Thanks Kieron,

I was a bit sceptical myself, but with three independant reports, it sounds as though it was a real daylight fireball. The following are taken from Dirk's Lunar meteorite hunters site:


15MAR2012
lisa williams
cavendish,suffolk, england
13.03 gmt 1-2 sec
fell downwards, was facing north
no sound, bright silvery, blue (reminded me of welding sparkes)
very bright just tapered away
completely jaw droppingly amazing, daylight. looked like a firework but x1000 brighter

15MAR2012
Sharon foley
Saffron walden town in essex uk 13.10 gmt 3 seconds approx
facing north was directly in front of me
red / orange like a ball of fire no sound
bright like fire
looked as thought there was
never seen anything like this ever before in sky above homebase

15MAR2012
Anthony D Baxter
Much hadham Hertfordshire UK
13.02
1 -2 seconds
North, slightly to my right beautiful red and blue with a hint of green very bright given its bright daylight here
no
I collect meteorites so i know a bit about them. I have seen a fireball before traversing the sky, but never an actual meteorite travelling almost vertically


With all three reports indicating the direction as north there's not enough information to try and arrive at an accurate location. I didn't find any infrasound detections.
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Re: Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby Kieron » Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:36 pm

Another report from Croydon, on the AMS website. This one at least gives start and end points. Here is a very quick plot of all five reports, based on the limited information given. Must have been quite spectacular, but as one of the witnesses says, you had to be looking in just the right direction.
Attachments
fireball reports 15 March 2012 cropped.jpg
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Re: Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby Barwellian » Sun Mar 18, 2012 2:11 pm

As all the reports are just looking north and say it fell vertically then it is impossible to say if it was heading towards them or away....all we can hope for is that somebody reports finding a strange rock on the East Coast I think.

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Re: Much Hadham motorist's meteorite shock

Postby PeterN » Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:13 pm

Nice work Kieron, yeah from those reports it is more likely to have dropped into the North Sea then landed within a few hundred metres of the B180 lol.
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