Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Examining Historic Meteor Falls And Their Impact - Or Lack Thereof

In recent days, what has been reported as a meteor, fell to Earth in a brilliant blue-white burst near Edmonton, Alberta. While it is a rare example of such a thing caught on video, it is not the first time such an impactful sight has been reported. Below are three historical accounts from the 1950’s that describe similar events – events that beg questions regarding lack of trace evidence and correlations to UFO’s.

On November 3, 1951, reports came from Arizona and New Mexico of a bright blue-white glow that erupted over the desert straddling those two states in a two-hundred mile radius. The object reportedly flashed across the sky from east to west. Pilot Captain Markle Sparks spotted the brilliant flash just after eight p.m. as he flew over southern California. "I thought it was another A-bomb," he reported. Sparks said the object's fiery trail lasted for thirty seconds after the flash. Buck Stockton, Maricopa county sheriff's deputy, said the trail was over a mile long but lasted only briefly. According to officials at LAX, at least seven other aircraft reported the unusual sight. Afterward, no reports had come in of any impact.

In early May, 1952, Seattle was "rocked" by an unidentified projectile that exploded over the city in a brilliant blue-white flash that lasted two seconds. From reports, it was estimated to have exploded approximately 2,000 feet in the air. Northwest Airlines pilot Bert Carlson first spotted the object as he was on approach to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He stated that the object was 7,000 feet up when it burst violently into roughly eight pieces that trailed like fireballs to the earth. Scientists however, refuted a meteor explosion so close to the ground (at either 2,000 or 7,000 feet) since it was their understanding that meteors normally destruct ten miles or more above the surface. In the aftermath of the event, no damage or fragments were ever located indicating anything had fallen intact to the surface.

In June 1958, Royal Dutch Airline pilot, Captain Peter J. Krouwel was less than two hours outside Shannon, Ireland when he spotted a bright light that disintegrated into three parts. The light initially traveled diagonally from left to right in front of his craft as he flew at 10,000 feet. Although it was 10:17 in the evening, and the moon was out, he knew he wasn't seeing any distorted reflections. Later, Krouwel surmised he must have seen the downfall of the U.S. satellite Explorer III. However, officials at the Smithsonian stated this was highly unlikely since Explorer III never orbited above 35 degrees north and Shannon lay at 62 degrees.

In correlating times and locations, it is likely that events such as these might explain away coinciding UFO reports, if only it could be determined that they were indeed meteors. However, in these and more recent cases, there is invariably a dearth of physical proof. No impact craters - no matter how small - are reported and no damage or fragments remain to proof this hypothesis. While the theme of bluish-white bursts of light that plummet downward for an instant seem consistent with meteor falls, we must regrettably set these aside as footnotes in annals of the anomalous until such time as more information becomes available.

1 comment:

OPD-1 said...

It would be interesting to learn how many of these left any trace evidence. They may be related to some earlier galactic event where occasionally we drift through its orbit. The makeup of these may be illuminating to previous theories and may explain many questions.