26 February ASTRONOMY IRELAND Press Notice Fireball Analysis points to Galway & Ocean Astronomy Ireland has collected enough eyewitness reports of the extremely bright fireball seen over Ireland at 7:10am on Wednesday February 12th to issue a PRELIMINARY report. Having analysed over 200 written reports taken from people who jammed the society's phone lines for 3 days the conclusion is that an object came in from high above Ireland and plunged down toward a point somewhere in County Galway or Galway Bay, perhaps even off the coast of Clare. The path of the object was more roughly from the Northeast to Southwest. FLIGHT PATH The fireball would have entered the Earth's atmosphere at roughly 100,000 mph and started glowing about 100 miles above Ireland. In just a couple of seconds it would have slowed down having and streaked across the sky glowing extremely brightly, burning out perhaps 15-20 miles above the ground. This end point is where any meteorites would have fallen, silently and invisibly as they would no longer be glowing. They would have struck the ground, or the sea, at only 200 mph roughly 5 minutes after the fireball flash, which only lasted a couple of seconds. Meteorites hitting the Earth at this relatively low speed would have caused no crater and any meteorites would have been cold to the touch had anyone been nearby to pick them up, which doesn't appear to have been the case anyway. METEORITES AND VALUE Although dozens of people have called Astronomy Ireland to check if rocks they have found are meteorites or not, none of them is thought to be one of the meteorites that fell on Feb. 12. Irish meteorites are valued at between 200 and 500 euro per gramme, i.e. up to half a million euro per kilo, so the society does not recommend selling to meteorite collectors outside Ireland. Free and impartial advice can be given to anyone who finds a meteorite if they contact Astronomy Ireland. APPEAL Any meteorites dropped early in the flight of the fireball could therefore have fallen on County Galway but it is too early to say this for certain yet. A more detailed analysis must now be done and Astronomy Ireland is again appealing to the operators of all outdoor video cameras in Ireland to check their recordings for 7:10am Feb. 12. Given the brightness of the object and the hundreds of reports received from eye witnesses it does seems likely that one or more meteorites survived the re-entry and may have fallen on County Galway where they could be located. Some or all fragments may have fallen in the Ocean of the Coast of Galway however. HUMAN AND MACHINE REPORTS NEEDED In order to refine the location of any meteorite falls Astronomy Ireland is appealing for two types of witnesses to come forward: human and machine. The machines are the ubiquitous video cameras monitoring doorways or property. The tapes from any camera pointing outdoors should be check around the time of 7:10am Wednesday morning Feb. 12th. Anyone who is aware of any cameras outdoors should immediately contact the camera owners and ask them to check their tapes. Video tapes of the event provide the most accurate record of the fireball and just one or two tapes will allow the position of any meteorite landing zones to be calculated accurately, even if just one tape is found. So far no person has contacted the Society to say if they have checked their tapes which is most disappointing as they key to a national treasurer could be stored on these tapes. We also need people in Galway and the counties bordering Galway who saw, or heard, anything to make a report. Sounds are very important as this usually means the fireball end point was nearby. Anyone in Ireland who knows the star patterns and can give a rough path of the fireball amongst the stars should also make a report. A special form has been set up on Astronomy Ireland's website at www.astronomy.ie. If you do not have access to the internet then you can call Astronomy Ireland on (01) 847 0777 Monday to Saturday up to 6pm. THE SEARCH CONTINUES AT ASTRONOMY IRELAND... Once the likely location of this possible meteorite fall has been accurately determined a search of the land can be started. It may then be possible to locate that rarest form of space debris - an Irish meteorite. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tel: (01) 847 0777 WWW: http://www.astronomy.ie Email: info@astronomy.ie --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more