Careful.. It might have been a sign, "Do not even think about letting Charles Walker out of jail" Think about it! LOL
AIKEN --- A group of Western meteorite hunters is headed to Augusta, chasing the possibility a meteor hit somewhere in the region early Friday, bringing reports of a loud boom and a fireball in the sky.
"We'll be working on this and will probably arrive to interview anyone who witnessed the fall," said Ruben Garcia, of Phoenix, who works with a group of "professional meteorite hunters" and runs the Web site www.mr-meteorite.net. "Newly fallen meteorites are very important to science and the world."
Mr. Garcia said his team would be willing to pay "top dollar" for any pieces of the meteorite, possibly as much as $10,000 for the first kilogram, or 2.2 pounds.
Whether the meteor made it to the ground before disintegrating is unknown.
The boom heard throughout Augusta and reports of a "large fireball" in the sky between 2 and 3 a.m. Friday could have been caused by a meteor, technically called a bolide, said Dr. Gary Senn, the director of the Dupont Pla- netarium in the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center at USC Aiken.
Dr. Senn said it's possible the meteor could have hit in the Augusta area, but that depends on whether it exploded when entering the atmosphere -- which could have caused the loud boom -- or whether it hit at an angle that left it intact.
If it stayed intact, he said the sound people heard could have been a sonic boom.
"It's very rare, but occasionally if a large enough bolide enters at the right angle it can create a sonic boom," he said.
He said the most common meteorites found have ranged from the size of a small rock to a softball.
A brief power outage occurred at Medical College of Georgia Hospital at 2:41 a.m., according to hospital officials -- about the same time the boom was heard. However, spokeswoman Deborah Humphrey said there is no evidence the two were related.
Dr. Senn said sightings of large fireballs in the sky are somewhat rare, but they have occurred before in the Augusta area.
He said those who saw or heard the fireball are asked to visit www.amsmeteors.org and file a report. Click "fireball sightings," then "fireball reporting form."
The American Meteor Society will use the information to help it determine where the meteor might have hit if it survived entry into the atmosphere.
Reach Preston Sparks at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com
Comments
Careful.. It might have been a sign, "Do not even think about letting Charles Walker out of jail" Think about it! LOL
Yooooowwwwwzzzzaaaa. If something that small can create such a shock, I'd hate to think what a full sized comet would do. I was going to quit drinking, but I don't think so after this.
It was about 3:00 am Friday morn....heard the boom and checked the paper yesterday but there was no mention of it..and then I forgot about it..soI was not dreaming the noise?.....coool
While there was no mention of the boom in yesterday's paper (press time is much ealier than 3 a.m.), there was an article online. I heard the boom at my house in Martinez, but assumed it was thunder.
I heard it too. I live in south Aiken.
I thought a tree had fallen on my house it shook so bad. I live on "the Hill"
Is The sky falling ????
Excuse me everyone-I had just had a little late night chili from waffle house that gave me gas reeeeeaaal bad!
Maybe it was a UFO? You know I knew this old man that use to going fishing on the river in Col Co and sometimes he would come back with stories about seeing UFO's . Everyone thought he was "OUT THERE", but maybe not. This one guy said he saw what seemed to a cloud of Dust right around the area where this old man use to fish. Sounds far fetched but makes you wonder.
There have been UFO's in Augusta before. I know, I saw one. And....NO! I'm not C-R-A-Z-Y. So don't send the men in white labcoats with the straightjacket to my house.
I did see a meteor once. I was heading out hunting one morning about 6:30 am. Driving HWY 296 between Hwy 17 and Stapleton. The "fireball" came over travelling towards Stapleton from Hwy 17 and probably impacted between Stapleton and Louisville in a Farm field. It appeared to be travelling about 100 yards North of the road(Hwy 296) and parallel to the road, in a westerly direction. It made no sound, and the fireball was very large. So, some remnants of it surely survived the impact. If I were into looking for these things, I'd look in the area of HWY 88 south of Wrens at its intersection with HWY 296. This event happened about four years ago, in late OCT/ early NOV.
Happy Klaatu barada nikto to everyone.
hmmm.....lol (9:48) Heading your way...lol.
at $10K per kilo, we need a few more of these. Then we wouldn't need all the bailout money.
It was probably a meth lab.
What intelligence some of you show with your tongue in cheek humor. There is a time and place for it, but not on a public forum. Grow up a little bit. I know it's a waste of time to say this because you can't change a Georgia or South Carolina hillbilly.
10 thousand dollars???? I know how my kids will be earning their allowance this week!!!
What's weird about this is that normally you hear warnings of "don't go near it, it could be toxic, radioactive, etc". Not this time. Not a single warning has been issued. That's because this was something else - not a meteor, bolide, etc. Three of us were on Wrightsboro Rd Tuesday night and saw some VERY strange lights in the sky that were nothing like I've seen before. Then, on Thursday night, we get that crazy boom. Makes me wonder.
I was leaving Walmart in NA, SC and sitting in my van when I heard it. Scared the **** out of me, cause I thought it was an earthquake jolt (used to live in CA). I knew it wasn't thunder and it was too loud to be a transformer. I immediately called my friend, and he said it was all over police scanner but nobody knew. It was windy and the clouds looked funky but I didn't see any fireball or lights b/c I was inside my van plus Walmart parking lot is lit up. Husband heard it at the house woke him and our daughter. Rattled windows and scared our daughter. So I knew it wasn't thunder! Thought sonic boom but didn't think that military flew those jets late at night/early morning when people sleeping. So I heard:earthquakes (I wasn't the only one), fireballs, meteor, transformers (wow, must of been some transformer to hear it thru out the CSRA and beyond!!!!), aliens, freaky atmospheric stuff, space shuttle (they landed in CA on SUNDAY before boom), military jets, military testing, government experiment...and more..Something that scared the $*#& out of me, is now funny! :)
I heard it in northern McDuffie County. I just happened to be awake and was lying in bed, it sounded like a loud explosion off in the distance. When I got back up at 6:30am and heard channel 6 reporting on it, I knew that I wasn't just hearing things.
Hello- if any of you wuold be willing to share your location when you heard the boom on the 2oth with me, it would really help! I am trying to figure out how many different areas actually heard the sound. Does anyone know which way it was travelling? My email is keithandana@gmail.com. Thank you!
We experienced almost the exact same thing (bright lights, a loud boom, buildings that shook) on Sunday, March 29, 2009 after 9 p.m., EST, here in the Tidewater region of Virginia (Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, etc.,) and parts of Maryland and North Carolina. I thought this was odd as I got a call about a week ago from my relatives in your area (Georgia) about the incident there.
End times, folks..................end times.
Ive been seeing some offical activity in sc. hummers and vans going in to the woods in the last 2weeks . something very weird not sure if its linked but its got my attention ,they never come down this road,I heard it, thougth i was dreaming ,it shook my home!!!!!
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