FWD [forteana] Re: Leonids: Imperfect Storm 'Casting

From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Tue Dec 11 2001 - 21:39:45 MST


Terry fwded:
> Peter Jenniskens, from NASA's Ames Research Center, forecasted up
> to 4,200 meteors per hour above North America;
>
Excuse me, but 'forecasted'???? Is this acceptable in the US? Or is this
just Wired saving money by laying off its subs and not paying for any
journos who actually know the fucking language?

TimC
Sub genuis

------------------

--- "Terry W. Colvin" wrote:

> Last line states reported no time between
> sighting a meteor and "hearing"
> the sound of it.

It's been pretty much acknowledged that the
source of the 'electrophonic' sounds that some
people report while observing a meteor fall
actually emanate from metallic objects (including
things like eye-glass frames, wire fences and
belt buckles)that are close by the observer. They
are believed to be produced by an interaction
between electrical fields caused by the meteor
ionizing as it falls through the atmosphere and
the nearby metal object itself. As EMP waves
propagate at light speed the sound occurs at
relatively the same time as the body is observed
plunging into the atmosphere. There are still a
few things to iron out in terms of the specifics
of how the EMP is produced but not many these
days flatly deny its existence like they used to.
The other thing to remember is that this
phenomena doesn't exactly happen every time, one
observer on the night of the Leonid shower this
year(Nov. 17th-18th) counted over 3000 meteors
over the course of the night, but failed to note
a single occurrence of electro-phonic sound.

t.

-- 
Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
     Alternate: < terry_colvin@hotmail.com >
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