Amazing Fireball photo

Folks, Check this out!!
Astronomy Picture of the Day
A Daytime Fireball Over South Wales
Credit & Copyright: Jon Burnett
October 1, 2003

Explanation: Jon Burnett, a teenager from South Wales, UK, was photographing some friends skateboarding last week when the sky did something very strange. High in the distance, a sofa-sized rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet Earth and disintegrated. By diverting his camera, he was able to document this rare sky event and capture one of the more spectacular meteor images yet recorded. Roughly one minute later, he took another picture of the dispersing meteor trial. Bright fireballs occur over someplace on Earth nearly every day. A separate bolide, likely even more dramatic, struck India only a few days ago.

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031001.html

Keith...

hi Keith,

hope you had a nice weekend ...

I can't remember where I saw a further explanation of the photo, but the official word at the moment is that it is of a burning fuel dump from an F-111 bomber. Apparently, the aircraft was coming in to land and did a normal fuel dump but the engine exhaust ignited the vapour. Still, it's a pretty dramatic picture!

regards,

John
SDAS

Folks, Check this out!!
Astronomy Picture of the Day
A Daytime Fireball Over South Wales
Credit & Copyright: Jon Burnett
October 1, 2003

Explanation: Jon Burnett, a teenager from South Wales, UK, was photographing some friends skateboarding last week when the sky did something very strange.
Keith...

Keith,

The full story of this non-fireball is now available at:

tinyurl.com/qrc8

At the time I did find it strange that your APOD quote failed to mention that it was thought to be a contrail, not a fireball, but now I realise that APOD must have changed the original caption after you posted your message and before I accessed the web site.

Regards,

Gordon