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American Morning
Fireball Illuminates Northeastern Skies
Aired July 24, 2001 - 11:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we have more and especially great pictures to show you about that incredible meteor shower that caught the attention of people up and down the East Coast last night. We have with us on the phone Jeremy Moehler. He took some video that we're going to talk with him, and to watch along with us, we're going to bring back Jack Horkheimer, who is the director of the Miami Planetarium.
Jack, are you still with us?
JACK HORKHEIMER, DIRECTOR, MIAMI PLANETARIUM: I'm here.
KAGAN: You got the popcorn ready?
Here are the pretty -- Jeremy, hey, how are you?
JEREMY MOEHLER, AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER: I'm doing pretty good.
KAGAN: Now tell me where you were. Right now you are in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, as I understand it. That's where you took the pictures?
MOEHLER: No, I took the pictures -- it's out nearly Salladasburg and Quiggleville. It's in Lycoming County, right outside of Williamsport.
KAGAN: All right -- OK, Williamsport. Now, what first caught your attention?
MOEHLER: What first got my attention, I was at my friend Shawn's house in Williamsport, we heard this loud crash and we thought it was a plane. And so, I was like what the heck was that? And we heard on the radio and stuff, like different stations that a plane had crashed or a meteor hit. And I was like, wow, if that was a meteor, that's really awesome, you know, because I've never seen before one hit the Earth, you know what I mean?
KAGAN: Cool.
MOEHLER: So, we went out to investigate and we heard exactly kind of the vicinity of where it was, and then we went out to look for it and lo and behold, we found the spot supposedly where it had hit. I mean, we still are unsure of what actually hit there.
KAGAN: So, we're seeing -- this is a cornfield, right Jeremy?
MOEHLER: Yes, it was in the cornfield. Its was in one of the furrows. It actually hit right in the furrow if it actually was a meteorite.
KAGAN: Can you see CNN right now?
MOEHLER: No, I'm not by a TV right now.
KAGAN: But you've seen your own pictures, right?
MOEHLER: Oh, yes, I have.
KAGAN: So, describe to us the thing that you think fell from the sky. When you finally got to the middle of the cornfield, what did it look like?
MOEHLER: Well, there was a long furrow between two rows of corn, and it was a darker area. It looked like it had been gouged out, kind of, and it looked like it might have been burned and then someone threw water on it to put the smoke out and towards the end, closer to me, there's like a darker area where it might have impacted if there was a meteorite.
KAGAN: And how big was it, would you say?
MOEHLER: It was probably 40-by-20 in length that I could see of the whole area. The burn mark itself was probably like 10-by-10. But I was far away, so I couldn't actually -- I'm just guesstimating.
KAGAN: All right, Jeremy, you stand by. Jack, let's bring you in. Those clues and the pictures you've been able to see, and I know we're not seeing that much, but can you play detective for us here and bring any more insight into what people did see up and down the East Coast last night?
HOCKHEIMER: I can sure try to help. Without seeing an actual piece of what actually landed, we still can't tell whether it was a man-made piece of space debris or if it was indeed a meteor asteroid. In this case, we call it a bolide because it exploded and made a sound. When a meteor makes a sound, we classify it as a bolide.
So, until somebody really finds a piece of this stuff, we aren't going to tell exactly what it was. If it is an asteroid, a stray, it is probably a piece left over from the formation of our solar system, about 4 1/2 billion years old, and we encounter one of the bolides at least once a day, but because the Earth is so vastly uninhabited -- two-thirds is water then we got the poles, a lot of people don't see these. They're infrequently seen.
I would be very interested to see if anybody picks up any pieces. Now, because we heard a sound, that tells us scientifically that this object, whether it was man-made or a it was natural asteroid, that sound tells us that this thing exploded and broke up into more than one piece.
KAGAN: Ah, so there should be more pieces out there.
HOCKHEIMER: Right, we should be looking in some other areas also close to this where pieces may have come down. It will be very exciting if someone recovers it and it can be analyzed.
KAGAN: Jeremy, tell us more about the sound you heard that first caught your attention?
MOEHLER: It was like one of those -- it was like a sonic boom, like a giant Mack truck falling off a cliff. I mean, it was really loud. It was extremely loud. I've never heard anything more loud in my life. It shook the entire house.
KAGAN: So, you took these pictures -- how close then did you get to the actual site?
MOEHLER: Well, I got maybe 200 yards from it. The video is pretty close. Like, when you see it up close, that's when I was zooming. When it was far away, that's how far away I was, actually. It was about 150 to 200 yards away, and they wouldn't let us down there. They were coming over the megaphone, please move away from the contaminated area. Whether it was contaminated or not, who knows.
KAGAN: Who was saying that, officials or the people who own the property?
MOEHLER: DEP.
KAGAN: DEP?
MOEHLER: Yes, Department of Environmental Protection.
KAGAN: Ah, got, so they weren't really sure what they had.
MOEHLER: Yes, and no one knows what they found, you know what I mean? They'd be the first people to maybe know what it was maybe.
KAGAN: Very good. Jeremy, good journalistic work there, good camera work. We appreciate you, even though you couldn't get down in there, taking the pictures for us, and Jack Horkheimer, Jack, always a pleasure to have you along.
HOCKHEIMER: My pleasure and you've got a good clue, there, Daryn. I'd call the DEP to ask them what they found.
KAGAN: Jack, you always make it a joy to talk about things that either come falling out of the sky or even better yet, stay up there in the safer place.
HOCKHEIMER: Keep looking up.
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