3-Yukon Meteor Blast

(3) YUKON METEOR BLAST

From Space Science News
http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast25jan_1.htm

Science@NASA Space Science News for January 25, 2000

Yukon Meteor Blast: A thunderous meteor streaked over Canada's Yukon
Territory last week. Now a NASA airplane has flown through the debris
cloud in search of extraterrestrial particles.

January 25, 2000 -- Last week, one of the most dramatic meteors in 10
years streaked across the skies of the Yukon Territory in Canada.
Witnesses reported two sonic booms, a foul odor, and sizzling sounds
heard all the way from Alaska through northwestern Canada. Based on
readings from defense satellites and seismic monitoring stations,
scientists estimate that the meteor detonated with the energy of two
to three kilotons (quilotoneladas) of TNT.

"I have never seen anything quite like this before," said Joe Clarke
of Marshlake, Yukon, who saw the meteor at 0845 PST (1645 UT) on
January 18, 2000. "When it started, the flash lit up the mountains 15 km
away as bright as daylight, then it just drifted across the sky. The
contrail looked to me like the ones left by shuttle launches. It just
hung there for at least 1/2 hour. [It's the] wildest thing I could
ever imagine seeing."