METEOR PHENOMENA

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 May 1943, Page 2

METEOR PHENOMENA

PHYSICIST’S EXPLANATION

CHRISTCHURCH, May 19

When reports of the observation of meteors over practically the whole of the southern portion of the South Island were referred for comment to Dr. D. B. Macleod, lecturer in physics at Canterbury University College, today, he stated that it was probable that the phenomena were accounted for by the passage of one large meteor through the atmosphere, and its subsequent disintegration. Reports have been received from Greymouth, Oamaru, Invercargill, Waimate, and country districts near Christchurch, indicating that what was variously described as a meteor, a fireball, and an enormous shooting star, had been seen about 6.30 a.m. on Saturday. Dr. Macleod said that observers had probably seen a particularly large meteor, whose path had been fairly high in the sky—possibly from 50 to 100 miles up. Meteors, continued Dr. Macleod, were of fairly common occurrence, and they were usually observed in the morning. Occasional ones penetrated more deeply into the earth’s atmosphere. The friction caused by their passage through the air set up an intense heat, resulting usually in the spontaneous disintegration of the meteor before it reached the earth’s surface. Occasionally a'shower of meteors followed the disintegration of old comets, added Dr. Macleod, but as far as he could say, the present occurrences related to only one meteor. A possible explanation of some of the phenomena reported was given by an officer of the Magnetic Observatory, who said that “globe” or “ball” lightning might be-responsible. This consists of a glowing ball of incandescent matter, usually associated with a lightning flash. Sometimes the ball will explode with varying degrees of violence, and its movements are often quite leisurely and erratic. The precise nature and cause of ball lightning is not known but it appears to have been activated in some way by the electrical energy of the lightning discharge, and it is possible That sub-atomic changes are involved. An Invercargill report stated that a celestial phenomenon which lit up the early morning sky with great brilliance, was observed last Saturday at Gore and Queenstown as well as at Invercargill. This was probably the same meteor which was observed as far north as Tai Tapu, and also on the West Coast. The speed with which the flash traversed the sky would lead to the conclusion that it was caused by a meteor, high up in the atmosphere, rather than by any other celestial phenomenon.