Wayne Pryde believes that he has taken the first photograph ever to capture the image of a meteorite striking the earth. He was taking pictures of clouds when he happened to get this photograph of what might be a grain-of-sand-sized meteorite hitting the Earth. But meteor experts aren't so sure. They're not yet crying hoax (Mr. Pryde swears that he hasn't digitally altered the photo), but they don't think the photo shows a meteor impact. However, they have no idea what else it might be. The Astronomy Picture of the Day site has put up a hi-res version of the image and is asking for help from the internet community. Maybe somebody online can figure out what this thing is.
Comments
Maybe he caught the light just as it was burning out. Whenever my lights die they come on & sort of 'pop' off in a flash. That part of the picture at least seems real. The meteor's 'trail' leading down to the pole wouldn't have been caught. That part of the image DOES seem dubious.
"Experts believe the meteorite may not have hit the lamp post, but metal elsewhere on the wharf.
Mr Pryde, 31, is an IT expert but he denied the photograph had been digitally altered.
Photographic experts also said the shot had not been doctored."
Wow! Three experts in three consecutive paragraphs! I wonder what field of the first ones practice in - lamp-posts, maybe? Do these experts actually have names? Why are they so coy about publicity? Or are they just 'some bloke' the journalist met down the pub? Citing an 'expert' (real or imaginary) does add a bit of spurious weight to a half-baked report, though.
Can anyone remember any details of the newspaper story that said something like: "Plane crashes into mountain; something must have gone wrong, says expert" or it is a myth? Unfortunately, myth or not, such a quote is believable.
The photographer says the time between shots was 15 seconds. Someone on the IPOD discussion claims to have extracted the technical data from the picture files which shows this be so; however, he says the 'before' and 'after' shots appear to have been swapped. What may be significant is that the flash on the camera was indicated as being 'on' for all three shots suggesting that what is seen as a flash could be something small close to the camera which would then appear bright - an insect perhaps.
As penance, I looked at the EXIF data (with GraphicConverter on Mac OS X) and it's like this:
before - 18:53:07
flash - 18:52:52
after - 18:52:37
So yeah, the pictures are out of order. Just a file-naming mistake, most likely. It's clear when viewing the three as an animation that the clouds are "un-billowing" in the filename order as given.
I don't know if I buy the "flying bug" theory... The dark line is just *too* straight, especially given that this is a 1/20s exposure: it's hard for me to imagine a bug that subtends that much angular distance on such a straight line.
All I can say is..KEEP ON ROCKING!and good luck!
"My Conclusions
With near 100% certainty, the image does not show:
* a meteorite or piece of space debris
* a shadow from the lamppost
* a contrail, or shadow of a contrail
* a crepuscular or anti-crepuscular ray
* a camera artifact
Still very unlikely, but impossible to completely discount, are:
* fraud
* an exploding light bulb (doesn't address the streak)
* a reflection from the sunlit clouds (doesn't address the streak)
* a rocket or high velocity weapon
* lightning
Which leaves me with the most likely explanation: this is simply the image of an insect passing right in front of the lens. The theory is well supported by the image analysis and by experiment, it is plausible (a resident of Darwin reports that flying ants and other insects are numerous at this time of year), and it requires no extraordinary coincidences."
Occam's razor was applied in their results. Definitive proof? No. But it's as close as anyone will probably come, without duplicating it.
Huh?
Now for the information on my sighting which I did report as a "POSSIBLE" sighting also!.
while I was driving,I heard a "S -ssssss" and crackling noises and what sounded like something in the sky was frying in a pan, while the radio was on in my car....I stopped to see what it was and the time was 10:45 or so at night.I saw what looked like, lighting all the way from space and which came down to the ground behind the tree's in the next field which stayed for a few minuts ,then faded away.I also saw sparkles that came from the light tail and they where also falling to the ground.It reminded me of someone welding.The color of the trial was brilliant white.If it was not a meteorite,then I don't know what the heck it was.I started looking with a metal detector, but then four days after that it snowed,so next summer I will start to look again and it is a huge field of about 650 acres.That is what the owner say's,so it will be like looking for a needle in a pile of hay.I did find one interesting looking magnetic rock and it looks burnt and it is now starting to rust.I also found some Indian tools made from rock.And this has been confirmed by a freind who is a archeologist in that field of study.So,I can say all my hunting is not for nothing.There is a lot to find, if you look beyond just rocks alone.Think prehistoric living and indian times.