Dr J R Stockton wrote in message
nvalid...
In uk.sci.astronomy message , Sat, 22 Sep
2012 08:05:54, N_Cook posted:

Dr paul wrote in message
...
Sorry if this offends as not the right group ,but just seen a massive
meteorite to the north of Leeds uk ,travelling east north east to west
south
west ,it split up at about 40 degree declination and to the north of me
,into 6 to 8 fragments and disappeared into the west , the whole thing
visible for 20 to 30 seconds ,absolutely amazing ,best I ve ever
seen.Anyone
else see it?
Paul

++++


As viewing restricted to the north of the UK, does that not suggest it
came
from a low orbit, so space junk origin more likely?


From the description, and from video material, it was obviously an
artefact entering the Earth's atmosphere at about or under LEO speed and
breaking up.

The probability is that it was an artefact of Earth origin re-entering
and breaking up.

I saw something similar myself, decades ago; my first thought was that
it was an aeroplane disaster, but soon saw that no aeroplane could
suffer anything that disastrous for that long.

It certainly was not, as described in the press, a meteor shower, as a
shower is the entry of a number of meteors, not just one.

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So you would call a meteor shower, unsynced , distributed streaks with a
common radiant point , well off the planet. If a small meteorite/ large
meteor, breaks up inside our atmosphere, what would you term the the shower
of synced, close-spaced trails?