SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) - Thousands of Utahns were scared, shocked,or even woken up at 12:07 Tuesday night by the flash and the delayed sonic BOOM of a bolide, an exploding meteor. 911 calls came in from all over the valley, and even the 911 operators themselves had witnessed the valley lighting up amidst the explosion.
Patrick Wiggins, a local NASA astronomer reported that he saw the flash through closed curtains, and feels the boom he heard 5 minutes later was the sound from the explosion, delayed because of the speed of sound.
Exploding meteors are not that rare, but did it hit the ground? Surveillance footage from the University of Utah observatory, west of Milford, gives us a clue that a piece might have done just that.
"See the piece break off?" Explained David Kieda, the head of the Physics Department at the University. "I don't think it survived intact"
"Most of the places these things happen there are no people." exclaimed Patrick Wiggins. "We really lucked out."
ABC4's intrepid meteorologist Todd Gross was put to the task of actually finding the meteorite (a meteor when it hits the ground is called a meteorite) when he reported for work Wednesday morning, by the news staff. However, being a long-time amateur astronomer, he pointed out to the rest of ABC4 that the chances of finding it were about the same as a needle in a haystack! Nevertheless, Gross did consult 3 scientists including Wiggins and Kieda. All agreed there was a possibility, based on observations, and seismology, that the meteorite may have ended up in the West Desert, no larger than a basketball, and likely never to be found.
