Subj: 2                     2/6      Conf: (195) UFO
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Alien alert as mini meteors do the light fantastic
By David Derbyshire
Science Correspondent
A spectacular meteor shower sent hundreds of anxious onlookers
scurrying to phone the emergency services, convinced aliens were
about to land.
Police and coastguards were inundated with calls when the skies
above Southern Britain lit up with stunning flashes and smoke trails
and echoed to rumbling explosions.
Many mistook the shooting stars for distress flares from a ship in
trouble, while others believed they were seeing UFOs.
Infact, the light show signalled the return of a group of meteoroids
called Virginids, which reach the Earth every Spring. Experts say
they will be around for weeks. Sunday night's display was
particularly spectacular because of the nearly full moon and
crystal-clear skies.
Emergency services across the South and West said yesterday they had
taken hundreds of calls.
Police were also alerted, but soon learned the lights were shooting
stars after checking with weather experts.
The Brixham Coastguard in South Devon said it took up to 30 calls
reporting red distress flares in an area from Exmouth to beyond
Plymouth.
"It was obviously quite a severe meteorite shower," a spokesman
said. "We actually saw one over our own coastguard station. There was
a bright flash of white light with a bang and some smoke. It was like
a very big, very high firework.
Meteorologist Dr Richard Porter, from Kingsbridge, South Devon, told
how he saw a trail of light across the sky.
"It was like a rocket which broke up into five or six pieces and
disappeared but there was a smoke cloud which remained for ten
minutes. I also heard bangs and rumblings for two or three minutes.
"I believe it was a meteor a foot or so across at about 18 to 30
miles up in the sky. This is comparatively low in our atmosphere and
the lowest I have seen. It may have been a piece of space debris and
not a true meteorite."
Gerald White, secretary of the Norman Lockyer Observatory in
Sidmouth, Devon, said the meteors varied  from the size of sand to a
pea or even a cricket ball.
Tens of thousands of these lumps of rock and iron head towards Earth
every year, but only 100 or so are large enough to survive their
fiery descent and reach the ground.
When they float through space they are known as meteoroids. When
they burn up in the atmosphere they become meteors and if they crash
into the ground they are meteorites.
Meteoroids hit the atmosphere at up to 45 miles a second. Friction
with the air turns them white hot and they appear as streaks of
bright light. Mr White said reports of smoke were explained by
vapour.
Most are the size of grains of sand and disintegrate at least 50
miles up. But larger meteoroids, travelling at five times the speed
of sound, can produce sonic booms as they approach the ground.
They are created when asteroids collide in space, although some are
debris from comets.
Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through orbiting clusters
of rocks. Some return annually, others every few decades.
[UK 2]******
Source: The South Wales Argus, Monday March 16 1998
Publish date: Monday 16th March 1998
From: Lloyd Bayliss - lloyd@gwent-tertiary.ac.uk
They're Lights, Jim, But Not As We Know Them
By Helen Morgan
Gwent police were enjoying a quiet Sunday evening.  Until 7pm last
night, that is, when their switchboard was suddenly jammed with
callers reporting flashing lights in the sky.
Dozens of people from accross the southh of the county put forward
various explanations for the spectacle.
A plane crashing was the favourite, but there were also theories
that the much publicised 2028 asteroid was making a premature
appearance.
Inspector Ian Morgan, who was on duty at HQ in Cwmbran, said he
checked with Cardiff Airport to make sure no aeroplane was in
trouble.
"They assured us that everything they had in the air was still in
the air," he said.
But a quick call to the Cardiff Weather Centre solved the mystery.
Forecaster John Moreton confirmed there had been a metorite shower.
He explained that when a meteorite hits the atmosphere at an angle,
rather than straight-on, the results are often spectacular as it
burns up.
"It is actually quite common.  If you stand outside for long enough
you would see one most nights," he said.
Mr Moreton put the intensity of interest in the shower down to it
happening on a cloudless night and relatively early in the evening.
"If it had been clear over the whole country, it would have been
seen right accross Wales," he said.
[UK 3]******
Source: Free Press (Wales)
Publish Date: March 1998 (exact date not known)
From: Lloyd Bayliss - lloyd@gwent-tertiary.ac.uk
Fireballs Were A Meteor Shower
Gwent police were put on alien alert on Sunday evening when they
received reports from all over the country and beyond of fireballs
falling from the she sky.
Callers from as far apart as Pontypool, Chepstow, Merthyr and
Bargoed claimed they had seen alien landings in the Ebbw Vale /
Bargoed area. A police spokesman said that officers were despatched
to investigate but a search turned up no evidence of alien beings.
However, the matter was soon cleared up after a call to the experts
at the weather centre.  They told police the alien invasion was just
a meteor shower.
[UK 4]******
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