ALSACAT:

Haut-Rhin

Strange luminous phenomenon

On the evening from Friday to Saturday, at about 10:30 p.m., a luminous phenomenon was observed in the Haut-Rhin and the Vosges sky by many witnesses.

Several people in the vicinity of Mulhouse, Guebwiller and Colmar described similar events to the operational center of the gendarmerie. Witnesses assured that a light was moving at high speed in the direction from the Vosges to Germany. While the radar set of the air forve base 901 in Drachenbronn detected nothing, airline pilots also observed the phenomenon.

The police brigades of Ribeauvillé, Blodelsheim and Guebwiller have also been put on alert. A search has been undertaken to locate the site of a possible crash of a meteorite. These were stopped in the night without any finding.

ARE WE IN THE YEAR OF THE METEORS*?

At the end of February, we received the information from a witness that a ball, very bright and yellowish in color reportedly crashed near Colmar. The article of the Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace for February 20 confirms these facts to us and that several witnesses telephoned to the gendarmeries, but also to the editorial staff of the newspaper. Several Gendarmerie brigades were put on alert in order to locate the site of a possible crash, but to no avail. A second DNA article of February 22 informs us that this phenomenon was not only visible from the Haut-Rhin, but also from the Bas-Rhin.

At the request of our Colleagues of the Vosges, who opened an investigation in collaboration with the Observatory of Epinal, we ask Mr. Willy Bodenmuller of DNA, but also the newspaper L'Alsace to publish a call for witnesses in their pages, this to locate the possible spot of fall of this meteorite. The first investigations locate this place beyond the Vosges, but before the Haute-Marne. On February 25, the date of publication of the call for witnesses, the telephone at SPICA's office had very little respite. More than 60 telephone testimonials, and more than 40 E-Mails have reached us.

Although all the witnesses describe a phenomenon that can be identified with a meteorite, it should be noted that several colors are described, but it is also noted that there were similar phenomena at other dates and times. Indeed, with a maximum of testimonies were about the date of Friday, February 18, witnesses also describe to us an atmospheric reentry (because we are not sure that these are meteorites and we owe it to ourselves to be able to tell the difference between a natural object, the meteorite, and an object of artificial origin, such as rocket debris for example) on Friday, February 11, but also on Saturday 26 February. At the end of March, other calls arrive. This time a new reentry on Friday March 25, then again through the intermediary of DernièRes Nouvelles d'Alsace a new reentry on Tuesday, April 5.

Although all the descriptions seem to correspond to a meteorite fall, we nevertheless carried out investigations on the ground to, in the first place, give more concrete information to our friends in the Vosges, but also to confirm the trajectories in order to keep the memory of these observations, which as we know, in a few years, will have become possible observations of UFOs. But let's go into more detail on the various observations.

February 11 around 10:30 p.m., it's an orange ball, followed by a large trail that crossed, according to the description, the Bas-Rhin sky. For the witness, it would have passed over Nordheim and would have disintegrated just before falling on the horizon.

February 18 brings the greatest number of testimonies. It was 10:22 p.m. when several hundred people observed a luminous ball moving from east to west. If for these data all the witnesses are unanimous, they differ on other apsects. For many witnesses, this

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reentry illuminated the environment"..... The phenomenon illuminated the surroundings very widely, in a blue reminiscent of nightfall color....", another witness tells us "... My husband and I were invaded by an intense, white light. We first thought of the lighting of a plane in the landing approcah." At the sight of all the testimonies, we note that all the people did not have this impression of an environment lit by the luminous ball, however one cannot locate the places of observation by a possible passage above the witnesses.

Indeed, these descriptions are made by many witnesses from Duttlenheim (South West of Strasbourg) to Cernay (West of Mulhouse). Yet between these places, no one has noticed this illumination. The only thing in common between these witnesses was that they were all in cars. Another unusual thing, only a few witnesses saw two balls, three of them described the bursting, separation of the ball into two parts, one large and one small, making approximately, in apparent size, half of the first part. There too, nothing allows to give a trajectory, the witnesses are in Strasbourg Robertsau, Kogenheim and Colmar. A witness, having only a field of vision towards the West saw the two balls, without having observed the separation (see computer reproduction). The colors also differ, from the white ball with a blue trail, the blue ball with a white trail, to the emerald green ball without trail, through the turquoise ball or even in different colors (see drawing of a witness). Some had a halo and some didn't. Only one witness noticed a noise, like that of a blast, after the passage of the meteorite. Was he on the trajectory?

When I put this information on paper, I had no news from our colleagues in the Vosges, except the information from the newspaper L'Alsace where we learn that the meteorite could have fallen in a triangle between Vittel, Neufchateau and Bourdons-sur-Rognon. Their research has remained unsuccessful so far. We will certainly come back to this fall during our next issue.

February 26, we also have the testimony of another atmospheric reentry, again a green ball having approximately the same trajectory as the previous ones. The witness had the impression that it crashed in Quatzenheim.

Then it was on March 25, several people again saw a white luminous ball cross the Alsatian region. Here too the trajectory was from East to West.

It was on April 5 that several people made the most recent sighting. It was young people from Rosenwiller who observed an

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atmospheric phenomenonsimilar to those already described, shortly after 11:00 p.m. Always the same descending curve, this time again in green color. Although this sighting was for these witnesses of very short duration, they saw it between two houses. There is a rather interesting and to the very least a strange thing. After their observation, they thought they would see it again on the way up to the highest point in the village, which took them two or even three minutes. Obviously, given the speed of entry of a meteor, it was already far away by this time.

But a few moments after arriving at the last crossroads in the village, they heard an explosion and felt a vibration coming from the ground. Naturally, our witnesses made a connection with what they had just observed. But, although we are still investigating the origin of this noise and vibration, it can hardly be attributed to the observed phenomenon. Indeed with a speed of approximately 72,000 to 180,000 km / h - if it is indeed a meteorite, the latter was already very far away. If the explosion and vibration were due to the impact, it would have been felt more strongly if it had crashed in the immediate vicinity of the observation site. Currently we are still awaiting some answers on this matter.

As I write these few lines, I learn from a witness that a new sighting, of what appears to be a meteorite, has been made from Rothau on April 21. It was a bluish ball, without a trail, which came from St-Dié (88) to move towards Natzwiller (67). The witness did not hear any noise.

And think that during these months from February to April 1, there is no very active metero showers! Nothing that is worth sticking out your necks in the coolness of the nights. Too bad, because we missed some great shows! On this point all the witnesses agree, it was grandiose, sublime, impressive, majestic and I forget the terms given by the witnesses of these small pieces coming from space and entering our atmosphere, a small residue of the planet formation of 4.5 billion years (sic L'Alsace).

* For info: some solid extraterrestrial bodies arrive in the vicinity of the Earth but, either made up of gas solidified at the very low interstellar temperature, or tiny mass, they vaporize in the upper atmosphere, only signaling themselves by a fleeting luminous trail, at an altitude of 120 km; they are meteorites, the luminous phenomenon called meteor.
The maximum speed of a meteorite in space is 42 km/s. The average speed of the Earth is 30 km/s. If the Earth were deprived of atmosphere and did not have a force of attraction, the speed of arrival on the ground would be the vector sum of the two speeds, that is to say approximately 12 km/s if the meteorite "caught up" with our planet, and 72 Km/s if they came upfront. But the atmosphere will slow down the meteorite according to its coefficient of aerodynamic penetration. In addition, the earth's attraction will also change the speed at any time.
Source: Alain Carion's booklet on meteorites

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January 2005

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At 10:00 p.m. In the sky of the Vosges (France), 1 fireball crosses the sky. Some 700 witnesses will be gathered from motorists, walkers and even firemen on intervention at the time of the phenomenon. The fireball was observed from Epinal to Baccarat through Gerardmer Saint Die and Vittel, in Alsace and even Dijon. Some saw that nighta strong bluish brightness invade nature. In Strasbourg seismographs have reacted to the sound waves of the fireball but did not record an impact. By deducting the meteorite was not larger than a handball ball.

A fireball crossed the Vosges sky last February. Since then, expeditions have followed one another to find the place where the object from heaven could have crashed.

Since February 18, when a large luminous ball has been seen in the Vosges sky by hundreds of people, the team of the planetarium of Epinal (Vosges) is in search of a meteorite fallen in the forest.

Some 700 testimonies were collected by telephone, mail or email after tonight when, at 10:25 p.m., motorists, passers-by and even firefighters in intervention witnessed the phenomenon. From Epinal to Baccarat via Gérardmer, Saint-Dié and Vittel, to Alsace and even to Dijon, some saw that evening "a strong bluish luminosity invade nature", others say they attended "an eclipse in reverse".

"Like daylight"

"We received very poetic testimonials from people who had the feeling of having experienced something grandiose," says Didier Mathieu, scientific coordinator of the Belle Etoile planetarium at Epinal; which coordinates the research. "They suddenly saw" nature as in broad daylight; some said they were drowning into a river of diamonds. One person even sent us a sample of sky blue tulle tissue to describe what she saw," he adds. Since then, not a week goes by without the planetarium being contacted by people who wanted them to identify a suspicious pebble. Because now, the team of astronomy enthusiasts of the only planetarium of Lorraine is desperately looking for the meteorite whose trajectory and the place of fall are difficult to appreciate.

The Strasbourg seismographs reacted to the sound waves of the object that emitted a "bang" like a plane crossing the sound barrier, but did not record any impact on the ground. By default, it was deduced that the pebble was no bigger than a handball. It would have fallen into a triangle situated between Vittel, Neufchateau and Bourdons-sur-Rognon, on the borders of the Haute-Marne and the Vosges, admitted with difficulty the person in charge of the planetarium who would prefer to discourage the curious.

"Big cometary cloud"

He has already conducted three expeditions with a dozen amateur astronomers to evaluate "suspicious craters" which turned out, there, a collapse of gallery, elsewhere, a badger's burrow. Additional disappointment, the vast area of ??research is "90% of forest almost impenetrable since the storm of 1999". "Still, we're looking for it. If we can relate this stone to a planet formation residue of 4.5 billion years old to all those who could see it, we will have done our job!", says Didier Mathieu. Even though every day there are meteorites falling on the earth, the latest in the Vosges dates back to 1822, in La Baffe.

Since February, local newspapers have reported at least three times testimonies of visions of green or bright balls in the region. "The earth has passed through a big cometary cloud and we see fireballs, big shooting stars", confirms the person in charge of the planetarium of Epinal. And to note: "You know, in the last century, there was less light pollution and no television, one saw a lot more meteorites".

Virginie MONTET (AFP)