The article below was published in the daily newspaper Sud Ouest, France, on .
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FOLLOWING the observations of the luminous phenomenon which appeared in the skies of the region, on February 8th, we received from Mr. Dumont, from the service of the interplanetary matter of the Floirac Observatory, the following details:
"The descriptions of the luminous object appeared on February 8, around 18 h 30, incline to think of an interplanetary meteorite, having undergone the incandescense and the bursting in the high atmosphere (the return of a ballistic device is not however not excluded).
"The duration of a few seconds, the green color and the appearance of fireworks are quite common in meteoric observations well before the spatial era. A green luminescence of oxygen at 95 km altitude, always very weakly present, is excited by the bolides whose altitude is also the maximum of emission. Interplanetary grains of a few millimeters cause the usual shooting stars. A meteorite of a few kilos can reach the brightness of the Moon. The "upscale", fortunately more rare, is represented by the asteroid that fell, 150 to 200 million years ago, on the Rochechouart site, digging a crater of at least 20 km of diameter. The mass, made up of iron and nickel, was in the order of a billion tons."
