SEATTLE -- Despite witness statements that a meteor that streaked across the Pacific Northwest skies this week struck the Earth, scientists at the University of Washington said it disintegrated in the sky.
Some witnesses reported seeing Tuesday's meteor hit the ground southwest of Ritzville, sending local officials on a fruitless hunt for the crater.
Using readings from instruments in the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, scientists at the UW campus in Seattle said Wednesday they believe the meteor disintegrated above the Blue Mountains, about 25 miles north of LaGrande, Ore., at an altitude of about 19 miles.
Stephen Malone, professor emeritus of space sciences and former director of the seismic network, worked with colleagues at the UW and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland to determine the fate of the space visitor.
They triangulated the location of the disintegration using readings from seismometers, the UW said in a news release.
Malone noted that the readings might be a bit off because the seismometer closest to the disintegration point has been out of commission since January.
Due to the speed such meteors are moving and how high they are in the atmosphere, it's often difficult for people to judge how far away the object actually is.Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., said people commonly think they see a meteor hit or about to hit the ground, when it is nowhere close.
"When you see objects like this in the sky your sense of scale is distorted," he said. "It's a common optical illusion."
But even though it didn't hit the ground, the huge fireball was seen throughout the northwest.
Dale Bunge lives in Monroe and said he first thought it was an aircraft until he noticed what looked like flame around the meteor."The amount of fire was incredible, unlike any shooting star I have ever seen," he said.
-Reported By KOMO Staff & News Services
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