65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_010

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HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY
CAMBRIDGE 38, MASSACHUSETTS
July 28, 1964
Mr. Edward A. Stewart, Jr.
152 Mount Holly Avenue
Mount Holly, New Jersey
Dear Mr. Stewart:
The object you saw was a bright meteor, sometimes
called a "fireball" or a 1'bolide
11 •
Almost all vecy
bright meteors are small bodies moving in orbits rather
like the orbits of asteroids, and probably are fragments
of asteroids.
The direction of motion of your\meteor
is consistent with that sort of orbit.
A good many
bright' meteors strike the earth each day, but most go
unnoticed.
We have received another report of the same
meteor from Wilmington, Delaware.
I am sending your observation to the Moonwatch
Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatocy
here in Cambridge, which has a continuing program for
analysis of visual observations of bright meteors.
Since it is vecy rarely possible for the professional
astronomer to observe these meteors, most of what is
known about them depends on this sort of lucky chance .
·-._
Sincerely yours,
~4~
RBS:lrw
Richard B±s'ou.thworth
EtallUJ'.lllq
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