Indonesia blasts may be meteor shower

[Joachim/Berlin]

Last Update: Sunday, December 19, 2004. 2:38pm (AEDT)

Indonesia blasts may be meteor shower

Several loud blasts have been heard in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and two nearby towns, though one radio report said it could have been a meteor shower.

Police, on high alert after warnings from Western governments of possible terrorist attacks over the Christmas and new year period, said they had no information on the blasts.

A presidential spokesman also said he had no details.

Local Metro TV reported that residents heard the blasts about 7:30am in Jakarta, the satellite city of Tangerang and also Serang in West Java province.

Dozens of people telephoned El Shinta radio describing a fast, whitish object crossing the sky towards the west of Jakarta and a big explosion followed by what they said sounded like an echo.

Muji Raharto, an expert from the Boscha astronomical observatory in Bandung, West Java, told El Shinta there were no reports of any spatial objects crashing and that based on the visual accounts the object was very likely a meteor.

More than two hours after the blasts were heard, there were no reports of any casualties or damage, indicating the cause of the explosions was probably not bomb attacks.

Local news radio and TV stations were paying little attention to the explosions.

Western governments, especially Australia, have warned an international hotel could be targeted for attack in coming weeks.

-Reuters/AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/20 ... 268548.htm

[Thomas Sävert]

Hallo zusammen,

dazu noch die Meldung der "Jakarta Post":

"Object suspected to be meteor burns up over Jakarta, causing loud noise

JAKARTA (Agencies): Witnesses reported seeing an object with a tail of fire hurtling toward earth near Indonesia's capital early on Sunday, before a loud explosion was heard in several districts of and around Jakarta. An expert speculated that it might have been ameteor.

Indonesian Air Force radar detected an unidentified object falling toward the earth at a great speed before disappearing at around the same time as the noise was heard, a spokesman said.

An astronomy expert speculated that the object was a large meteor that exploded and then burned as it fell through the earth's atmosphere, around 100 kilometers above the surface.

There were no reports of any objects falling to earth in or close to the capital.

"My suspicion is that this was a meteor that burned up, causing a loud noise," astronomer Muji Raharto from the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in West Java told AP.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that the explosion could be heard in Tangerang, just west of Jakarta, the southern suburb of Depok and as far away as Bogor, some 60 kilometers south of the capital.

Police said they had no reports of any fallen objects and said they were still investigating the origin of the explosion.

"We have called all subdistricts and they all say they are not aware" of falling meteor in their area, a female police officer on duty at the Tangerang police precinct, First Insp. Kamtini told AFP.

Air Force spokesman Commodore Sagom Tambun said the air force was not monitoring falling objects such as meteors."

Gruß, Thomas Sävert

[Joachim/Berlin]

Wenn das "Explosions"-Geräusch in 100 km Höhe erzeugt wurde, dann dauert es mindestens 5 Minuten, bis die Schallwelle die Erdoberfläche erreicht. Das muss also schon ein sehr sichtbares und gleichzeitig sehr lautes Ereignis gewesen sein, schon allein deshalb, weil sonst beide Beobachtungen wegen der Zeitverzögerung nicht unmittelbar in einen Zusammenhang zu bringen wären, jedenfalls nicht für Laien. Und das in Indonesien, einer der am dichtesten besiedelten Regionen der Erde. Das müssen also Millionen von Leuten direkt mitbekommen haben! Bin mal gespannt, wann es die ersten Filmaufnahmen zu sehen gibt und ob von dem Meteoriten was bis auf die Erde gelangt ist.

Grüße,
Joachim

[Joachim/Berlin]

Aua, tut das weh! Man beachte das Foto: http://www.n-tv.de/5464617.html

[Thomas_K]

Und Yahoo-Nachrichten bringen das genauso schmerzhaft:

http://de.news.yahoo.com/041219/3/4cemb.html

Gruß

-Thomas-

[Thorsten Gaulke]

Moin Joachim...


dann war der Meteorit also 5 Minuten sichtbar...Wow, ganz schön lange, wenn man deinen Berechnungen und dem ARD-Videotext Glauben schenkt...

http://www.ard-text.de/videotext/?tafel=552

ARD Text Teletext im Ersten 20.12.2004 - 19:36:23


Wissenschaft

Meteorit offenbar über Jakarta verglüht

Über Indonesien ist am Snntagmorgen
möglicherweise ein großer Meteorit in
die Erdatmosphäre eingetaucht und
verglüht.

Augenzeugen in der Hauptstadt Jakarta
erklärten, sie hätten ein Objekt mit
einem Feuerschweif auf die Erde zurasen
sehen. Anschließend war eine laute Ex-
plosion zu hören.

Das Radar der indonesischen Luftwaffe
registrierte ebenfalls ein unbekanntes
Objekt, das sich mit großer Geschwin-
digkeit bewegte und etwa zu der Zeit
verschwand, als es den Knall gab.

531 << Fax-Abruf >> 108 >> 553