Astronomer Von Del Chamberlain today (from his website)
Science has the answer
ŠTim Printy July 2006
With the military and state police stating that nothing was found that evening, science took over in investigating the case. What appears to have been a bright meteor was called an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) by others. When astronomers began to investigate the event, they discovered that many of the reports of the meteor falling nearby were inaccurate:
These imagined happenings arose from the impossibility of estimating the distance to an object in the sky. Almost everyone who saw the fireball thought it was much closer than it really was. When it had disappeared behind a house or a tree, many people thought it had fallen only a few hundred yards beyond. (The Great lakes 79,82)
Astronomer Von Del Chamberlain from the Abrams Planetarium of Michigan State University, led much of the work on the matter. His group's first effort was to determine what people saw that evening and what data could be obtained from these observations. According to Chamberlain,
In response to news media requests, over 150 descriptions of the event were received. Standardized questionnaire forms were sent back to 107 individuals, of whom 66 returned completed forms.
A preliminary analysis of these data indicated that the meteorite had been moving in a generally north-easterly direction, disappearing at a point over land some 15 miles south-east of Windsor. (Chamberlain and Krause 184)
But Chamberlain and Krause were lucky in that the two photographers in Michigan were able to take several photographs of the meteor debris trail.
Mr Lowell Wright of Berkley Michigan, who was taking sunset pictures at Orchard Lake, about 5 miles south-west of Pontiac, Michigan, as the event occurred. He obtained two photographs of the train (figs 1 and 2), the second of which he estimates was taken within 15 seconds of the event...Mr. Richard Champine of Royal Oak, Michigan, had made a series of four photographs of the train from a point about two miles east of Pontiac, Michigan, the first of which (fig 3) was taken approximately 45 seconds after the visual phenomena. The four Champine photographs cover a span of about 80 seconds, and reveal that the total drift of the cloud was minimal, although disintegration of the train is evident (Chamberlin and Krause 187-8).
Chamberlain, Krause, and Ralph Johnson went to both locations where the photographs were taken. Using a transit and the photographs, they obtained accurate measurements for two points along the meteors debris train that allowed them to compute the meteors trajectory.
The fireball's computed trajectory (Chamberlain 6)
The eyewitness data coupled with the photographs obtained indicated many of the reports of debris in Ohio and Pennsylvania were wrong. According to Chamberlain, "Interviewing residents near the computed endpoint revealed the fireball did, in fact, end directly overhead in extreme southwest Ontario., thus confirming its trajectory and likely fall" (Chamberlain 5). Chamberlain suggested that fragments probably did reach the ground but reports they could not find any.This is not unusual involving bright fireballs. Not all produce meteorites or meteorites are not always recovered because their size is so small, they land in lakes or ponds, or simply land in a manner that does not make their location obvious (i.e. no significant damage to the surrounding terrain).
As for all the other reported fragments found in various locations, Chamberlain noted the reports in his article for Michigan Meteorites but concluded they were probably not meteorites. It is likely that many of the reported fragments failed testing to see if they were actually meteorites or were never tested at all.
Works Cited
Chamberlain, Von Del and David J. Krause. "The fireball of December 9, 1965 - Part I". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Journal 61.184-190
-. Bulletin 5: Meteorites of Michigan. Michigan Department of Conservation. Speaker-Hines and Thomas, Inc. Lansing, MI 1968.
"The Great Lakes fireball". Sky and Telescope. February 1966. P78+
Back to My skeptical opinion about UFOs