À priori un météore, il provoque une agitation dans des parties de 4 états
Indianapolis, 18 août (AP) ? Un objet flamboyant, considéré comme ayant été un météore, a dévalé dans les cieux du Middle West ce matin et des signalements de son "atterrissage" dans une centaine d'endroits ont submergé les journaux, la police, les stations de radio et responsables militaires.
Les témoins startled dans l'ouest de l'Ohio, l'Indiana, l'est de l'Illinois et e nord du Kentucky, variously described the phenomenon as a big explosion, a silvery flash in the sky, a plume of black smoke, but all agreed that the object's direction was westward.
A Hoosier housewife said it drove her chickens to a frenzy. Ohioans telephoned airports that a plane was crashing. Illinois police thought "a nitro-glycerine plant" had exploded. A southern Indiana minister, who said the meteor landed a quarter-mile from his automobile, wrote a description for a newspaper which he entitled "Preacher Smells Brimstone."
Residents of a thirty-mile area in southeastern Illinois vainly tried to figure out the nature of the phenomenon. Reports poured in to newspapers and sheriff's offices from Lawrenceville on the south to Robinson on the north, Bridgeport on the west and Vincennes to the east.
Everyone was sure he heard or saw an explosion, a flash, or an aiplane exploding in midair, or a robot bomb, but no one could pin down exactly what he saw. Airplanes were accounted for, and no commercial explosion was reported. George Field near Lawrenceville reported there had been no mishap there.
The southeastern Illinois reports agreed on one thing ? the time was about 8:15 A. M., Central War Time.
The University of Cincinnati Observatory said the object might have been a meteor.
Descriptions Fit Meteor Flight
Howard W. Blaskeslee, science editor of the Associated Press, said here:
"The aerial explosion descriptions from Indiana agree in every way with those of large meteors, occasionally seen in daylight. One or several explosions are common. The wide area from which the object was sighted is common to meteor reports.
"Smoke trails have been seen with daylight meteors.
"If there weere several explosions in this case, then there is one good way of saying whether it must have been a meteor rather than a projectile.
"Meteors travel far faster than any human projectile which science at present can calculate on making. The speeds are ten to forty miles a second. The speeds through the air cause the surface burning due to friction. No human projectile burns in the air due to its speed.
"When several explosions occur, there are always spectators at some point in the area who heard them, the last and nearest one first. The explosions sound as if they retreat into the sky. The meteor travels faster than the speed of sound.
"If the retreating series of explosions was heard by reliable witnesses, then it can be assumed as proof that the Indiana object was merely a big meteor."