Comments on: What object fell on Brazil?

By: To Solve from Brazil

To Solve from Brazil — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:21:31 +0000

DEAR ALL: Berry and Marco Langbroek all the time were right – it is confirmed to be an Atlas 5 tank fuel as before mentioned.

By: Berry

Berry — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:43:51 +0000

I think *I* was actually the first to say “fuel tank”, but I didn’t know the magic incantation COPV, so I don’t get the wonderful null-set prize. C’est la vie.

By: ad

ad — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:44:33 +0000

Here comes another one:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23440301-2,00.html

By: jeremyj

jeremyj — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:00:13 +0000

@Alex Whiteside: bahahahahaha

It totally makes sense that there would be no crater, but for several of the above stated reasons, being ‘light’ due to its emptiness it would have had a slow fall to the earth and would not have made a crater, but at the same time, its relatively spherical shapes and lack of internal mass would also virtually guarantee that it would bounce and roll to its final location.

That being said, I agree with the Super Happy Fun Ball hypothesis.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:22:35 +0000

BTW, I wonder whether the Pentagon deployed it’s rapid response team to the crash site, given he obvious care they expressed for civilian’s health and safety in the context of USA 193’s fuel tank…

The Centaur rocket booster I talked about above is 2007-046B by the way.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:05:22 +0000

I join the chorus: definitely a fuel tank from a rocket booster.

It would help to have an exact date and time of when it came down, to see whether it matches any recent decayers. Apart from small bits of USA 193 debris, there was an expected decay of an Atlas 5 Centaur rocket booster last weekend. As it was from a military launch in 2007, the launch of the First Wideband Global SATCOM, no orbital elements are available though, but I guess it is a good candidate.

By: Michael Lonergan

Michael Lonergan — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:04:08 +0000

BA said:

“Update: We seem to have a winner. It looks very much like a fuel tank, called a composite overwrap pressure vessel. Robin Titus in the comments was the first to specify, for the record. He wins nothing. As a personal friend of mine, though, he has already won.”

Well, yeah, we could have told you that right off the bat, but you wouldn’t have had half the fun you have had reading 74 comments describing everything but a fuel tank, now would you?

Ironman:
Where did you find that picture? I remember that exact episode, and I would have been in my teens. The episode did still scare me though. But looking at that picture, which I half expected would still freak me out, I am picking myself up off the floor from laughing!

Incidentally, weren’t these stories supposed to be based on Project Blue Book’s unsolved cases? In other words they are true stories.

So, explain that one BA!?