Re: Reentry or meteorite

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At 07:35 AM 12/16/96 GMT, you wrote:
>At dawn this morning i saw a possible reentry or meteorite (bolide?). The 
>observation was made from my car, so i only saw it for 1/2second before it 
>dissapearded below the trees in the soutwestern sky.
>57'07N 18'20E 06:34GMT SW at low elevation.
>Bright green streak, but looked as a single object.  
Kim,
on characteristic that distinguishes meteors and debris returning to Earth,
is that decaying satellites velocity speed is always a very moderate
8km/s in essentially the horizontal , while meteors  have velocities
which start near 20Km/s anf go up to 73Km/s.  You just saw a nice big
fireball( a bright meteor) I would guess. Decaying satellites would
be seen for a time approaching 30 seconds or so. 
Tony Beresford

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