Last Updated: Sunday, 29 October 2006, 12:16 GMT

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'Meteor' caused mystery explosion

The bang widened a crack in one resident's home


A chief scientist claims a loud bang on the north Cornwall and Devon border was caused by a large meteor exploding.
David Carcary from the West Cornwall Astronomical Society said a meteor had created the sonic boom before burning up after it entered the atmosphere.

He said the lack of any seismological signals indicates it burned up before it hit the ground.

Residents in the Bude and Holsworthy areas had reported hearing a loud bang around midday on Thursday.

One resident in Bude said a crack in her kitchen had widened as a result, while others reported experiencing their properties "shaking".

I'm fairly convinced it was a meteor but the only way to prove it would be to have an audio recording

David Carcary
A BBC Radio Cornwall listener said: "The stables physically shook. It sounded like Concorde used to sound when it broke the sonic barrier. But much louder. It went 'boom, boom'."

Checks carried out by Western Power and the British Geological Survey in the area were inconclusive and the Ministry of Defence, the RAF and the Civil Aviation Authority said there were no records of their aircraft flying over the area.

Mr Carcary believes a similar explosion which shook the south of New Zealand in September was caused by a meteor.

"As soon as I heard the news of the bang, that was the most obvious explanation to me.

"There wasn't any seismic evidence so it burnt out before it hit the ground - luckily for the people of Bude - and if it was an aircraft, I would have expected someone to have seen it.

"I'm fairly convinced it was a meteor but the only way to prove it would be to have an audio recording of the boom."


[link to news.bbc.co.uk]




oh, so the leading culprit for these unexplained sonic booms is a meteor, uh? just as i suspected. there have been literally dozens of unexplained sonic boom (which have sometimes been speculated to have been a meteor) in the last several years