A "fireball" that streaked across the sky surprising residents of the Argentine provinces of Mendoza and La Pampa has sparked controversy after several scientists said that it was Russian space junk while others are insisting that it was a meteorite.
"It was part of the Russian Progress M-67 spacecraft, which on Sunday detached from the International Space Station and returned to disintegrate in the atmosphere" - astronomer Jaime Garcia, the scientific director of Argentinas Instituto Copernico.
Un meteorite si è disintegrato nel cielo argentino: le immagini spettacolari sono state diffuse dai media locali. Protagonista un oggetto di colore bianco-azzurro, i cui residui, impattando con la terra, hanno fatto tremare il suolo. Numerosi i testimoni che hanno assistito al fenomeno in alcune area del centro dell'Argentina.
This impressive phenomenon occurred on Sunday, September 27th 2009 and was seen from points as distant as the Chilean city of Temuco and Mar del Plata on the Atlantic Ocean. According to Dr. Richard Branham of the Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnologicas, the object was a bolide rather than a meteor or meteorite. Bolides, he explains, are large meteors that are incinerated as they enter the atmosphere and may attain significant apparent magnitudes, accompanied by loud reports.
Yesterday afternoon, near 19, the inhabitants of Mendoza, La Pampa, San Luis, and Cordoba saw a meteorite coming down the sky. It finally desintegrated with a loud explosion before it hit the earth. The object, which initially scared the residents, was seen yesterday in the General Alvear Department. It could be a meteorite or space junk, but the place where it fell isnt known, according to what the Copernicus Institute said today.