Message from the heavens?
Dustin Procita, a rancher in Nevada County, CA wasn’t sure what had hit his home Friday night. “I heard a big bang. I started to smell smoke and I went on to my porch and it was completely engulfed in flames,” Dustin told KCRA. Dustin had just returned inside after feeding some birds and was sitting on his couch listening to music when the mysterious object hit his home. While scrambling away from rapidly growing flames, Dustin was only able to save one of his two dogs. The second dog, named Tug, died in the fire, according to a GoFundMe. After the puzzling incident, Dustin was shown videos taken by others in the region who had spotted the bright ball of light moving across the dark night sky. “Definitely feel very lucky that it was 30 feet away from me and not five,” adding that what he had seen in the videos looked “like a flaming basketball.” According to NASA, the southern Taurids meteor shower peaks this week. The cosmic display, also called “Halloween Fireballs,” produces the brightest meteors in the night sky each year from September to November.
The Penn Valley Fire Department and Cal Fire are investigating what started the blaze at Procita’s home. “They said it was a meteor. I watched meteor showers and stuff as a kid, but I definitely didn’t look forward to them landing in my yard, or through my roof,” Dustin added. Footage taken from a neighbor’s Ring camera in the region showed a bright light shooting across the sky and landing near Procita’s property. “Meteorite, asteroid — one of those two,” the fire department’s captain, Josh Miller, told the TV station. “I had one individual tell me about it first and like, OK, I’ll put that in the back of my mind. But then more people — two, three or four more — started coming in and talking about it.” Penn Valley firefighters received a call for a structure fire in a remote area around the same time witnesses reported seeing a meteorite in the area. “Everyone I talked to said it was a flaming ball falling from the sky and landed in that general area,” Miller said. Even though Halloween has not happened yet, Dustin said the fireball hitting his home may be a sign of good luck. “They say it’s a 1 in 4 trillion chance, so I guess I might be buying a lottery ticket today,” he joked.
Meteoric Mirth
My friend showed me a photo of a famous meteor crater in Arizona.
It’s amazing how close it landed to the Visitor’s Center.
How did the cavemen survive the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs?
Social distancing, they stayed 56 million years apart.
What’s the difference between Democrats and the dinosaurs?
The dinosaurs didn’t vote for the meteor.
Why is it that someone tells you there are 1 billion stars in the universe you will believe them,
ut if you tell them the wall has wet paint, they will have to touch it just to make sure?
October 17 Birthdays
1982 – Angel Parker, 1985 – Felicity Jones, 1956 – Mae Jemison, 1948 – Margot Kidder
1958 – Alan Jackson, 1972 – Eminem, 1969 – Wood Miller, 1963 – Norm McDonald