Space Weather news for March 27, 2003<br />http://www.spaceweather.com<br /><br /><br />Sky watchers in several US states were startled around midnight on March<br />27th when a brilliant fireball streaked across the sky and exploded. It<br />was a small (perhaps less than a few meters wide) rocky asteroid with a<br />mass of about 10 metric tons. Some 500 fragments scattered over a 10-km<br />wide zone in the suburbs south of Chicago. Meteorites struck houses, cars,<br />roads--but no people. Such fireballs are surprisingly common: Researchers<br />expect an asteroidal object one meter in diameter or larger to strike<br />Earth's atmosphere about 40 times per year. Few are seen, however, because<br />they usually appear over unpopulated areas.<br /><br /><br />Visit spaceweather.com for more information.