UFOs alarm Tangerang residents

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Residents in the western parts of Jakarta and Tangerang woke up early Sunday to a loud blast -- and spent the rest of the day wondering what it was.

Fortunately, it was something other than a bomb.

Some said it was like the sound of a cannon, but the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) said that would result from a transfer of energy in the atmosphere by a fragmenting meteor.

The Bandung-based Boscha Observatory suspected that the showering fireballs seen in the sky above Greater Jakarta early on Sunday were bolides -- a very bright, large, exploding meteor, but LAPAN said they were the less dangerous meteorites.

Astronomer Moedji Raharto of Boscha said there was no bolide recorded by the observatory's telescopes in Bandung or Jakarta. He said his assumption that it was a much smaller meteorite, was based on witness information, who claimed they had seen the streaking fireballs followed by the sound of a huge explosion. Some of them called into radio talk shows.

"Bolides are very bright, but it's impossible to see them at 7:30 a.m. (the time witnesses claimed to have seen them) when the sun is shining. I'm assuming the flying objects they saw were smaller bits of meteorite," he told The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile, LAPAN researcher Thomas Djamaluddin said, "I suspect the fireballs were from a large meteor, which burned and splintered into many smaller fragments after entering the earth's atmosphere. Therefore, it created fireballs and several explosions."

Thomas said the magnitude of the explosions would depend on the type of meteorite.

He recalled a similar incident in Pontianak last year when fireballs as big as a coconuts destroyed a vast area of a plantation.

"The fireballs can be really devastating and dangerous if they hit residential areas," he said.

He admitted that the agency found it difficult to predict when a similar incident would be repeated in the future, since many kinds of flying objects in space stem from the remains of the creation of solar systems or debris from meteors.

Astronomers would be able to analyze and therefore determine the type of the meteorite from information obtained from an actual piece of it, if found.

Moedji said it was difficult to observe all flying objects because Indonesia still did not have a "sky watcher" system with an automatic telescope that can work around the clock.

Tangerang Police officers, meanwhile, refused to believe the people who made the report about the fireballs.

"We have already cross-checked with other agencies throughout Tangerang, but there is no confirmation," said Tangerang Police detectives chief Adj. Comr. Kustanto.

He said they had not found any sign of falling meteorites, although several residents claimed they witnessed flying objects landing in the western part of Tangerang, followed by explosion sounds at 7:30 a.m.