UFO explodes in China

December 13, 2004 at 07:48 AM

A bit of a story going on about a UFO that blew up in China.

An unidentified flying object, or UFO, passed across the large north-western Chinese city of Lanzhou and apparently exploded in the suburbs, state media said on Monday.
The unusual sighting of two bright trails of light, reported by several witnesses, took place on Saturday shortly before midnight, the China Times reported.

Police, working on the theory that it was a meteorite, went to investigate the matter, but as of early Monday they had found no evidence of what caused the nightly phenomenon, an officer said by telephone.

A taxi driver told the paper he was in his car when everything suddenly became "as bright as day."

When he pulled over, he saw a fireball with a tail of about three metres darting across the sky, he said.

It seems there might be a very rational explanation for this one,as today marks the event called the Geminids meteor shower. Peak on the 13th of December, the Geminids are a little strange. It's their parentage: 3200 Phaethon. Meteor showers are supposed to come from comets, but 3200 Phaethon looks like an asteroid. This has puzzled astronomers for years.

Does anyone else know of any UFO stories from China ?

http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/Offbeat/0,,2-1343-1347_1635191,00.html