If you look just to the upper right of the rightmost tree, there is what appears to be a light-purplish flash behind the bridge pillar.
The light post appears to be on the other side of the bridge (or conveyor) and looks like the trajectory would end up in the water.
The sonic boom, if there was one, could have caused the lamp to go out without the particle physically striking the post. Probably a near miss.
While it could be a jpeg compression artifact, it IS in the trajectory of the 'tunnel'.
I think that the most likely explanation is a sand-grain sized meteorite who's final demise was caused; not by striking the light post, but by the atmospheric friction which happened to be at the highest just above the surface of the water. The moisture from the water might have played a role in the atmospheric density.
It is a one and a billion shot but how many billions of images have been taken since the invention of the camera!
Slashdot Mirror
To add to that, the image shows the particle disintegrating in a flash from atmospheric friction within feet of the surface of the Earth.
Therefore, it is NOT the first image of an object striking the Earth.
If you look just to the upper right of the rightmost tree, there is what appears to be a light-purplish flash behind the bridge pillar. The light post appears to be on the other side of the bridge (or conveyor) and looks like the trajectory would end up in the water. The sonic boom, if there was one, could have caused the lamp to go out without the particle physically striking the post. Probably a near miss. While it could be a jpeg compression artifact, it IS in the trajectory of the 'tunnel'. I think that the most likely explanation is a sand-grain sized meteorite who's final demise was caused; not by striking the light post, but by the atmospheric friction which happened to be at the highest just above the surface of the water. The moisture from the water might have played a role in the atmospheric density. It is a one and a billion shot but how many billions of images have been taken since the invention of the camera!