Furthermore, where are people getting the idea -- in the first place -- that the lamp bulb ever "exploded"? The remarks on APOD merely indicate that the lamp was examined and found to be "not working". Since street-lights commonly burn out, this is nothing unusual IMO. I rather expect it would have been mentioned if the thing were actually in pieces.
Bad Science from "The Bad Astronomer" -- On the Bad Astronomy page (which I am unable, for some reason, to create an account on due to the "robot" rejecting a correct letter/number verifier.), "Bad Astronomer" (henceforth, "BA") wrote:
If this were a meteor hitting the lamp, then the center of the streak should hit the lamp-- if we are to believe the image shows the lamp exploding upon impact, the trail should not have had time to drift. Since the streak misses the lamppost, I assume that this picture does not show a meteor.
Why are "we to believe the image shows the lamp exploding"? Wouldn't it be an easier assumption that the lamp is simply in the foreground and the bright object is either the incandescent meteor itself or its splash & steam-cloud in the water behind the post?
Also, a small meteor would have long since slowed to free fall by the time it hit the ground, so the angle of attack would be vertical, not at the 33 degree angle in the picture.
Bullets traveling less than one-tenth the speed of a meteorite are easily able to miles of atmosphere without slowing to free-fall. A reasonably aerodynamic iron/nickel meteorite could easily slam straight in at an oblique slant angle at still supersonic speed. (The small white arc which is just to the right of the flash/splash is, I maintain, slight condensation attending the atmospheric shock-wave which is visible only from a vantage point along the plane of the shove-wave.) I believe the image shows the impact of a dime-to-quarter-sized meteorite traveling slightly under the speed of sound at splash-down. Not only does it satisfy Occam's Razor with only a single item explaining all features on the image (dark trail, white arc, bright flash), but also represents a phenomena which actually isn't that unusual, and which have been recorded on film on more than one instance before.
Slashdot Mirror
Furthermore, where are people getting the idea -- in the first place -- that the lamp bulb ever "exploded"? The remarks on APOD merely indicate that the lamp was examined and found to be "not working". Since street-lights commonly burn out, this is nothing unusual IMO. I rather expect it would have been mentioned if the thing were actually in pieces.
Blow up the pic a bit, and you'll see that it's several pixels off to the right of the pole.