Major Bolide Forecast Tonight; No Damage Expected

SkyandTelescope.com ^ | 10/06/2008 | Tony Flanders

[InABunkerUnderSF]

...Last night (Sunday, October 5th), a telescope on Mount Lemmon, Arizona, detected a tiny moving blip, the signature of a small chunk of rock moving rapidly through space. Twenty-five observations have been done since then by professional and amateur astronomers around the world, and the object's orbit has been pinned down with fairly high precision. It is almost certain to hit Earth's atmosphere around 10:46 p.m. EDT tonight, October 6th. (That's 2:46 a.m. October 7th, Greenwich Mean Time.)

The rock is roughly 10 feet (3 meters) across, and it's expected to enter the atmosphere above northern Sudan at about 8 miles (12 km) per second. The energy released should be approximately equal to one kiloton of conventional explosives. Fortunately, no damage is expected, since the blast will take place in the upper atmosphere....

[InABunkerUnderSF]

A little late but PEOPLE IN SUDAN: DUCK!!!" A few meteorites may fall in about an hour.

People in America and Western Europe: BE PREPARED: Boring Darfur meteorite relief telethon anticipated in a few weeks.

[doc1019]

The sky IS falling. ;-)

[luvie]

Maybe it’ll land on Iran and save us the trouble! :D

[Colonial Warrior]

[Past Your Eyes]

Where is it going after it gets done with Sudan? Are you sure it ain’t Bill Clinton going after that aspirin factory again?

[al baby]

maybe it is the mother ship

[InABunkerUnderSF]

maybe it is the mother ship.

Not due until after the election.

[dbacks]

The Gods Must Be Crazy!

[Berosus]

I just saw a bolide this morning, as I was driving to work. I was on a country road outside Lexington, KY, and half a mile before I crossed Interstate 64, it passed over me, going from east to west. It was bright yellow in color, and sputtered before disappearing. Because the sky was overcast, it must have been below the clouds; otherwise I wouldn’t have seen it at all. Therefore I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the meteor made it to the ground, leaving some new rocks in a cow pasture.

[Rudder]

It doesn’t tell the reader what a BOLIDE is, why not?

[dbacks]

“No Damage Expected”

Women and minorities hardest hit.

[TXnMA]

"The Gods Must Be Crazy!"

One of the best movies -- ever...

[Semper911]

Hopefully it will land on the pirates, taking them and the Russian arms down to Davy Jones’ Locker.

[LRS]

The UN can just declare the Sudan a “No Bolide Zone”. Problem solved...

[InABunkerUnderSF]

It doesn’t tell the reader what a BOLIDE is, why not?

Sorry, it's an amateur astronomy magazine. The readers would generally know. A bolide is a large meteor, in this case a 10 foot rock. Bolides leave prominent trails across the sky and sometimes cause sonic booms. Meteorites from bolides may survive to reach the earth.

[Semper911]

Here is one from 1998 over Kansas.

[steve86]

2:46 UCT is five minutes from now according to my desktop clock (daylight savings time here).

[steve86]

Does the UK have DST now?

[Cvengr]

So is the end of the world 2 minutes from now or 62 minutes?

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Yikes! I miss that. Another good reason to abolish daylights savings time.

In that case it should be hitting the atmosphere right about....NOW!