Posted on 04/23/2012 5:29:36 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Speaking to SpaceWeather.com, Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s MEO office says, “The energy is estimated at a whopping 3.8 kilotons of TNT, so this was a big event,” he continues. “I am not saying there was a 3.8 kiloton explosion on the ground in California. I am saying that the meteor possessed this amount of energy before it broke apart in the atmosphere. [The map] shows the location of the atmospheric breakup, not impact with the ground.”
The event that rattled windows, set off car alarms and glaringly bright enough to be seen in early morning daylight was also recorded via the Nevada Seismological Laboratory as the sound wave (sonic boom) passed across the ground from seismological station to station in Nevada.
Based on initial reports, University of Nevada Reno astronomers believed the likely cause was in fact an exploding meteor, also known as a bolide roughly the size of a washing machine ... Scientists now believe the object may have been possibly larger...
“The fact that sonic booms were heard indicates that this meteor penetrated very low in atmosphere, which implies a speed less than 15 km/s (33,500 mph),” Cooke said to SpaceWeather.com ”Assuming this value for the speed, I get a mass for the meteor of around 70 metric tons. Hazarding a further guess at the density of 3 grams per cubic centimeter (solid rock), I calculate a size of about 3-4 meters, or about the size of a minivan.”
“This meteor was probably not a Lyrid; without a trajectory, I cannot rule out a Lyrid origin, but I think it likely that it was a background or sporadic meteor.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Big mini van but a cube 4m x 2m x 2m of solid steel would be about 125MT.
I live in Placerville and I had just gotten up and heard it. Ran out back and was looking to the east and the sound was like a space shuttle launch or a jet flying low... I thought to myself, ok this is it. I had no clue what it was. I am glad to have found out the cause. Still scary.
The rocket launch analogy is good. It sounded like the popping of the space shuttle launches. Interesting but freaky.
Whoever locates the debris field is going to make a few bucks.
Yup..
Yet the 911 call track shows TWO near 90° turns.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Eye witness accounts on the Tunguska event also reported radical direction changes.
A much bigger trajectory change can occur when a large part of *something* breaks off!
Conservation of momentum would require a bifurcated track for a large part breaking off, not a single object making a sharp turn (although I suppose a change in aerodynamic shape could happen by shedding a smallish edge or other feature).
911 call track?
See post #7.
Oh.
I don’t think I buy two sharp turns based on some 911 calls.
I wouldn’t based on some.
There were scores along each of the legs of the track.
Data points are stubborn things.
So this meteor made two sharp turns based on 911 calls?
So what do you suspect caused this?
I don’t know how “sharp” the turns were. Abrupt? 50 mile radius?
Beats me. Off hand I’d say maneuvering is a sign of intelligence.
Oh...
Well, I am waiting for one the size of a stadium to hit. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened in the past hundred years.
I’ve seen a whole bunch of stuff through optics. To be honest, it’s really spooky stuff when looking at a star field, and suddenly an object enters the field of view and slowly exits. No way these are satellites which I’ve also seen crossing the FOV. Bit sat’s are very fast, crossing within a fraction of a second.
Me too. If there is a Just God it will strike mecca.
At the height of the hajj...
eyewitness is notoriously unreliable.
Give me radar data, showing 90 degree turns (even one will do), then we will talk.
Hmmmm. Challenging. Radar didn’t exist in 1908.
As to the 911 calls do you believe scores people who didn’t hear an explosion called 911, while not one of the tens thousands of people on what would have been a straight track who did hear an explosion didn’t call 911? That would explain the three straight line tracks.
Do you doubt the Bible because it consists of only of eye witness accounts?
Interesting!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.