Record meteorite hit Norway (caught on camera too)

Aftenposten (Norway) ^ | 06/09/2006 | Nina Lødemel/Jonathan Tisdall

[NormsRevenge]

OOOooo.. hadn't heard that one,, Methane gas, That was one helluva pocket..

[DBrow]

"In the early darkness of April 23, as Washington was beginning to
relax after the spy plane crisis in China, alarm bells began to go off
on the military system that monitors the globe for nuclear blasts.
Orbiting satellites that keep watch for nuclear attack had detected a
blinding flash of light over the Pacific several hundred miles southwest of
Los Angeles. On the ground, shock waves were strong enough to register
halfway around the world. Tension reignited until the Pentagon could
reassure official Washington that the flash was not a nuclear blast. It
was a speeding meteoroid from outer space that had crashed into the
earth's atmosphere, where it exploded in an intense fireball. [...]
Preliminary estimates, Dr. ReVelle said, are that the cosmic intruder was
the third largest since the Pentagon began making global satellite
observations a quarter century ago. Its explosion in the atmosphere
had nearly the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima."
--William J. Broad, The New York Times, 29 May 2001

[DaGman]

More like 60 miles if you figure sound traveling 1 mile per 7 seconds.

[GSlob]

7 seconds would mean about 2.3 km away. The blast of the energy alluded to would have hurled him to the ground at that distance. Tunguska blast (about 16MT equivalent) knocked people off at what - 400km?

[js1138]

Taking notes on the innumerate, placemarker

[DBrow]

http://www.astrobio.net/news/article206.html

Anoterh meteorite compared to a nuke- a little one.

[mollynme]

slå

[Nathan Zachary]

"Huh? The speed of sound is only ~720mph at sea level (would travel about 85 miles in 7 minutes)."

Then how could a metorite which SLOWED to 720 mph to make a sonic boom and burn up to a point where they can't even say if any of it made it to the ground do any damage like a nuclear bomb at Hiroshima? Shouldn't northern Norway be devasted? Miles of trees blasted into toothpicks and villages vaporized?

[LIConFem]

"Then how could a metorite which SLOWED to 720 mph to make a sonic boom..."

Who said it slowed to 720mph? It apparently hit a mountain side (very likely going a lot faster than 720mph), and the resulting *boom* is what was heard and felt for quite some distance.

And the Hiroshima bomb comparison was just speculation on the part of the astronomer.

[DBrow]

See my 66 and 62. We get pounded frequently with rocks and chunks of ice (mixed with dust). Some are big enough to go BOOM when they hit, and most of these explosions are way way up in the air- all we get down here is the boom and a flash. Use Clusty to look up bolide and meteorite and similar topics.

Nobody is saying these bolides cause any damage- they are comparing the energy released (kinetic energy transferred from the incoming bolide to the atmosphere) to something us humans are in awe of, nukes. If they said "the energy transferred was almost two million joules" few would understand and nobody would be impressed. But comparing it to one of the smallest atomic explosions makes a reference point people can grasp. If one of these bolides reached a city and then broke up you'd see damage, like in Tunguska where trees were flattened for miles, all pointing out from the blast center.

In an earlier post I said that we actually exploded nukes in space- Starfish Prime went off in near space someplace north of the Johnson Islands. It went off with the force of FIVE Hiroshima bombs, yet neither the Johnsons nor Hawaii took any damage. It's just that, that's how much energy was released. Look up Starfish Prime.

[Nathan Zachary]

Then where's the crater?

If a big meteor struck the earth with that much energy there would be devastation like the one which hit Syberia at the turn of the last century.

[LIConFem]

The one that "hit" Siberia (Tunguska??) didn't actually hit. It exploded before impact. Perhaps this did the same.

Can't really say, 'cause I wasn't there...

[RadioAstronomer]

A meteorite has never been found at Tungusta- the theory is that the explosion was caused by methane gas.

Nope. Am at the lab at the moment. When I get home, I will post an analysis of this event.

[Strategerist]

What was the very impressive meteor shower, during the winter a few years back? I remember freezing my butt off, standing outside in my back yard, to watch. It was pretty impressive. Some were large enough to leave smoke trails, and ended with a flash. Didn't hear any noise associated with this, though. These were a different color from the far more frequent, smaller ones. Reddish, instead of blue-white.

As noted those were probably the Leonids. Unfortunately due to so imprecisise predictions the most impressive display of them wasn't seen by many people in the US; there was a "fireball storm" that was unbelievable. Not the thousands of meteors a minute as in 1966, but a couple really bright fireballs every minute. I saw one that lit up the entire countryside like daylight when it detonated, and the glowing smoke trail lasted over 5 minutes.

The issue of the "colors" people see for meteors is complicated...and it varies from person to person. ALL the Leonids looked green to me, but meteors from other showers don't.

Most unique aspect of the Leonids is they're really, really, really fast - by far the fastest of the meteor showers, and much faster than the routine erratic meteors you see every night once in a while.

[Nathan Zachary]

So it DIDN'T hit the earth then. It burned up like most of them do. That's nothing new. You can see those every night, and sometimes a larger one that puts on a good show for a couple seconds. Then again I live in a northern State and out in the country and can acually SEE the stars clearly. I keep forgetting that this is something city dwellers seldom if ever see.

[DBrow]

See my 66. The bolide came in, blew up, and at that time transferred most of it's energy to the air, making a big boom. Then, small chunks (meteorites) hit a frozen lake at much lower energy (they would have fallen ballistically at some terminal velocity).

Meteor Crater was different- that was a chunk of nickel-iron that did NOT blow up (and transfer energy to the air), but hit Earth and made a sizeable crater. Anyone within sixty miles or more would have been killed. It would have destroyed a city and it's burbs.

BTW, 1 kiloton is 3.08E12 foot-pounds and Hiroshima was, I think, 12 kilotons. So if you know the weight of your car and how fast it is going, you can calculate how many Hiroshimas of kinetic energy your car has at that speed.

Or, if you observe a bolide and can figure its mass and speed from its entry orbit, you can figure the kinetic energy out in Hiroshimas (or joules or foot-pounds). If it blows up in the air and fragments fall ballistically (which is what usually happens) you can approximate the energy spent in the air.

[BallyBill]

This has Karl Rove written all over it. "Where is the missing 6.9 minutes Scooter?"

[GBA]

I've seen the aerial shots of Meteor Crater. Man, that thing hit pretty close to that road. It's a good thing no one was hurt.

[Strategerist]

So it DIDN'T hit the earth then. It burned up like most of them do. That's nothing new. You can see those every night, and sometimes a larger one that puts on a good show for a couple seconds.

Bolides that are big enough to produce an audible sound when they detonate are nothing new, but they're pretty rare.

[DBrow]

Right, but it made a bright flash/streak and a big bang, which us people have always thought either scary or cool.

That's why it makes news.

I live in the city with its city lights (al I can see are stars, open clusters, and some globulars).

To see the Milky Way and nebulas and stuff I must drive to Mount Pinos, where there's abig star party every moonless weekend.

I envy your skies!