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Why is the "Did someone see it fall?" included? Sounds like that question is irrelevant

CommitSyn 3y ago
Because identifying meteorites is very difficult and almost always requires taking them to a university for analysis.
jumploops 3y ago
This meteorite fell last Thursday, tracked with cameras[0]. [0]https://www.reddit.com/r/meteorites/s/pPlwNsizEE https://www.reddit.com/r/meteorites/s/pPlwNsizEE
snitch182 3y ago
There are 365 degree cameras in every larger populated area. The people operating them report to a central database. I once saw a fireball going to the supermarket at night. It was in the database a couple hours later. It is like winning the powerball lottery if you would find a meteor not seen by anyone.
- lupire 3y ago
  Those are impressive cameras! But that's not what we're talking about here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39790272 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39790272
extraduder_ire 3y ago
If you see a meteorite "fall" or something that looks like a shooting star, you aren't going to find it. If it's moving fast enough to be a glowing streak, it's going to land hundreds of miles away from you. If it's near enough that you found it, you have no chance of seeing it land (sort of like seeing a bullet whizzing past your head). Keep in mind that this flowchart is to cut down the number of people who contact this person wondering if their rock is a meteorite, which it almost always is not. I first learned about this chart from this: https://xkcd.com/1723/ https://xkcd.com/1723/
lupire 3y ago
Commenters didn't look at the chart to understand your question. It's just a mistake in the chart. "No" should point somewhere else to continue classifying. Also "someone" is ambiguous -- it could mean "someone nearby" (not meteorite) or "someone far away" (possibly meteorite). https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/some-meteorite-realities/ https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/some-meteorite-r...
- anamexis 3y ago
  I don't think it's a mistake - just a cheeky note that if you "saw it fall," you probably didn't. Your own link supports this. > If you saw a meteor and later found a stone, then the stone is not a meteorite > Meteorite fragments land far from where you last saw the meteor and there is no way that observers at a single point on the Earth’s surface are going to find fragments of the meteorite. It requires triangulation from several viewpoints, usually with cameras.

Because identifying meteorites is very difficult and almost always requires taking them to a university for analysis.

This meteorite fell last Thursday, tracked with cameras[0]. [0]https://www.reddit.com/r/meteorites/s/pPlwNsizEE https://www.reddit.com/r/meteorites/s/pPlwNsizEE

snitch182 3y ago

There are 365 degree cameras in every larger populated area. The people operating them report to a central database. I once saw a fireball going to the supermarket at night. It was in the database a couple hours later. It is like winning the powerball lottery if you would find a meteor not seen by anyone.

lupire 3y ago
Those are impressive cameras! But that's not what we're talking about here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39790272 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39790272

extraduder_ire 3y ago

If you see a meteorite "fall" or something that looks like a shooting star, you aren't going to find it. If it's moving fast enough to be a glowing streak, it's going to land hundreds of miles away from you. If it's near enough that you found it, you have no chance of seeing it land (sort of like seeing a bullet whizzing past your head). Keep in mind that this flowchart is to cut down the number of people who contact this person wondering if their rock is a meteorite, which it almost always is not. I first learned about this chart from this: https://xkcd.com/1723/ https://xkcd.com/1723/

lupire 3y ago

Commenters didn't look at the chart to understand your question. It's just a mistake in the chart. "No" should point somewhere else to continue classifying. Also "someone" is ambiguous -- it could mean "someone nearby" (not meteorite) or "someone far away" (possibly meteorite). https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/some-meteorite-realities/ https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/some-meteorite-r...

anamexis 3y ago
I don't think it's a mistake - just a cheeky note that if you "saw it fall," you probably didn't. Your own link supports this. > If you saw a meteor and later found a stone, then the stone is not a meteorite > Meteorite fragments land far from where you last saw the meteor and there is no way that observers at a single point on the Earth’s surface are going to find fragments of the meteorite. It requires triangulation from several viewpoints, usually with cameras.