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Do meteorites really do this? I've never heard of another like this event before, and I always hear reports about meteors 'almost' hitting earth well in advanc
by maqr 14y ago
Do meteorites really do this? I've never heard of another like this event before, and I always hear reports about meteors 'almost' hitting earth well in advance of the possible collision date.
I didn't think the sky could simply open up and rain down hellfire without anybody spotting it beforehand.
- InclinedPlane 14y agoYup, they do, one just did. Based on some guesses I'd estimate that this particular meteor is a rock that might be a few hundred kg or so and maybe a meter or less in diameter. Rocks this size are very hard to spot, they are about 10,000x dimmer than the 2012 DA14 asteroid, and that much more difficult to detect. Also, the meteor struck during the day, which may be an indication that it originated as an object orbiting the Sun just inside the Earth's orbit, a class of objects that are the most difficult to detect with our current equipment.
- lutusp 14y ago> Do meteorites really do this? I've never heard of another like this event before ... In that case, it's time for you to read about Tunguska in 1908: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
- tokipin 14y agothat thing was no joke
- dalke 14y agoSure. There was one like this in the US in the early 1990s - the Peekskill fireball. There was also the Great Daylight 1972 Fireball, where the meteor entered and then exited the atmosphere. The Peekskill meteorite was estimated to be 26 pounds and 1 ft across before it entered the atmosphere. Spotting something like that in space is hard.