Posted on 02/04/2019 7:19:55 AM PST by Red Badger
At a Glance
A meteorite landed in western Cuba on Friday afternoon.Residents in the town of Viñales said they spotted the object streaking across the sky.No injuries were reported, though there are unconfirmed reports of damage.The meteor was seen on satellite and radar before hitting Cuba.
Residents of a town in western Cuba said the area was rocked by what is believed to be a meteorite strike, and windows might have been blown out in some homes nearby. The meteor was seen on satellite and radar just before hitting Cuba.
"We’re receiving reports that a meteor was seen in the sky across the Florida Keys," the Key West office of the National Weather Service said in a tweet on Friday afternoon. "It appears that a meteorite impact occurred in western Cuba, near the town of Viñales, Pinar del Río, earlier this afternoon."
According to CNN reporter Patrick Oppmann, no injuries were reported in the wake of the incident.
(MORE: Deaths Confirmed After Violent Tornado Strikes Havana)
"We were coming from the center ... and we saw a ball of fire cross the sky," Spanish tourist Jesus Nicolas told the Associated Press in Havana. "Sure it was a meteorite and a very big one."
A team of scientists would travel to Pinar del Rio province to collect fragments of the meteorite to study them, Efren Jaimez Salgado, head of the Environmental Geology, Geophysics and Risks department of Cuba's Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy, told state newspaper Granma, as reported by the AP.
A town of about 27,000, Viñales is located in western Cuba, some 100 miles southwest of Havana.
The difference between a meteor and a meteorite is that a meteorite reaches the Earth's surface intact while a meteor may or may not vaporize. Meteors are often called shooting stars. Meteor Seen on Satellite and Radar
The meteorite was seen just moments before hitting the ground as a meteor on various forms of satellite and radar.
As the meteor crashed through our atmosphere, it was picked up on GOES-EAST's Geostationary Lightning Mapper as a quick flash over western Cuba. You can also see thunderstorms ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico at the time.
The meteor appears as a small blue gas pocket on satellite on one of GOES-EAST's other channels, too. What you're seeing here is the space rock giving off sulphur dioxide as it hits the atmosphere.
The meteor was also seen on the National Weather Service radar out of Key West, Florida as a small blip.
Maybe it was a Rod from God...
CNN reporter Patrick Oppmann should be televising from the impact site.
Meteor hits Cuba the same week a rare tornado hits Cuba. Something’s up..................
This happened because of global warming....and the government shut down...Oh and Trump.
Scientists will be racing there post haste looking for meteorite fragments....
And black oppression..................
Already did. They found plenty.
They looked like chunks of burnt concrete................
Don’t think anybody got much sleep Thursday night. All Loonies knew
that Friday morning would be our big try. And everybody Earthside knew
and at last their news admitted that Spacetrack had picked up objects
headed for Terra, presumably “rice bowls” those rebellious convicts had
boasted about. But was not a war warning, was mostly assurances that Moon
colony could not possibly build H-bombs but might be prudent to avoid areas which these criminals claimed to be aiming at. (Except one funny
boy, popular news comic who said our targets would be safest place to be-
-this on video, standing on a big X-mark which he claimed was 110W x 40N.
Don’t recall hearing of him later.)
The Weather Channel will be on it tomorrow “Meteorite of Death 2019” portraying it as yet another sign of impending doom from Global Climate Change.
Well, asteroids in the past have ‘changed’ the climate considerably...........................
Only YOUR SUV can do that
Did the Weather Channel name it yet?
Like “Meteorite Marty” or something like that?
Meteorite Strikes Cuba, $235 of improvements created.
"Very big", as in the size of a thumbnail, maybe. "Very big", as in anything larger than a grapefruit, would have caused appreciable damage. "Very big" as in the size of a car, and a chunk of western Cuba would be a smoking crater right now.
In 2000 I was in Germany for my job and on weekends went over to the old Communist East Germany. There were still bullet holes in buildings from WWII.....................
Two apparent pieces of the meteorite that fell Friday in Vinalez, in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio. | AFP-JIJI https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/02/world/science-health-world/meteorite-falls-cuban-town/
That’s a big ‘un.
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