Record meteorite hit Norway (caught on camera too)

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

[antiRepublicrat]

A bit less than 90 miles.

Not counting the time between when he lost sight of it and when it hit. It could have been a little closer.

[lesser_satan]

Yes. Right after the moose bit his sister.

[P-40]

How can the farmer hear the sound seven minutes later???

I remember when the shuttle would come in and we would watch it glide over and then wait for the booms...about ten minutes later. Amazing!

[RolandBurnam]

you guys are mis-reading your word problem. The flash and smoke he sees are in the sky, the meteor hasn't hit yet. He goes about what he is doing, and hears the boom 7 minutes later. If the flash he saw was the meteor hitting the ground you could measure the speed of sound, but he sees it in the air, and it hits an undetermined time later. Thats the way I read it...

[Robert A Cook PE]

Concur: the writer wasn't very good. About clarifying anything!

Sound from an explosion or thunder is right at 5 secs per mile.

7 minutes? Maybe 7 seconds. Even two minutes is almost too far for anything less than a volcano-sized boom.

[RightWhale]

There might be no crater. An air burst would be impressive and there would be debris for miles. The composition of the meteorite would determine that: if rocky it could explode in the air as a bolide, if iron it would plow right on in without exploding. It is probably rocky, so it probably blew itself into dust.

[mwilli20]

how can the nonexplosive force be compared to an atomic bomb?

As NormsRevenge made me realize, these guys are probably talking about the *potential* destructive force of the meteorite, which ends up dissipating in the atmosphere.

They are after all scientists talking to journalists so we should not be surprised if the result is a meteoritic hyperbole...

[Robert A Cook PE]

There have been other meteors that penetrate the atmosphere, miss the planet, and then leave the atmosphere again.

Hence, no crater, but the sonic boom from their passage could be heard.

[RegulatorCountry]

"That is probably enough to put the orbit of that comet, debris trail and all, millions of miles away from our current position."

Well, that's a relief. Wouldn't want to experience a whole bunch of these, of varying sizes, over a period of days or weeks. The uncertainty would likely cause some pretty peculiar mass behavior amongst the populace, lol.

[NormsRevenge]

Those are some pretty incredible sightings.. a few very large sized objects have been taped,, impressive watching something zipping along like that thru the atmosphere

[Eagles Talon IV]

7 minutes later, though? That would indicate he was something like 2500 miles away, no?

No. Figure the speed of sound at approx 1100 fps (feet per second) at sea level, that's 66,000 fpm and about 462,000 feet in 7 minutes or a distance of approx. 87 miles

[redgolum]

I read in another article that it hit a mountain side. Was there an impact?

[Iscool]

If the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the Hiroshima bomb. Of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we may be able to compare it to the (atomic) bomb," Røed Ødegaard said.

Does this mean everything would be flattened in a half mile radius???

When I was a kid, watched one of these come down...It was the size of a car...It landed on a parked car, next to a house...Smashed the car, house was fine...Two miles away from me...I didn't hear a thing...

[RightWhale]

Could be this:

http://www.serve.com/wh6ef/comets/meteors/showers/daytime_arietids.html

G A R Y W. K R O N K ' S C O M E T S & M E T E O R S H O W E R S

The Arietids

Observing

This is the strongest daylight meteor shower of the year. The duration extends from May 22 to July 2, with maximum activity occurring on June 8 (Solar Longitude=76.8 deg) from RA=44.5 deg, DECL=+23.6 deg. The hourly rate is near 60 at maximum. The radiant's mean daily motion is about +0.5 deg in RA and +0.3 deg in DECL, while the radiant diameter remains a fairly consistent 3 deg in diameter.

=======================================

This one broke up long ago and is spread out. The recent comet just started to break up and is still concentrated into a small group.

[Waverunner]

Crashed Alien Spaceship ping

[RegulatorCountry]

"The Arietids"

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.

[wallcrawlr]

supposed to strike but didnt.

its norway...we know why

[DBrow]

We exploded several atomic bombs in LEO- Argus and Starfish Prime were two. They obviously had a very energetic yield but left no crater and no sign except for glows in the sky and fallout.

Tunguska was (maybe) a comet fragment that exploded fairly close to Earth and flattened trees, but no crater.

Meteor Crater in Az, now, IS a meteor crater.

There have been several big atmospheric ice explosions, many detected by our nuclear bomb watch devices. They happen.

If a chunk of ice or rock detonates in the atmosphere the energy of that blast can be compared to the energy release of a nuke. It explodes, but it's not a nuclear explosion, more like a huge blast of steam.

[1FreeAmerican]

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

[eastsider]

Probably the Leonids.