Record Meteorite Hits Norway 281
equex256 writes "Early Wednesday morning, a meteorite streaked across the sky in northern Norway, near Finland and Russia. A witness (Article in Norwegian) went up the mountain to where it hit and reported seeing large boulders that had fallen out of the mountainside, along with many broken trees. Norwegian astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard told Aftenposten, Norway's largest newspaper, that he would compare the explosive force of the impact with the Hiroshima bomb. This meteorite is suspected to be much larger than the 90-kilo (198-pound) meteorite which hit Alta in 1904, previously recognized as the largest to hit Norway. From the article: 'Røed Ødegaard said the meteorite was visible to an area of several hundred kilometers despite the brightness of the midnight sunlit summer sky. The meteorite hit a mountainside in Reisadalen in North Troms.'"
Lucifer's tack hammer. (Score:5, Funny)
Oblig. Impact Calculator (Score:5, Interesting)
Also worth checking out along the Lucifer's hammer line of thought is How to Destroy the Earth [qntm.org]
I tried a quick reverse engineering of the meteor with the calculator. An iron meteor 4.5 meters in diameter moving 20 km/s hitting crystalline rock at 45 degrees will have a yield of 18 kilotons...slightly higher than the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima. The average interval of an impact of this size on earth is about once every 5 years. Most go largely unnoticed. The earth is a big place.
Wish they made it easier to do rev. calcs (Score:5, Informative)
Assuming typical velocity, an iron asteroid would be a mere 22 miles across. The radiation would only be two-thirds that of the porus asteroid at the same speed.
If this was indeed the impact crater that triggered the initial phase of the Great Extinction, then the low density/high energy strike would produce vastly more heat and therefore affect the climate that much more.
Even better reference? (Score:2)
Re:Lucifer's tack hammer. (Score:2)
I forget which but one of the role playing games we had listed Lucifer's Hammer in the bibliography for further reading concerning the destruction of civilization and cannibalism. Unlike the various poorly done movies, I always enjoyed Lucifer's Hammer just for realizing one third of the way through that the impact has already happened and most of the story remains. Save the lightning.
Giant Røck (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Giant Røck (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Giant Røck (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Giant Røck (Score:4, Funny)
lutefisk (Score:2, Redundant)
"Please come and eat our gelatinous fish, it's prepared with lye."
A møøse... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Giant Røck There's Nøway (Score:2)
Re:Giant Røck (Score:5, Informative)
The vowel ø in Norwegian is pronounced like the vowel sound in "sun".
Have føn
BTW, the astronomer mentioned (Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, try it
Cheers
Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:5, Funny)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=465344881
And for all you language nazis out there, meteorite is a silly word and should be abolished.
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:3, Informative)
Whoever uploaded that video just cut out the last few seconds where it flashes the manufacturers name.
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:2)
Meteors don't trail a huge billowing cloud of smoke behind them.
How could anyone not think it's a fake?
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:2)
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:2)
I want documentation of that before even beginning to believe that.
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:3, Funny)
It hits a fucking truck and the yahoos inside drive out hootin' and hollerin' like a buncha texas cowboys, the truck unscathed.
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:5, Informative)
I think you'll find that by definition, an object is a meteor while it falls through the atmosphere, and the rock that hits the ground is a meteorite. If it burns up in the atmosphere, then there is no meteorite, just a short-lived meteor.
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:5, Informative)
Metoroid -> Atmosphere -> Meteor -> Ground -> Meteorite
Re:Obligatory Meteor Video (Score:2)
Hiroshima? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:3, Interesting)
How can you be so sure?
I mean, if some people on Earth (it'd be the USA, of course), fire off a nuclear missile at Mars, I can just hear those Martians say, "It won't be radioactive".
touché (Score:2)
Of course the meteor would not have had any noteworthy radioactivity and was not in a populated area.
Ah, a very insightfull retort.
But you forgot to mention that the radioactive fallout would be much smaller, AND that the coordinates of the impact place it far from any city or industry.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:2)
Well, I hardly expect those curtains to be at ground-zero.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:5, Informative)
If Little Boy was detonated in the far northern mountains of Norway, it also would have had similar minimal effect.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know. I think that might have had a significant effect on American-Norwegian relations, even if Norway was Nazi-occupied at the time.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:2)
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:4, Informative)
The bomb levelled literally the entire city -- only one building remained, now referred to as the Genbaku Dome [worldheritagesite.org]. It's still standing, but it has been re-inforced with a steel structure to retain the shape it was in after the war.
Anyway, the point is that even if this meteor was "substantially bigger" than the 200-pound record holder, I find it extremely hard to believe that it would do even a miniscule fraction of the what the A-bomb did.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:4, Insightful)
It probably wouldn't be so hard to believe if it hit downtown Manhattan.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:4, Informative)
In 1980, Mt. St. Helens caused the largest landslide in history... then proceeded to level everything within many miles. Trees brushed over like toothpicks... valleys buried to hundreds of feet in ejecta and ash... it blew the entire north slope of the mountain away.
It had the force of 27,000 atomic bombs like the one dropped on Hiroshima (source [wikipedia.org]). It managed to kill all of 57 people.
Please note that energy != destruction. If this meteorite crashed into Hiroshima, depending on the circumstances, the energy released on impact could have the potential to level the entire city and kill over 100,000 people.
And if Mt. St. helens was located in the right spot in Japan, it could have taken out FAR more than this (think millions).
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:2)
You're certainly correct.
Re:Hiroshima? (Score:2)
Guess what, it makes a *difference* if you hit the centre of a densely populated city, or if you hit some mountains where the main casualties are trees in the surrounding. Hint: when there's -zero- buildings within 20km of the strike-zone it's not that surprising that the human casualties in this case was zero. (as far as we know anyway)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's how you distribute the energy. (Score:5, Informative)
The Tunguska event of 1908 devastated a really big area because it was an airburst: apparently a comet whose ice content flashed into steam when it hit the atmosphere.
rj
Re:It's how you distribute the energy. (Score:3, Informative)
Take the Meteor Crater [wikipedia.org] in Arizona for example. Throughout its history (after being discovered and acknowledged to be a impact from a space object) people thought they could find a rather large iron core. There were many owners of the site who set up drilling/mining projects so they could find the "grand prize" of this object.
However, all this time they could never find this no matter how deep they went, but all over the site was plen
Now for the science! (Score:3, Interesting)
Only if the Hiroshima bomb was a dud. Seriously, a bomb unleashing 63 terajoules of energy (from wikipedia). Even if that rock was 300kg, that means that it would have to be travelling at 648,000m/s or about 1,500,000 mph, in order to have the same amount of energy. Heck, that's about .0022c!
To say this guy overstated the impact is an understatement in itself.
Re:Now for the science! (Score:2)
Substantially larger could be 300 kg, or it could be 3000 kg. That is a massive difference, a 3 metric ton rock would deliver a pretty substantial blow. More than likely they ARE overstating this a bit, but an explosion even a tenth that size would be quite substantial and the closest thing most readers could relate to would be an a
Noooooo (Score:2)
Re:Noooooo (Score:2)
Re:Noooooo (Score:2)
The point is, neither the readers, nor the authors can relate to an atomic bomb
I don't know about you, but I've heard that an atomic bomb was detonated in a populated area a couple times, and I understand it killed quite a few people and destroyed the cities. I'd say that's being able to relate to the power of an atomic bomb. You don't need "personal knowledge" to understand how destructive something can be, an imagination does wonders.
Re:Now for the science! (Score:2)
Only if the Hiroshima bomb was a dud. Seriously, a bomb unleashing 63 terajoules of energy (from wikipedia). Even if that rock was 300kg, that means that it would have to be travelling at 648,000m/s or about 1,500,000 mph, in order to have the same amount of energy. Heck, that's about
To say this guy overstated the impact is an understatement in itself.
Where did you get the figure 300kg? You just made it up? Maybe someone can estimate the energy of the impact from seismometer readings, but your est
Re:Now for the science! (Score:5, Interesting)
A meteorite's surface vapourizes from reentry heat when it enters the atmosphere. If the meteorite is small enough, the entire object will be plasma long before it hits the ground; it takes a large or dense object to survive reentry, and even then much of it's mass is lost.
That doesn't however mean that it disperses. There is at least one theory that a meteorite could hit the ground as a ball of plasma with a solid core, due to the surrounding air pressure preventing the superheated surface from dispersing even after it vapourizes. I seem to recall seeing this put forward for the Tunguska blast in Siberia. IANA Astrophysicist, so I don't know how fast the object would need to be moving, or how large it would have to be initially, to produce this effect.
If that did happen, what would you use for your calculations? The mass of the meteorite wouldn't all be solid when it hit, and whatever material wasn't vapourized by descent or on impact would only make up a fraction of the mass present during the impact. The core might be 90kg, or 300kg, or whatever, but using that figure to calculated the speed the object on impact would be incorrect. You'd need to mass of the meteorite on reentry, minus whatever mass bled off during descent.
However, I would agree that comparing the impact to an atomic bomb blast is silly. It's like comparing a firecracker explosion to a bullet impact - yes, you can say that one has X amount of energy and the other has Y (and you could probably calculate this by measuring the gunpowder present in each, and determining how much energy you get from burning it), but that comparison doesn't actually tell you anything useful, since the energy is applied in a very different fashion. It's comparing apples to oranges.
Hmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Interesting)
I just can't see it working that way. The outer layers of the meteorite would turn to liquid and gas and carry off the heat generated by friction. Thermal conductivity is just too slow to heat up the core of a large body to the point where it will melt in
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Funny)
Metal? Pancake? You sir have just described a flying saucer. So much for ending the Tungusta conspiracy theories
Yeah, but... (Score:5, Funny)
8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC (Score:4, Funny)
Well, Hiroshima was 15 kilotons [wikipedia.org] or 6.3x10^13 J and one burning Library of Congress is 7.3×10^14 J [slashdot.org], so ~8.5% of one LoC per meteor strike.
Yeah, I'm going to go pretend I didn't just spend part of my Friday night researching that calculation now...
Re:8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC (Score:2)
Re:8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC (Score:3, Funny)
Meteor sizes are measured in the "Texa". This meteorite was approximately 5 microTexas, nothing to get excited about.
Re:8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC (Score:5, Funny)
Damn it, when are you Americans going to start using internationally recognised units?!?
Re:Yeah, but... (Score:2)
Well, they sent it back through time, and of course the Library of Congress is much bigger in the future.
So, just one actually.
As to why the Library of Congress was sent back through time, you have to understand that in the future, books are fighting an endless war with Google, which by that time controls all information, or at least, all electronic information. The libraries managed to stop Google's plan to assimilate all printed matter in 2012, and h
Re:Yeah, but... (Score:2)
Meanwhile in Cupertino... (Score:5, Funny)
"Ah, Prime Minister, good," Jobs says with a trademarked smile. "I see you got our little message. Let's finish our chat about DRM regulations...."
(reference [aftenposten.no])
Nah, it was about whale research (Score:2)
A Meteørite ønce hit my sister (Score:5, Funny)
Mynd you, Meteørite hits kan be pretti nasti
Pictures (Score:3, Interesting)
Quote : "Enorm fart." (Score:3, Informative)
From that article, this one line jumped out at me: "Enorm fart."
Now granted, I don't speak the native tongue up there in Norway, but I think we all can translate that.
Also found this sesmic data on the web: http://www.norsar.no/NDC/bulletins/gbf/2006/GBF061 57.html [norsar.no]
NORTH OF SVALBARD
Origin time Lat Lon Azres Timres Wres Nphase Ntot Nst
Welcome! (Score:2, Interesting)
Good, but... (Score:3, Funny)
they deserve it (Score:2, Funny)
similar to Hiroshima or Nagasaki??? (Score:3, Interesting)
=
http://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/PHY106/GIF/Still/P
Did they forget a metric conversion or somthing?
Don't mess with Steve (Score:2, Redundant)
paging Google Earth... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:paging Google Earth... (Score:2)
Fiction or Reality? (Score:2, Interesting)
This happens other places also (Score:4, Interesting)
My meteorite near-miss (Score:3, Interesting)
the movies have taugh us all (Score:2)
I don't understand Norwegian but... (Score:2)
Must've been an expensive movie promotion (Score:2, Funny)
Very small meteorite hit my back yard... (Score:4, Interesting)
Years later as a teenager I was sleeping out on our deck to avoid the summer heat inside the house and I was woken by this shrieking sound, like fireworks, except much louder. I jumped up and saw a very bright, long streak of light screaching across the sky over the lake our house overlooked. As the meteor approached the ground the screaching got louder and higher in pitch until it seemed to "pop" into nothingness. Besides the incredibly high pitched shriek, I was awed by how bright the meteor was as it lit up our deck like a very bright lantern.
Obviously, both these meteorites do not compare in size to the one that hit Norway, but it was still an awe inspiring sight.
Digg had this 3 days ago (Score:2)
Meteorite (Score:2)
Oh Sh8t! (Score:2)
Record setting? (Score:3, Insightful)
It may be the biggest confirmed meteor though.
Ahhh!!!! (Score:2)
Where's Pat Robertson? I need his opinion! Who's immorality caused this?
I bet it was those people over at digg....
The lexicological effects of falling down a gravit (Score:3, Informative)
Saying a meteorite streaked across the sky is like saying ham likes to wallow in the mud.
The Witness (Score:3, Funny)
LEAVE THE PIRATES ALONE
Re:Hmmm... (Score:2)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Interesting)
maybe the tabloids wouldn't, but meteroites are worth more per pound than gold.
if you could recover a couple pounds of those 98 pounds you'll be buying any car you wanted.
Insurance myths (Score:4, Interesting)
Why do people still think we live in the 19th century?
Insurance policies today typically cover most Acts of God. Hail, lightning, windstorm, water damage, you name it. What they don't cover is "catastrophes so big we'd need a few billion to even start paying claims".
Hell, you can actually buy earthquake, tornado, and hurricane insurance, if you're willing to pay for it. However, your $400/year policy doesn't quite amoritize out to the 1 in 50 year chance of your part of the gulf coast being destroyed.
For the record (and to stay on topic): impact by falling object is generally covered. Some go far enough to ensure you for falling aircraft (creepy), and possibly falling spacecraft (satellites is the idea, but who knows what will happen this July).
And yes, I used to sell property insurance
Re:Is this real? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Is this real? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The Hit (Score:5, Insightful)
I almost (alomst!) wish it landed near enough one to cause some decent damage. Then maybe people would take the threat of a planet killer serious enough to get a properly funded space program going so a some of us could get off planet (like me). AD ASTRA!
Re:The Hit (Score:2)
How about your own brother? (Score:2)
Re:Brightness ... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you mean linguistically, I guess I can see what you mean - I think they're trying to use "midnight sun" as a single noun, making "midnight sunlit" an adjective.
But yes, the sky really is sunlit 24/7 up there right now.
Re:Brightness ... (Score:2)
"It could be seen even in the brigthness of nigth" ? Sounds strange too. There's such a thing as a moonlit nigth, so why not invent a sunlit nigth ? We do get those -- once you get north of the polar circle. (and even in southern Norway, like Stavanger where I live, you can still have sun until like 11pm.)
Re:Who is tracking these things? (Score:2, Informative)
There are some effots being made such as http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/> but they get next to no funding.
How many people are you going to be able to convince when all you can say is that "It's likely one will hit a populated area sometime in the future".The general reaction that I've witnessed is "If it was going to happen, why hasn't it yet?" and "That's just science fiction".
It's far to abstract a threat for the vast ma
Re:Is it listed on eBay yet? (Score:2)
Re:Non-ASCII characters? (Score:2)
Re:Non-ASCII characters? (Score:2)