Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

nrk.no

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 119 posts

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#21

Post by nicksergeant »

simias wrote: post #12
jon_black wrote: post #3

Is it me or does it look like the "meteorite" is moving quite slow. Shouldn't it be moving so fast that you'd need a high speed camera to see it in that detail? Also...his parachute is always above him, maybe it fell out of that.

Yeah, Occam's razor tells me that it's much more likely that a stone got stuck somewhere in their skydiving apparatus than having a meteorite fly right past you while you're skydiving. Maybe I'm underestimating the quantity of meteorites falling on the earth but since the newspapers aren't exactly filled with news of people getting killed by falling rocks I'm not yet ready to believe that was a meteorite.

He explains in the video why it's not possible to have been from the aircraft or other flyers.

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#23

Post by bradleysmith »

yan wrote: post #18
JohnBooty wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that chutes are packed with great care since they're the only thing stopping one from going "splat!" I could believe that it's an intentional fake, maybe, but unintentionally packing a good-sized rock seems unlikely... although, I guess it's not as improbable as a meteor sailing past your head while you're skydiving!

It's probably not a fake or packed inside the chute, since he was under canopy for some time when this occurred. Low odds are not zero odds, but then again, it can be a clever April fools segment. Also, chutes are not packed with great care. A main (the parachute you generally use) takes an experienced packer 5-10 minutes to fully pack and some people hurry through it to get on the next load. Outside of two things yo…

Video was shot on 17 June 2012 according to video at 0:44, so strange april fools timing.

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#26

Post by wreegab »

cjensen wrote: post #4
jon_black wrote: post #3

Is it me or does it look like the "meteorite" is moving quite slow. Shouldn't it be moving so fast that you'd need a high speed camera to see it in that detail? Also...his parachute is always above him, maybe it fell out of that.

Yep; so slow that there is no motion blur. Odds of a meteor are absurdly really low. Much more likely this is a fake or a rock packed in his chute.

> Odds of a meteor are absurdly really low

Odds that I win the lottery this week are absurdly low. Odds that someone will win the lottery this week are quite high.

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#27

Post by Crito »

aDevilInMe wrote: post #22

JFYI To be hit by a meteorite you would either need to be close to the Earth's surface or for somebody strong to throw it. Technically it is not a meteorite until it impacts with the Earth's surface, therefore this object may actually be a meteoroid.

Ah, technically correct.. the best sort of correct.

It seems to me though that a meteoroid that has evidently survived reentry but has not yet reached "the surface" properly might be something of a previously unhandled edge case. Normally you would avoid naming meteoroids to be meteorites until after you have found them safely on the ground because it is possible that they burned up during their observation, but this one was observed well after the point where it may have burned up. Also from a delta-v perspective, it had already performed the majority of its transition (from kilometers per second to likely less than a hundred meters per second).

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#29

Post by dimman »

jon_black wrote: post #3

Is it me or does it look like the "meteorite" is moving quite slow. Shouldn't it be moving so fast that you'd need a high speed camera to see it in that detail? Also...his parachute is always above him, maybe it fell out of that.

No it did not fell out of the parachute. To the obvious:

If it would have been in the parachute, it would be moving at the same velocity as both the parachute and the man. It obviously can't have been under the parachute, it would have droppped instantly, it doesn't.

If it would have been on top of the parachute it would have gotten a push upwards to reduce speed (but its still moving _downwards_ unless some magic explosion happened).

Now according to the video, from the time the parachute opens, it takes roughly 8 seconds (!) until the rock passes. During that time the mans velocity decreased substantially due to the parachute...

Well just do the math.

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#30

Post by jessedhillon »

simias wrote: post #12
jon_black wrote: post #3

Is it me or does it look like the "meteorite" is moving quite slow. Shouldn't it be moving so fast that you'd need a high speed camera to see it in that detail? Also...his parachute is always above him, maybe it fell out of that.

Yeah, Occam's razor tells me that it's much more likely that a stone got stuck somewhere in their skydiving apparatus than having a meteorite fly right past you while you're skydiving. Maybe I'm underestimating the quantity of meteorites falling on the earth but since the newspapers aren't exactly filled with news of people getting killed by falling rocks I'm not yet ready to believe that was a meteorite.

If you look at how a parachute is packed, and how it unfolds when deployed, what you described is definitely not the simpler explanation preferred by Occam's razor.
Post reply on HN