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Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

nrk.no

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Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#31

Post by lutusp »

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.

> Technically it is not a meteorite until it impacts with the Earth's surface, therefore this object may actually be a meteoroid.

Not quite. Before entering Earth's atmosphere, it's a meteoroid. While passing through the atmosphere, it's a meteor. After landing, it's a meteorite.

http://www.livescience.com/27183-asteroid-meteorite-meteor-m...

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#32

Post by escapologybb »

lutusp wrote: post #31
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.

> Technically it is not a meteorite until it impacts with the Earth's surface, therefore this object may actually be a meteoroid. Not quite. Before entering Earth's atmosphere, it's a meteoroid. While passing through the atmosphere, it's a meteor. After landing, it's a meteorite. http://www.livescience.com/27183-asteroid-meteorite-meteor-m...

> While passing through the atmosphere, it's a meteor.

Just to be an absurdly pedantic, it's actually only the flash of light that is the meteor and not the rock itself.

http://hubblesite.org/reference_desk/faq/answer.php.id=22&ca...

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#34

Post by chillax »

hdevalence wrote: post #28

I wonder if it's possible to use computer vision techniques on the video footage to calculate the position and altitude of the skydiver at the time, and then also estimate the trajectory of the rock?

Some analysis going on here at least (text in norwegian though): http://norskmeteornettverk.no/wordpress/?p=1329

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#37

Post by dredmorbius »

d_theorist wrote: post #24

Isn't it more likely that the rock fell out of their plane?

He addresses that in the video: other jumpers and the plane are not above him at this point, so odds are the rock came from elsewhere.

The presumes a reliable narrator, but it seems plausible. This is one guy with an in-flight asteroid sighting. Not as if they're crawling out of the woodwork. And the experts called in seem to find this credible. Though people hamming up an act for cameras is also not unheard of.

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#39

Post by JshWright »

danbruc wrote: post #9
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.

The article states that the meteorite already slowed down to around 300 km/h because the incident happened at a low altitude and the heavy braking was already over.

That seems about right... It looks like it travels roughly a meter or so between frames, and the GoPro was likely recording at 60fps, so it was traveling somewhere around 60m/s relative to the parachutist. So add another 10 m/s for rate of descent of the camera and you come up with 252 km/h.

Re: Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

#40

Post by FatalLogic »

ForHackernews wrote: post #36

They keep talking about how lucky he is it missed him, but I almost think the opposite is true: He'd have to have been staggeringly un lucky to have been hit by it.

In fact, he was doubly lucky. Firstly, he was incredibly lucky to have witnessed a meteorite passing a few meters from him. Secondly, he was very lucky not to be killed by the meteorite that was passing a few meters from him.
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