If you're interested in efforts to catalog and even deflect asteroids that might hit Earth:
The ".ai" stands for "Asteroid Institute." It was started by two former astronauts, Ed Lu and Rusty Schweickart.
Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
91–100 of 105 posts
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#92so what..?
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Interesting this also happened in South Carolina and Ohio within the past few months. Not that interesting, apparently this scale of meteor happens on average multiple times a year, just not usually over such an urban area. The 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor (1) was larger and caused ground damage and injuries from e.g. flying glass from broken windows. > Sounds like the beginning of an alien invasion movie. Sleeper ships…
I think it's pretty interesting when something happens that rarely occurs in a populated area.
It's interesting in the personal sense that I have read multiple news articles about it, and checked to see if people heard it (they did).
It's not interesting in the scientific sense of being an outlier, unusual and noteworthy. It isn't, it's a common enough occurrence.
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#94The last I heard a meteor is a flash of light caused by a meteorite interacting with the atmosphere. Is this distinction, like 'lecturn', now dead?
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#95The last I heard a meteor is a flash of light caused by a meteorite interacting with the atmosphere. Is this distinction, like 'lecturn', now dead?
My understanding of the terminology is that:
Meteor is a rock in space or in the atmosphere.
Meteorite is the rock after it touches the ground.
Falling/shooting star is the flash of light.
I have never heard of meteor being the flash of light.
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#96Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Feels like a proper movie that political boundaries like state lines would be significant for all concerned. One meteor for Rhode Island, one for Texas... Any questions? (Asks the alien overlord of his minions in his crisp British accent)
The rest of the world, if they’re even mentioned in the plot, get one per country at most.
Europe gets one, under the eiffel tower.
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you not consider Tunguska an explosion? It’s always described as such. IIRC, it never even hit the ground. Sure, a lot of the damage was caused by the air being compressed from above, but it created an air burst, which would have released a lot of energy in every direction.
No, it's a misnomer as with any other meteor. If you were to witness the breakup from the bolide's reference frame and without all the rushing air you'd never call it an explosion.
> and without all the rushing air
That's the exploding bit though. You don't need containment, you just need the the airburst. A hyper-heated pocket of air that then expands rapidly is itself an explosion.
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#99If you're interested in efforts to catalog and even deflect asteroids that might hit Earth: https://b612.ai/ The ".ai" stands for "Asteroid Institute." It was started by two former astronauts, Ed Lu and Rusty Schweickart.
IPO when?
Re: Meteor Explodes over Massachusetts
#100"230 tons of TNT" I hate units of TNT. Ill do psi. Love the foot. The calorie is metric! But what on planet earth is "ton of TNT"? The energy that was dissipated (using 0.5 mv^2) was 1TJ, or the 280 000 kWh.
It's the most common unit for describing the explosive yield of a nuclear weapon. So, it's a lot smaller than the bombs dropped on Japan in WWII, but a lot bigger than a Davy Crockett. That's a sort-of-useful frame of reference. The only other things I can think of that would create a similar kind of blast are a volcanic eruption or something like that fertilizer explosion in Beirut in 2020 (~1100 tons TNT equivalent…
To be clear, I know what it is. In fact, I'm probably one of the few in the site who could guesstimate how much energy it is without looking it up (covalent reactions, per mole are equally energetic to within a fairly narrow margin; thats why, hydrocarbons are more less equally energetic)
But it's meaningless, unless you're a demolitions engineer. What's the volume of a ton of TNT? I guess - within a factor of two - about the same as a ton of water? So a cubic meter? Who knows?