Meteorite hits houses

[arcticpenguin]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3146692.stm

At least 20 people are reported to have been injured after a meteorite crashed to Earth in eastern India.

Reports say hundreds of people in the state of Orissa panicked when the fireball streamed across the sky.

Burning fragments were said to have fallen over a wide area, destroying several houses.
...
The only recorded fatality from a meteor was an Egyptian dog that had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in 1911.

It would be a bummer to have your home wrecked 'out of the blue' like that, but it would give you something to talk about.

 

[Ed]

"Burning fragments"? Meteorites are cold.

 

[Shinytop]

I think meteorites might gain a little temperature coming in through the atmosphere, don't you? Do you think the Apollo spacecraft made its own heat on reentry?

 

[WildCat]

I think meteorites might gain a little temperature coming in through the atmosphere, don't you? Do you think the Apollo spacecraft made its own heat on reentry?

Actually, they lose that heat quickly once the atmosphere slows them down. You could pick one up and it would not be hot.

 

[a_unique_person]

Spacejunk?

 

[Mr Manifesto]

From Bad Astonomy by Phil Plait:

(the process of heating up on entering the atmosphere)- the huge compresson of air, the heating of the surface, and the ablation of the melted outer parts- happen very high in the atmosphere, at altitudes of tens of kilometers. The energy of the meteroid's motion is quickly dissipated, slowing it down rapidly. The meteroid slows to below the speed of sound, at which point the air in front is no longer greatly compressed and the meteor stops glowing.

(snip)

This leads to yet another misconception about meteors. In practically every movie or television program I have ever seen, small meteorites hit the ground and start fires. But this isn't the way it really happens. Meteroids spend most of their lives in deep space and are, therefore, very cold...

I'll leave out the rest because Phil goes on to say some very interesting things which he's taken the trouble to write in a book intended for sale. If you want more, buy the book. But suffice to say, meteors hitting the ground hot happen very, very, very rarely. Keep in mind, too, that the Columbia broke up in the high atmosphere, and the pieces were obviously cool enough for people to pick up and put in the back of their trucks when they hit the ground.

Still don't believe me? Log on to the Bad Astronomy bulletin board, and ask the many astonomers who regularly post there.

 

[Ed]

Sometimes they are covered with frost when they are found.

Ye of little faith. Doubting my truths.

We'll just see how you like a plague or two.



And, as you suffer, I will

 

[Tez]

Meteorites are quite valuable IIRC, so these guys basically had money raining down on them...

 

[Shinytop]

Never let it be said I cannot learn. Today I learned that typical meteorites striking the Earth are no longer hot.

 

[Chupacabras]

... so these guys basically had money raining down on them...

Aside of the scientific interest, there's a well organized market fo meteorites. Sometimes they can be worth about $1.00 USD a gram, bue some others, namely martian or moon meteorites, if found in the right conditions (ie in antarctica = barely polluted) can go to a whooping $50,000 USD a gram. In some countries, such as Argentina, meteorites are considered state property, and marketing is illegal. Altough in the US it is legal to trade or market meteorites, some sites such as the crater in Arizona strictly forbid picking up specimens from the ground.

BTW, I just went yesterday to a new museum in town and saw for myself the "only meteorite on display in the state" - it really qualifies as real (to my amateur eyes, anyway) and it is incredibly (and to my delight) hughe. The guide estimated it at about 200 Kg, and was picked up in 1936.

Edited to add a few useful links:
Learn About Meteorites
Schoner's Meteorite Identification
International Meteorite Brokerage
JPL Mars Meteorites page

 

[Charlie Monoxide]

Never let it be said I cannot learn. Today I learned that typical meteorites striking the Earth are no longer hot.

I'll amen that. I too considered Hollywood movies to be a few degrees short of a documentary.

Charlie (still reserve the right to change me mind) Monoxide

 

[Crossbow]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3146692.stm


It would be a bummer to have your home wrecked 'out of the blue' like that, but it would give you something to talk about.

Well then, as far as I know, that still means that there is only one person in recorded history who has actually been hit by a metorite and that would be Mrs. Hewlett Hodges, of Alabama in 1954.

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/znp12011954bt.html

Of course, if AP, or anyone else, has some updated data then I would like to hear of it.

 

[hammegk]

On the hot/cold question, if incoming is still at mach x 10**x>1 at surface impact, there should be surface heat, huh?

Of course the real "heat"(and a lot of it) would be impact generated, I'd say.

 

[ceo_esq]

Phil's site suggests that most meteorites hit the ground neither cold nor superhot, but rather warm - the meteorite heats up as it passes through the atmosphere but the hottest parts are melted and stripped away before impact, leaving just the warm part.

I would imagine that the impact of a large and fast-moving meteorite converts enough kinetic energy into heat to raise the immediately surrounding temperature quite a bit.

 

[arcticpenguin]

Re: Re: Meteorite hits houses

Well then, as far as I know, that still means that there is only one person in recorded history who has actually been hit by a metorite and that would be Mrs. Hewlett Hodges, of Alabama in 1954.

http://www.meteoritearticles.com/znp12011954bt.html

Of course, if AP, or anyone else, has some updated data then I would like to hear of it.

No, I can't beat that. I know there was a woman whose car was hit by a meteorite, but property damage can't compare with a direct hit.

 

[Bluegill]

Re: Re: Re: Meteorite hits houses

The news article says that the only recorded fatality is a Egyptian dog. But weren't there lots of reindeer (and presumably some other animals) found dead in Tunguska? Maybe that doesn't count, though, because:

1) For some reason, the Tunguska object isn't technically considered a meteor? Or maybe, since it didn't hit the ground, it's not a meteorite, so the animals it killed weren't technically killed by a meteorite?

2) Too long a time had passed between the event and the time researchers got to the area (some years passed, IIRC.) Therefore, the deaths of lots of animals was assumed, but any remains found were very decomposed and scattered and could not be individually attributed to the exploding object.

??

 

[Psiload]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Meteorite hits houses

The news article says that the only recorded fatality is a Egyptian dog. But weren't there lots of reindeer (and presumably some other animals) found dead in Tunguska? Maybe that doesn't count, though, because:

1) For some reason, the Tunguska object isn't technically considered a meteor? Or maybe, since it didn't hit the ground, it's not a meteorite, so the animals it killed weren't technically killed by a meteorite?

2) Too long a time had passed between the event and the time researchers got to the area (some years passed, IIRC.) Therefore, the deaths of lots of animals was assumed, but any remains found were very decomposed and scattered and could not be individually attributed to the exploding object.

??

No, the Tunguska object doesn't count because it was actually a crashed alien spaceship...

What? I saw it on an old In Search Of episode... Mr. Spock wouldn't mislead me, would he?

 

[Crossbow]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Meteorite hits houses

No, the Tunguska object doesn't count because it was actually a crashed alien spaceship...

What? I saw it on an old In Search Of episode... Mr. Spock wouldn't mislead me, would he?

Too right Pisload!

The authorities just want you to think that the event was due to an exploding metorite, but we who watched Nimoy in his I am not Spock period know better!

 

[Rocky]

I bought my brother a Meteorite for his 40th birthday. It's a nice fist sized hunk and would hurt to drop it in your foot. The guy I got if from has a tiny bit of a moon Meteorite and a gram or so of a Mars Meteorite. I got to touch a piece of Mars.

 

[SteveW]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Meteorite hits houses

The news article says that the only recorded fatality is a Egyptian dog. But weren't there lots of reindeer (and presumably some other animals) found dead in Tunguska? Maybe that doesn't count, though, because:

1) For some reason, the Tunguska object isn't technically considered a meteor? Or maybe, since it didn't hit the ground, it's not a meteorite, so the animals it killed weren't technically killed by a meteorite?

2) Too long a time had passed between the event and the time researchers got to the area (some years passed, IIRC.) Therefore, the deaths of lots of animals was assumed, but any remains found were very decomposed and scattered and could not be individually attributed to the exploding object.

??

The Tunguska object was definitley NOT a meteorite. It was most likely a comet. There was a Russian scientist (his name escapes me), that investigated the area from about 1920 to the late 30's. Although he was convinced that the area was a meteor impact, photographs of the area that were hidden from him prove that, whatever it was, was not a meteor. Personally, I subscribe to the comet theory.