Photo of meteor

varwoche

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varwoche
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NORTHERN Territory scientists were last night studying what could be the first photograph of a meteorite hitting Earth.

The chances of an impact being captured on film are millions to one.

"If this is true, it's one of the most remarkable pictures ever taken," astronomy tutor Geoff Carr said yesterday.
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OK. But what's up with the "astronomy tutor"?
 
Great. I've finally convinced myself that a huge, species-destroying meteor won't kill us all, and now it looks like I need to worry about tiny rocks the size of a grain of sand taking my head off at 30,000 mph.
 
I don't know if that is the first picture of a meteorite impact but there are certainly other photos of meteors just before impact (like the Peekskill fireball) and witnesses to meteorite impacts.

Here's one that came crashing through the roof of this fellow's home and destroyed his printer while he was working on his computer:
chicagofall_navarro.jpg

Imagine telling your teacher, "I did do my homework but then a big rock from outer space crashed through my roof and destroyed it!"
 
Surely a small meteorite would only have been travelling at a speed of about 500kmh or so. Why should this cause an explosion or flash as is claimed to have happened? Would it leave a faint trail behind it as has also been claimed?

I'm pretty dubious about this.
 
Impressive stuff. I feel sorry for that fellow who had one crash through into his room. I can remember seeing a computer programme in the bad astronomy newsletter that let you play with the effects of a meteorite strike. You could see just what variables one needed to destroy various areas.

Jim Bowen
 
I checked the photo, I had no Idea that meteorites left black and white striped lines with arrows on the end behind them as they traveled through the atmosphere...
 
Are there any known cases of people getting killed by falling meteors? I of course know about how mass extinctions have been effected by giant meteors falling to Earth in the distant past, but I'm talking about someone actually getting hit by one in recent memory.
 
Well, we can't see the '"tube" created by the meteorite' because the newspaper's helpfully obscured it with the black-and-white arrow.

But I must admit the first thing that springs to mind is that his time-lapse photography has merely caught the moment when the streetlight burned out.
 
varwoche said:
article

OK. But what's up with the "astronomy tutor"?
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Reporter: Someone just brought in a photo and says it's a meteor.
Editor: Get someone at the community college to look at it. And quick, we've got a deadline.
Reporter (on phone): Can I speak to the astronomy professor?
Voice: He's not available. Can I help you?
Reporter: Do you know about astronomy?
Voice: I'm just a student. But I tutored astronomy last year.
Reporter: Someone brought in a phote of a meteor landing in a parking lot.
Voice: If this is true, it's one of the most remarkable pictures ever taken.
 
Re: Re: Photo of meteor

varwoche said:
Reporter: Someone just brought in a photo and says it's a meteor.
Editor: Get someone at the community college to look at it. And quick, we've got a deadline.
Reporter (on phone): Can I speak to the astronomy professor?
Voice: He's not available. Can I help you?
Reporter: Do you know about astronomy?
Voice: I'm just a student. But I tutored astronomy last year.
Reporter: Someone brought in a phote of a meteor landing in a parking lot.
Voice: If this is true, it's one of the most remarkable pictures ever taken.
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Can anything ever be taken at face value as being great and significant without invoking an expert?

NEWSFLASH
Aliens have just materialised out of thin air on Pennsylvania Avenue. The aliens, who had three eyes and no visible mouth, managed to say 'We come in peace' in broken English before vapourising the Bush administration with an anti-matter beam. "This is truly a remarkable event" said Professor Higginbottom of Havard University's Astronomy Department.
 
Are there any known cases of people getting killed by falling meteors?
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Wasn't a dog was killed by one once?

I read a short story about a time traveller mysteriously arriving in the Australian outback and asking someone there to move a few steps to the left to avoid being hit by a falling piece of Skylab - the other stories in the series were all connected to historical events, but I never found out if anyone was nearly killed by Skylab or not.

David
 
I guess that anyone actually killed/hit by a meteorite can be considered to be really unlucky. Especially if they are hit by lightining first ;)

Jim Bowen
 
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