Meteorite hits with an impact comparable to Hiroshima

Spin Echo · Post by **Spin Echo** » 2006-06-09 10:19am

Record meteorite hit Norway
As Wednesday morning dawned, northern Norway was hit with an impact comparable to the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima.
Peter Bruvold witnessed the meteorite streaking across the night sky.

The map shows the meteorite's direction of fall (the arrow) and the possible impact area over Troms and Finnmark counties.

At around 2:05 a.m. on Wednesday, residents of the northern part of Troms and the western areas of Finnmark could clearly see a ball of fire taking several seconds to travel across the sky.

A few minutes later an impact could be heard and geophysics and seismology research foundation NORSAR registered a powerful sound and seismic disturbances at 02:13.25 a.m. at their station in Karasjok.

Farmer Peter Bruvold was out on his farm in Lyngseidet with a camera because his mare Virika was about to foal for the first time.

"I saw a brilliant flash of light in the sky, and this became a light with a tail of smoke," Bruvold told Aftenposten.no. He photographed the object and then continued to tend to his animals when he heard an enormous crash.

"I heard the bang seven minutes later. It sounded like when you set off a solid charge of dynamite a kilometer (0.62 miles) away," Bruvold said.

Astronomers were excited by the news.

"There were ground tremors, a house shook and a curtain was blown into the house," Norway's best known astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard told Aftenposten.no.

Røed Ødegaard said the meteorite was visible to an area of several hundred kilometers despite the brightness of the midnight sunlit summer sky. The meteorite hit a mountainside in Reisadalen in North Troms.

"This is simply exceptional. I cannot imagine that we have had such a powerful meteorite impact in Norway in modern times. If the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the Hiroshima bomb. Of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we may be able to compare it to the (atomic) bomb," Røed Ødegaard said.

The astronomer believes the meteorite was a giant rock and probably the largest known to have struck Norway.

"The record was the Alta meteorite that landed in 1904. That one was 90 kilos (198 lbs) but we think the meteorite that landed Wednesday was considerably larger," Røed Ødegaard said, and urged members of the public who saw the object or may have found remnants to contact the Institute of Astrophysics.

Something to make Chardok sleep better at night. I suppose this happens more often that we realize, though probably in uninhabited areas we'd never notice.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2006-06-09 10:27am

What's with that region of the Earth getting smacked by large meteorites? I recall at least two incidents up in Russia in the early 20th century where there were large impacts.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2006-06-09 10:41am

And, apparently, no one spotted it till it hit. Scary.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-06-09 10:42am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:What's with that region of the Earth getting smacked by large meteorites? I recall at least two incidents up in Russia in the early 20th century where there were large impacts.

Haven't you ever watched Hellboy? It is the Seven Gods of Chaos, sending the gateway to unlock the portal to our dimension in preparation for the fall of humanity and the age of fire.

Majin Gojira · Post by **Majin Gojira** » 2006-06-09 12:55pm

All Glory to the Ogdru-Jahad!

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2006-06-09 02:30pm

And once again we Humans get BUTT F'ING LUCKY.
Seriouslly... A rock that hit with the blast of an A-Bomb. NO ONE caught it until it was already in the atmosphere.

Is no one concerned about if this hit London or New York? Theres been nothing about this on the news, not a peep that I've heared. I mean is it going to take one of these hitting a city before we actually get serious about tracking them?

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2006-06-09 02:45pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:And once again we Humans get BUTT F'ING LUCKY.
Seriouslly... A rock that hit with the blast of an A-Bomb. NO ONE caught it until it was already in the atmosphere.

Is no one concerned about if this hit London or New York? Theres been nothing about this on the news, not a peep that I've heared. I mean is it going to take one of these hitting a city before we actually get serious about tracking them?

It's pretty unlikely for such a thing to hit in a populated area, if you think about it. IIRC, 73% of the earth is covered in water, so no human settlements there, and anyone who's ever been on a long drive between two reasonably large cities knows there's a lot more of the nothing in between than actual cities and large concentrated populations.

If we could track them, what benefit would we have, anyways? Would we even be able to actually predict where exactly it would hit without knowing its exact structure and composition? It's not like we could actually stop the damned thing.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2006-06-09 02:54pm

We could, you know, evacuate the city.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Junghalli · Post by **Junghalli** » 2006-06-09 02:55pm

Zero132132 wrote:It's not like we could actually stop the damned thing.

Um, yes you could. According to the article the meteor was under a ton. A small nuke could probably fragment it pretty easy. You could set up a network of deflection sattelites armed with them, arrayed to cover the entire surface of the planet if you want.
It'd be ridiculously expensive, but something to at least consider for the future. If it was feasible now without becoming a massive black hole of money I'd be for it.

Big Phil · Post by **Big Phil** » 2006-06-09 03:20pm

Defending ourselves against the statistically microscopic chance of a metorite hit on a major city is just silly. If we're going to waste the money, at least waste it on hookers and alcohol.

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2006-06-09 03:43pm

Junghalli wrote:
Zero132132 wrote:It's not like we could actually stop the damned thing.
Um, yes you could. According to the article the meteor was under a ton. A small nuke could probably fragment it pretty easy. You could set up a network of deflection sattelites armed with them, arrayed to cover the entire surface of the planet if you want.
It'd be ridiculously expensive, but something to at least consider for the future. If it was feasible now without becoming a massive black hole of money I'd be for it.

It would be enormously, stupidly expensive to attempt to catch and deflect space debris that small. It doesn't become worth it to attempt to deflect an object until a given object is large enough to kill a lot of people no matter where it lands.

Kwizard · Post by **Kwizard** » 2006-06-09 05:21pm

Waiting for Fred Phelps and Co. to crank out the "God hates Norway" bullshit... come on, any time now...

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2006-06-09 07:13pm

Who the hell tried casting Meteor? I know it's one of you apprentice black mages so speak up, you louse!

It'd be neat if there is a photograph of the crater/crash site.

Elaro · Post by **Elaro** » 2006-06-09 08:07pm

Junghalli wrote:
Zero132132 wrote:It's not like we could actually stop the damned thing.
Um, yes you could. According to the article the meteor was under a ton. A small nuke could probably fragment it pretty easy. You could set up a network of deflection sattelites armed with them, arrayed to cover the entire surface of the planet if you want.
It'd be ridiculously expensive, but something to at least consider for the future. If it was feasible now without becoming a massive black hole of money I'd be for it.

Okay, that's just dumb. And not for economic resons. Aren't you worried about fallout?

Dark Primus · Post by **Dark Primus** » 2006-06-09 08:20pm

Wait till people starts to touch the meteorites. They slowly transforms into zombies and mutants.

"Braaiiiins."

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-06-09 08:21pm

Elaro wrote:
Junghalli wrote:
Zero132132 wrote:It's not like we could actually stop the damned thing.
Um, yes you could. According to the article the meteor was under a ton. A small nuke could probably fragment it pretty easy. You could set up a network of deflection sattelites armed with them, arrayed to cover the entire surface of the planet if you want.
It'd be ridiculously expensive, but something to at least consider for the future. If it was feasible now without becoming a massive black hole of money I'd be for it.
Okay, that's just dumb. And not for economic resons. Aren't you worried about fallout?

Any interception would likely take place in space, quite some distance away from Earth. Radioactivity from the exploding bomb would be inconsequential.

However, even if it were detonated in the upper atmosphere, the radioactive fallout from an air-burst would still be quite small. Fallout is largely a result of ground-burst detonations.

dr. what · Post by **dr. what** » 2006-06-09 10:56pm

Dark Primus wrote:Wait till people starts to touch the meteorites. They slowly transforms into zombies and mutants.

"Braaiiiins."

Always with the zombies.

How'd we know this isn't one of those super power granting meteors?

What would be a Norwegian appropriate super-power?

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2006-06-09 11:00pm

Soontir C'boath wrote:Who the hell tried casting Meteor? I know it's one of you apprentice black mages so speak up, you louse!

>___>

<___<

*Raises hand*

Sorry. BTW, it is an "impact" site, not a crash-site.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2006-06-10 12:47am

dr. what wrote:
Dark Primus wrote:Wait till people starts to touch the meteorites. They slowly transforms into zombies and mutants.

"Braaiiiins."
Always with the zombies.

How'd we know this isn't one of those super power granting meteors?

What would be a Norwegian appropriate super-power?

Super Strength to weild a biggass Hammer would be one of them, although Its probably one of those Alien Terraforming Pods that releases out hostile lifeforms that spread and surplant Terran Plant and Animals.

Zor

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2006-06-10 01:21am

Elaro wrote:
Okay, that's just dumb. And not for economic resons. Aren't you worried about fallout?

Most nuclear fallout comes from ground debris being sucked into a nuclear fireball and irradiated. As modern nuclear bombs are more then 99% efficient they leave little actual nuclear material behind. In other words, most fallout will simply not exist even if we intercepted the meteorite inside the atmosphere. What would be left would be so dispersed as to be only a minimal concern, especially compared to the damage the impact could inflict if not stopped.

Far more realistically any interception using a nuclear warhead would occur outside earth orbit and fallout would be not be an issue at all.
The US alone already expended about 435 megatons of nuclear firepower in more then 300 atmospheric tests anyway.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2006-06-10 06:49am

dr. what wrote:
Dark Primus wrote:Wait till people starts to touch the meteorites. They slowly transforms into zombies and mutants.

"Braaiiiins."
Always with the zombies.

How'd we know this isn't one of those super power granting meteors?

What would be a Norwegian appropriate super-power?

Thor, the power to burn churches, that sort of think. I'm hoping it has an alien symbiote, personally.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2006-06-10 07:05am

fgalkin wrote:We could, you know, evacuate the city.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Would we be able to accurately pinpoint where on the map an incoming meteorite was going to land?

GrandMasterTerwynn · Post by **GrandMasterTerwynn** » 2006-06-10 01:55pm

Zero132132 wrote:
fgalkin wrote:We could, you know, evacuate the city.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
Would we be able to accurately pinpoint where on the map an incoming meteorite was going to land?

No. You need a lot of observations at different times to plot the course of an incoming bit of space debris. This is why we can warn the ISS to get out of the way of large bits of man-made debris, which are tracked over long periods of time, over its entire orbit, via radar, but we can't even give more than a wild-assed guess whether a given asteroid will impact the planet or not, since if one's coming our way, we can't observe it over enough of its orbit to tell where, exactly, it's going to be.

The best you can hope for is a rather largish ellipse where you think it's going to land. But even for spacecraft whose trajectories we can actually change (like the Mars Exploration Rovers we dropped two years back,) the best we could do in forecasting where they'd end up was a 100km by 15km ellipse. If you superimposed something like that on the area of Washington DC, you'd be staging evacuations up through Baltimore and clear up to the Pennsylvania border.

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2006-06-10 02:21pm

Screw aliens and superpowers, I want my giant amoebiatic blob monster...now!

How big does a meteor have to be to get spotted by NORAD or something?

Jason von Evil · Post by **Jason von Evil** » 2006-06-11 05:37pm

I for one welcome our new Martian overlords and will gladly reveal the locations of artillery and the Thunderchild.