Was This a meteotiate

Here is what greeted me on the local paper this morning

Was this a meteorite?
By NIGEL ADLAM
24nov04
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.

The photograph was taken by keen amateur photographer Wayne Pryde as he
stood near the Darwin Cenotaph on The Esplanade and looked down to Fort Hill
Wharf on Monday evening.

The meteorite, which could have been as small as a grain of sand, would have
been travelling about 30,000km/h.

Mr Pryde believes a tiny piece of space rock hit the top of a 20m lamp post
on the wharf.

He said the explosion on impact could be seen clearly in the photograph.

The ``tube'' created by the meteorite as it hurtled towards Earth is harder
to pick out.

Full story here

http://ntnews.news.com.au/common/sto...E13569,00.html

Ive done a rough scan of the photo and you can see it here

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hapchap/


Phillip Smith
Darwin Australia

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 09:35:52 +0930, "Phillip Smith"
wrote:

Here is what greeted me on the local paper this morning

Was this a meteorite?
By NIGEL ADLAM
24nov04
Territory scientists were last night studying what could be the first
photograph of a meteorite hitting Earth.

Extremely unlikely. You can't get a meteorite that burns all the way to impact
unless it is very big to begin with- several meters at least. This would have
resulted in a huge fireball, sonic booms, a shower of other meteorites, and
other such hard-to-miss stuff.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

What about the meteorite that punched a hole through a roof in
Wethersfield, CT some years back? Or the one in New York that
drove itself through a parked car?

Although I suppose those weren't still burning at the time of
impact. But they must have been hot enough to be glowing.

-Paul W.

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 07:16:43 GMT, Chris L Peterson
wrote:

Extremely unlikely. You can't get a meteorite that burns all the way to impact
unless it is very big to begin with- several meters at least. This would have
resulted in a huge fireball, sonic booms, a shower of other meteorites, and
other such hard-to-miss stuff.

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On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 21:59:50 GMT, Paul Winalski
wrote:

What about the meteorite that punched a hole through a roof in
Wethersfield, CT some years back? Or the one in New York that
drove itself through a parked car?

Although I suppose those weren't still burning at the time of
impact. But they must have been hot enough to be glowing.

Not even close. Meteorites are usually a bit cooler than ambient, sometimes
quite a bit cooler. They have been falling at relatively low speed (~100 m/s)
for many minutes, much of that in air that is around -40C. At the point where
the burning stopped and terminal velocity was reached, 20km or higher, the
interior of the meteorite was pretty close to its temperature in space, probably
not far from room temperature.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 21:59:50 +0000, Paul Winalski wrote:

What about the meteorite that punched a hole through a roof in
Wethersfield, CT some years back? Or the one in New York that drove
itself through a parked car?

Although I suppose those weren't still burning at the time of impact. But
they must have been hot enough to be glowing.

-Paul W.


No they were not "still burning" on impact and NEVER are. They cool off
high up in the atmosphere. They are never hot upon landing. This is an old
myth. The go through a period of what is called "Dark flight" before
landing. Remember, they are only hot for the first mm or 2 of their
surface as they enter, under that "fusion crust" they are unchanged and
uneffected. The rock itself is not aflame either. Ablation bleeds off a
lot of the heat, like a Apollo heatshield.