• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Meteorites (Meteors That Landed / Impacted)

As for any pain you may think it a insect bite or sting.
 
maximus otter said:
Surely though, a meteorite that entered the atmosphere at the size of, say, a golf ball might be ablated to the size of a grain of rice by the time it reached ground level, yet still be travelling at a high enough velocity to pierce skin?
Click to expand...
This would be very unlikely. Even large meteors, like the Chelyabinsk meteor, lose all their momentum somewhere in the atmosphere and fall the rest of the way. Each meteor has a specific penetration depth, which depends on its density and hardness, the density of the atmosphere at various levels and the angle of incidence. Only the very largest are still travelling at interplanetary speeds when they hit the ground, and they tend to leave craters.

The others just lose momentum as soon as they pass through a column of air roughly equal to their own mass, then drop the rest of the way. This is a consequence of Newton's Approximation of Penetration, which is only a rough rule of thumb, but applies to bullets too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_depth
 
From that wiki article;
"An iron meteorite with a length of 1.3 m would punch through the atmosphere; a smaller one would be slowed by the air and fall at terminal velocity to the ground."
Assuming it were travelling straight downwards. Any oblique angle would require a larger impactor, because it would pass through a longer column of air.

So to achieve an impactor that is still travelling at speed when it reaches your nose at ground level, the original object would need to be 1.3 metres in diameter. Any bigger, and it would take your head off; any smaller and it would just fall to the ground at the terminal velocity of a small ball bearing. A very tricky shot, even for aliens.
 
I'm fairly convinced that I was hit on the head by a meteorite the size of a small pea.
I was a teenager waiting for the bus to school. I heard a bang (something hitting the bus shelter's metal roof) and was then hit on the head by a small stone, which I saw falling to the ground at my feet. It seemed to be fizzing slightly and when I picked it up it felt really cold.
Looking around, there was nobody who could have thrown it at me.
It was only years later that I figured out what it was.
I guess if I visit the bus shelter and wave a magnet about, I might find it.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I'm fairly convinced that I was hit on the head by a meteorite the size of a small pea.
I was a teenager waiting for the bus to school. I heard a bang (something hitting the bus shelter's metal roof) and was then hit on the head by a small stone, which I saw falling to the ground at my feet. It seemed to be fizzing slightly and when I picked it up it felt really cold.
Looking around, there was nobody who could have thrown it at me.
It was only years later that I figured out what it was.
I guess if I visit the bus shelter and wave a magnet about, I might find it.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't a meteorite be more likely to be hot or at least warm from the friction of passing through the atmosphere at speed?
 
hunck said:
Wouldn't a meteorite be more likely to be hot or at least warm from the friction of passing through the atmosphere at speed?
Click to expand...
You'd think so, but if it was a small pebble-sized meteorite at the temperature of space (-455 degrees F) and falling at the right angle, it would heat up a bit, then once slowed down in the upper atmosphere, it may collect ice (or it may have ice on it already from space).
A much larger meteorite with some mass would carry on heating up and would melt a bit. That would definitely be hot when it hit the ground.
 
Once the meteorite loses forward momentum, it won't heat up any more by friction. Pea-sized meteorites have probably fallen about 10-20km, so there's plenty of time to get cold.
 
Indonesian coffin maker becomes instant millionaire after $1.8million SPACE ROCK crashes through his roof

A COFFIN maker in Indonesia became an instant millionaire - when a $1.8million lump of space rock crashed through his roof.

Josua Hutagalung, 33, was at home when the football-sized meteorite smashed through the veranda at the edge of his living room.

NINTCHDBPICT000620683979.jpg


Experts have hailed the 4.5billion-year-old space rock as one of the most significant meteorite finds ever - saying it could contain elements which give clues to the origins of life.

Josua, of Kolang, in North Sumatra, has already sold the rock to a specialist collector - given him enough money to retire and build a new church in his village.

He said: “I was working on a coffin near the street in front of my house when I heard a booming sound that made my house shake. It was as if a tree had fallen on us.

“It was too hot to pick up so my wife dug it out with a hoe and we took it inside."

He was given the equivalent of 30 years' salary for the 2.2kg rock.

NINTCHDBPICT000620681071.jpg


The meteorite is classified as CM1/2 carbonaceous Chondrite, an extremely rare variety which scientists believe contains unique amino acids and other primordial elements necessary for the sparking of life itself.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1812079/indonesia-meteorite-space-rock-roof-millionaire/

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Indonesian coffin maker becomes instant millionaire after $1.8million SPACE ROCK crashes through his roof

A COFFIN maker in Indonesia became an instant millionaire - when a $1.8million lump of space rock crashed through his roof.

Josua Hutagalung, 33, was at home when the football-sized meteorite smashed through the veranda at the edge of his living room.

NINTCHDBPICT000620683979.jpg


Experts have hailed the 4.5billion-year-old space rock as one of the most significant meteorite finds ever - saying it could contain elements which give clues to the origins of life.

Josua, of Kolang, in North Sumatra, has already sold the rock to a specialist collector - given him enough money to retire and build a new church in his village.

He said: “I was working on a coffin near the street in front of my house when I heard a booming sound that made my house shake. It was as if a tree had fallen on us.

“It was too hot to pick up so my wife dug it out with a hoe and we took it inside."

He was given the equivalent of 30 years' salary for the 2.2kg rock.

NINTCHDBPICT000620681071.jpg


The meteorite is classified as CM1/2 carbonaceous Chondrite, an extremely rare variety which scientists believe contains unique amino acids and other primordial elements necessary for the sparking of life itself.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1812079/indonesia-meteorite-space-rock-roof-millionaire/

maximus otter
Click to expand...

Good for him!
 
maximus otter said:
... A COFFIN maker in Indonesia became an instant millionaire - when a $1.8million lump of space rock crashed through his roof.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/1812079/indonesia-meteorite-space-rock-roof-millionaire/
Click to expand...
Swifty said:
Man becomes millionaire after meteorite falls through his roof
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle...ls-through-his-roof/ar-BB1b8tY4?ocid=msedgdhp
Click to expand...

Well, no ...

The initial news accounts greatly exaggerated the amount of money Josua Hutagalung received for his meteorite. The actual facts and back story provide an interesting example of actual events becoming instantly blown out of proportion.
The Indonesian meteorite which didn't sell for $1.8m

The story made headlines around the world - a meteorite crashes through the roof of an Indonesian villager's home and turns out be worth millions, changing his life forever.

It was suggested that the find was worth $1.8m (£1.36m), making the man an overnight millionaire - and if he wasn't, they debated whether he'd been short-changed selling it to US buyers.

But neither of those things is true. The meteorite is not worth millions, and no-one has been ripped off.
This dream come true is not quite as it first seemed. ...
Click to expand...

FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55013725
 
EnolaGaia said:
Well, no ...

The initial news accounts greatly exaggerated the amount of money Josua Hutagalung received for his meteorite. The actual facts and back story provide an interesting example of actual events becoming instantly blown out of proportion.


FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55013725
Click to expand...
I was once told that someone had to earn a million pounds or dollars per year to be called a millionaire, having a million doesn't give you that title.
 
Swedish geologists have found a chunk of the meteor that generated a large fireball over Uppsala in November 2020.
Lumpy, 30-pound meteorite that crashed in Sweden recovered in local village

A half-melted hunk of iron-rich rock found in Uppsala, Sweden, is part of a meteorite that fell there in November 2020.

The lumpy meteorite is about the size of a loaf of bread and weighs around 31 pounds (14 kilograms), according to the Swedish Museum of Natural History. It was once part of a larger space rock, probably weighing more than 9 tons (8.1 metric tons), that created a dramatic fireball over Uppsala on Nov. 7.

After that impact, scientists at the Swedish Museum of Natural History calculated the likely landing site and found some small fragments of iron meteorite near the village of Ådalen, according to a museum statement. The fragments were only about 0.1 inches (3 millimeters) long, but the investigation also turned up a boulder and a tree root that had clearly been hit by something heavy. ...

Stockholm geologists Andreas Forsberg and Anders Zetterqvist headed back to the site and found a much larger piece — likely the one that smashed the boulder. ...
Click to expand...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/iron-meteorite-recovered-sweden.html
 
EnolaGaia said:
Swedish geologists have found a chunk of the meteor that generated a large fireball over Uppsala in November 2020.


FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/iron-meteorite-recovered-sweden.html
Click to expand...
About 17 years ago i was cycling to work at about 5:45 am, i heard a roaring sound coming from above me and looked up to see, what i can only guess, was a meteor streaking above me, i watched it until it disappeared over the horizon, if it landed i have no idea where.
 
This meteorite found in the Sahara is older than earth itself, and it's currently the oldest magmatic rock ever analyzed.
4.6-billion-year-old meteorite belongs to Earth’s long-lost baby cousin

A lonely meteorite that landed in the Sahara Desert in 2020 is older than Earth. The primeval space rock is about 4.6 billion years old, and is the oldest known example of magma from space.

Its age and mineral content hint that the rock originated in our early solar system from the crust of a protoplanet — a large, rocky body in the process of developing into a planet, according to a new study.

The meteorite, called Erg Chech 002 (EC 002), is likely a rare surviving chunk of a lost baby planet that was destroyed or absorbed by bigger rocky planets during our solar system's formation. ...

Among the thousands of rocky meteorites, EC 002 stood out. Radioactive versions, or isotopes, of aluminum and magnesium indicated that the meteorite's parent was an ancient body dating to 4.566 billion years ago, and EC 002's chemical composition revealed that it emerged from a partly-melted magma reservoir in the parent body's crust. ...

"This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock analyzed to date and sheds light on the formation of the primordial crusts that covered the oldest protoplanets," the study authors reported. ...
Click to expand...

FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.livescience.com/meteorite-asteroid-early-solar-system.html
 
Rare meteorite that fell on UK driveway may contain 'ingredients for life'

a chondrite.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/europe/uk-meteorite-extremely-rare-scn/index.html
-----------------------------------------------------
A fireball that lit up the sky over the United Kingdom and Northern Europe on February 28 was an extremely rare type of meteorite. Fragments of the space rock discovered on a driveway in the Cotswolds could provide answers to questions about the early history of the solar system and life on Earth.

Almost 300 grams (10.6 ounces) of the meteorite have been collected from the small Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe by scientists, who said the rock was formed of carbonaceous chondrite. The substance is some of the most primitive and pristine material in the solar system and has been known to contain organic material and amino acids -- the ingredients for life.

The Natural History Museum in London said the fragments were retrieved in such good condition and so quickly after the meteorite's fall that they are comparable to rock samples returned from space missions, both in quality and quantity.
 
kamalktk said:
Rare meteorite that fell on UK driveway may contain 'ingredients for life'

a chondrite.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/europe/uk-meteorite-extremely-rare-scn/index.html
-----------------------------------------------------
A fireball that lit up the sky over the United Kingdom and Northern Europe on February 28 was an extremely rare type of meteorite. Fragments of the space rock discovered on a driveway in the Cotswolds could provide answers to questions about the early history of the solar system and life on Earth.

Almost 300 grams (10.6 ounces) of the meteorite have been collected from the small Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe by scientists, who said the rock was formed of carbonaceous chondrite. The substance is some of the most primitive and pristine material in the solar system and has been known to contain organic material and amino acids -- the ingredients for life.

The Natural History Museum in London said the fragments were retrieved in such good condition and so quickly after the meteorite's fall that they are comparable to rock samples returned from space missions, both in quality and quantity.
Click to expand...

Similarly to Enola's post above, this meteorite is thought to be around 4.6 billion years old.

The story of the find here.

The first thing the Wilcock family knew about it was when they heard a dull thud outside their house on the night of Sunday 28 February.

"It was only the next morning when we went out that we saw it on the drive - a bit like a kind of splatter."

Imagery from multiple angles allowed researchers to narrow the drop zone, and when they went on the media to make an appeal on the Monday, they hoped one or two people might come forward with an interesting find.

In fact, they were inundated with pictures. Most had nothing to do with meteorites, but when Open University planetary scientist Richard Greenwood looked at the Wilcocks' picture, he was blown away.

"It was one of those moments when your legs start going wobbly. I saw this thing; it was like a splat across [the Wilcocks'] drive; and it had all these rays coming off it; and I just thought - that is a meteorite. It was instantaneous," he said.
Click to expand...
Good on the family for donating it to the national collection at the NHM. They could've presumably sold it to a dealer for a lot of money.

1615332438020.png
 
The meteorite that landed in Winchcombe is to go on public display from Monday (17th May)

"From Monday, you'll get a chance to see the most famous space rock in Britain.

The meteorite that fell on the Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe in February is going on public display at London's Natural History Museum.

Scientists are busy studying the rock because it holds within it chemistry that existed at the formation of our Solar System 4.6 billion years ago.

But they've got enough material to enable a 100g chunk to also be shown off to museum visitors."

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57099789
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's begging to have two googly eyes put on it and turned into a pet rock.
 
It has been presumed that meteorites impacting earth are created by general / random collisions among asteroids in the asteroid belt, and that this results in a fluctuating number of incoming meteors of all types. Newly published survey research suggests (based on the sites surveyed) this presumption isn't warranted. The presumptive fluctuations aren't evident, suggesting only a small subset of asteroid collision remnants find their way to earth.
Surprise Discovery Buried in 500 Million Years of Meteorite Impacts on Earth

The rain of meteorites from space onto our planet over the last 500 million years may not have fallen in quite the way we thought.

After analyzing 8,484 kilograms (18,704 pounds) of sedimentary rock from ancient seabeds, scientists have found that major collisions in the asteroid belt have not made any significant contribution to the number of meteorite impacts on Earth, as had been theorized. ...

"The research community previously believed that meteorite flux to Earth was connected to dramatic events in the asteroid belt," said geologist Birger Schmitz of Lund University in Sweden. "The new study, however, shows that the flux has instead been very stable." ...

Fascinatingly, their results show a stable flux, mostly consisting of chondritic (stony non-metallic) meteorites, similar to the present-day flux. The glaring exception is an increase in this type of meteorite 466 million years ago, associated with the break-up of an L-chondrite parent body, a type of meteorite conspicuously low in iron.

During this time, meteorite flux increased by a factor of up to 300, and 99 percent of the grains were from this one parent body, tailing off after about 40 million years, but never quite ceasing. Even today, around one-third of all meteorites falling to Earth are from this parent body.

This suggests that the asteroids that do leave the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter seem to come from a very small region.

"We were very surprised to learn that only one of the 70 largest asteroid collisions that took place over the past 500 million years resulted in an increased flux of meteorites to Earth," Schmitz said. "For some reason, most of the rocks stay in the asteroid belt."

We're not sure what this reason is, yet, but it could help us understand what kinds of objects are likely to collide with Earth, and where they come from. That's if the team's findings are validated, of course; as they mention in their paper, the sampling might not be comprehensive. ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/scient...acts-on-earth-over-the-last-500-million-years
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for the published report. The full report is accessible at the link below.

Asteroid break-ups and meteorite delivery to Earth the past 500 million years
Fredrik Terfelt, Birger Schmitz
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2021, 118 (24) e2020977118
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020977118

Abstract
The meteoritic material falling on Earth is believed to derive from large break-up or cratering events in the asteroid belt. The flux of extraterrestrial material would then vary in accordance with the timing of such asteroid family-forming events. In order to validate this, we investigated marine sediments representing 15 time-windows in the Phanerozoic for content of micrometeoritic relict chrome-spinel grains (>32 μm). We compare these data with the timing of the 15 largest break-up events involving chrome-spinel–bearing asteroids (S- and V-types). Unexpectedly, our Phanerozoic time windows show a stable flux dominated by ordinary chondrites similar to today’s flux. Only in the mid-Ordovician, in connection with the break-up of the L-chondrite parent body, do we observe an anomalous micrometeorite regime with a two to three orders-of-magnitude increase in the flux of L-chondritic chrome-spinel grains to Earth. This corresponds to a one order-of-magnitude excess in the number of impact craters in the mid-Ordovician following the L-chondrite break-up, the only resolvable peak in Phanerozoic cratering rates indicative of an asteroid shower. We argue that meteorites and small (<1-km-sized) asteroids impacting Earth mainly sample a very small region of orbital space in the asteroid belt. This selectiveness has been remarkably stable over the past 500 Ma.

SOURCE / FULL REPORT: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/24/e2020977118
 
hunck said:
Similarly to Enola's post above, this meteorite is thought to be around 4.6 billion years old.

The story of the find here.

The first thing the Wilcock family knew about it was when they heard a dull thud outside their house on the night of Sunday 28 February.

"It was only the next morning when we went out that we saw it on the drive - a bit like a kind of splatter."


Good on the family for donating it to the national collection at the NHM. They could've presumably sold it to a dealer for a lot of money.

View attachment 36470
Click to expand...

It's an old one.

The Winchcombe meteorite is now official.

The rocky material that fell to Earth in a blazing fireball over the Cotswold town of Winchcombe in February has had its classification formally accepted. Details have just been published by the international Meteoritical Society in its bulletin database.Early work by UK scientists indicates the Winchcombe object dates back to the very beginning of the Solar System, some 4.6 billion yearago.

This makes it extremely valuable. Certainly, it is the most important space rock ever to fall and be recovered in Britain.

Formal classification basically means the dark grey-to-black material picked up in Gloucestershire earlier this year is now absolutely recognised as being meteoritic in nature, and it means also that the name "Winchcombe" can be used to describe it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57763422
 
Nosmo King said:
The meteorite that landed in Winchcombe is to go on public display from Monday (17th May)
"From Monday, you'll get a chance to see the most famous space rock in Britain. ...
Click to expand...
The chunk of the Wilcock family driveway the meteorite hit has been removed and is on its way to the Natural History Museum as well.
Winchcombe meteorite driveway to go on display

It’s the most famous driveway in Britain and a section of it is now heading to London’s Natural History Museum to go on public display.

Workmen have lifted the tarmac where a meteorite fell on the Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe in February.

It was the first space rock in 30 years to be seen to come down over the UK and then be recovered.

And that’s given the driveway to the home of the Wilcock family what you might call celebrity status. ...

The all-important segment where the rock went "Splat!" has been protected these past six months by a covering board; and when the weather was particularly bad, a car was strategically placed over the top of it as well.

The Natural History Museum already displays some of the meteorite, but it thinks the tarmac will also prove to be a popular attraction. It's all part of the story, along with the Waitrose cream pot into which the space rock fragments were initially swept.

Wednesday saw local construction company Grimshaw turn up at the home of Rob and Cathryn Wilcock, and their daughter Hannah, to carefully remove the indented section of drive. ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58493430
 
A British Columbia woman awoke to find an apparent meteorite that had smashed through her bedroom ceiling and landed on her bed.
B.C. woman awakes to a hole in her roof and a space rock on her pillow

On Oct. 4, many were treated to the sight of a fireball lighting up the night sky, with images of a meteor sailing above Lake Louise striking awe.

Longtime Golden resident Ruth Hamilton, however, was fast asleep.

Or at least she was until she was roughly awoken by the sound of a crash through her ceiling and the sensation of debris on her face.

“I just jumped up and turned on the light, I couldn’t figure out what the heck had happened” ...

She said she took a look around to get her bearings, and spotting a rock sitting neatly on her pillow next to where her head usually lays.

Hamilton called 911, unsure of what to make of the projectile. A police officer arrived on the scene, and after establishing that the rock was not there as a result of the ongoing construction in the Kicking Horse Canyon, they settled on the only other explanation – that a meteorite had come through her roof.

“We called the Canyon project to see if they were doing any blasting and they weren’t, but they did say they had seen a bright light in the sky that had exploded and caused some booms,” said Hamilton.

“I was shaking and scared when it happened ... It’s almost a relief when we realized it could only have fallen out of the sky.”

Hamilton says that she’s totally fine and avoided any injuries, and that she plans to keep the rock for the foreseeable future, stating that her grandchildren think it’s pretty cool. ...

As for the damage to her home, Hamilton says that her insurance company will be doing a walk-through to see if roof holes cause by space debris are covered. Evidently, the company has never had a claim filed quite like this before. ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://www.vicnews.com/news/b-c-woman-awakes-to-a-hole-in-her-roof-and-a-space-rock-on-her-pillow/
 
EnolaGaia said:
A British Columbia woman awoke to find an apparent meteorite that had smashed through her bedroom ceiling and landed on her bed. ...
Click to expand...

The woman's (Ruth Hamilton's) story of the incident as told to The Guardian has different details than initial news accounts from last October. According to this later version she was awakened by her dog before the meteorite crashed through her roof.
Experience: a meteorite crashed on to my bed

I live in a small town called Golden, in a valley bottom between two mountain ranges in Canada. I’m retired, and apart from my dog, Toby, I live alone. I lead a pretty quiet life, especially since the pandemic.

On Sunday 3 October last year, I went to bed as usual at about 9.30pm. The next thing I remember is waking up at 11.30 to the sound of Toby barking like mad. It was his protective bark: “Something’s out there!” So I quickly got up. Almost immediately there was an explosion, and everything was covered in plasterboard and debris.

I was terrified. There was a massive hole in the ceiling above my bed. At first I thought a tree had fallen on the house, but I looked out of the window and there was no tree there. I was so agitated that I was kind of vibrating. I decided to call the police.

I told the dispatcher that something had come through my ceiling and I had no idea what. Then I went back into the bedroom and flipped back the pillow. A lump of rock was there. ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/feb/18/experience-a-meteorite-crashed-on-to-my-bed
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top