Why Are We Suddenly Getting Hit By So Many Space Rocks?

[TomTerrific]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/18/asteroids_and_meteors_why_are_we_suddenly_seeing_so_many.html


This article pretty well summarizes what we know about the Chelyabinsk meteor and goes into more detail why it would not have been seen in the BR area.

The question of what was reported seen in BR is a good one. It could have been an Iridium satellite, the space station, or an aircraft. I'll call it a UFO until we have a good reason to call it something else.

This article seems to have the diameter and weight down better. I calculated the density using data previously given and came up with numbers less than 1.0g/cm3. 17m and 10,000ton works out to 3.5. Meteor density is given as 2-8g/cm3, depending on the Fe content.

 

[cajun 22]

The mayans were just a couple of months off.

 

[returningliberty]

The mayans were just a couple of months off.

The whole purpose of the article was to explain No, the Mayans had nothing to do with it.

 

[TomTerrific]

The whole purpose of the article was to explain No, the Mayans had nothing to do with it.

He alluded to this in the article. We take random happenings like this and try to connect them, no matter how little sense it makes.

Great comment.

 

[returningliberty]

He alluded to this in the article. We take random happenings like this and try to connect them, no matter how little sense it makes.

Great comment.

thank you, sir!

 

[JNieman]

Good article. My first thought when I saw your thread title was "we're no, it's just trendy, in the news"

IIRC it's an average of like, what, 500 meteors that bombard our atmosphere, each day? It's just that none are worth writing home about. Having two noteworthy spacial items is really not that big of a deal, like the article says, it's like flipping 'heads' ten times in a row... statistically unlikely, but not really impossible or that improbable.

We're constantly bombarded with space crap. Most people just never bother to look up away from their TVs, and so they are only just hearing about it...

 

[FunN4Lo]

Everyone knows it is global warming and evil assault rifles causing rocks to fall from the sky

 

[JNieman]

Everyone knows it is global warming and evil assault rifles causing rocks to fall from the sky

Jesse Jackson told me AR15s could shoot down passing asteroids.

 

[Charles1959]

Freakin Bush's fault. Both of them.

 

[mnop308]

Tom, can you keep us posted on c/2012 S1 (ISON). Due in the fall, right?

 

[returningliberty]

Jesse Jackson told me AR15s could shoot down passing asteroids.

Is he the Dem that said an island was going to capsize and flip over, or was it someone else?

 

[cajun 22]

Is he the Dem that said an island was going to capsize and flip over, or was it someone else?

It wasn't Jesse but one not far from his tree. I remember it though.

Back on topic. The Mayan reference was to astrological events that they forecast thousands of years in advance with scary accuracy.

 

[Hermit]

Could be a "meteoric occasion," but most likely global warming.

 

[TomTerrific]

Tom, can you keep us posted on c/2012 S1 (ISON). Due in the fall, right?

Good article on Wiki here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2012_S1

Says it should be visible unaided in late October and remain so thru January.

Thanks for the heads up.

 

[RedOne451]

I saw the "California" meteor the other night while flying into Oakland. Was very bright but nothing compared with the Russian one.

 

[TomTerrific]

I saw the "California" meteor the other night while flying into Oakland. Was very bright but nothing compared with the Russian one.

When I was with the 2AD at Ft. Hood in the early sixties, I used to go to sleep when out in the field watching meteors.

I only saw a really bright one once in the nineties. It was very brief.

One December night in the middle eighties, I picked up my mother at MSY one night and on the way back to BR, the meteor show was fantastic. This was one of the regular showers. It was really dark over the marshes and thru the swamps. Wish we had kept count. Something I will never forget. These were grains of sand sized ones, tho.

 

[jro6803]

Great post - thanks Tom

 

[Emperor]

Could be a "meteoric occasion," but most likely global warming.

These dummies just won't let that go. Even despite the revelation that their so-called global warming experts conspired to intently and nefariously falsify data to support the cause.

Media tools! It's even more foolish looking when a female news knob is parroting about global warming.

 

[TomTerrific]

Could be a "meteoric occasion," but most likely global warming.

Meteors and asteroids are entirely extraterrestrial by definition, so nothing happening on good old terra firma would affect them.