Meteor Blast on Earth

January 18, 2000 One of the most dramatic meteors in 10 years streaked across the skies of the Yukon Territory in Canada. Witnesses reported two sonic booms, a foul odor, and sizzling sounds heard all the way from Alaska through northwestern Canada. Based on readings from defense satellites and seismic monitoring stations, scientists estimate that the meteor detonated with the energy of two to three kilotons of TNT.
"I have never seen anything quite like this before," said Joe Clarke of Marshlake, Yukon, who saw the meteor at 0845 PST (1645 UT) on January 18. "When it started, the flash lit up the mountains 15 km away as bright as daylight, then it just drifted across the sky. The contrail looked to me like the ones left by shuttle launches. It just hung there for at least 1/2 hour. [It's the] wildest thing I could ever imagine seeing."

There was no major meteor shower on January 18. The Yukon fireball was probably what astronomers call a sporadic meteor. The inner solar system is filled with tiny dust particles that have bubbled off innumerable comets as they pass close to the Sun. These particles, called meteoroids, hit the Earth from random directions producing 2 or 3 sporadic meteors per hour every night.
Scientists from NASA and the Department of Defense are interested in the the Yukon event. Samples of dust or rock fragments from the explosion could reveal the origin of the meteoroid. Defense specialists would also like to know what the meteoroid was made of to help calibrate the sensors they used to detect the fireball.

On Friday, January 21 -- just three days after the explosion -- an Airborne Sciences ER-2 aircraft from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center flew to the Yukon Territory of northwestern Canada in an effort to collect atmospheric samples of the meteor's lingering debris trail. The region, near the town of Carcross, is mostly unpopulated.

CREDIT: NASA

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Science & Technology

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• Meteor
• asteroid
• comet
• blast
• shower
• astronomy
• science
• NASA
• Canada
• Alaska
• sonic
• boom
• explosion
• fire

[MariaGarcia281]

PS, don't miss the first total lunar eclipse in two years! It will grace the sky the night of Monday, Dec. 20, 2010 (natures Christmas present).

[MariaGarcia281]

Source: NASA (06-17-2010)

Collisions between galaxies are a fairly common occurrence in the universe. Our Milky Way galaxy will crash into the Andromeda galaxy in a few billion years. Galaxies tangle together, kicking gas and dust all around. Often the battered galaxies are left with tails of material stripped off during the violence.

[MariaGarcia281]

Thanksgiving sky: Jupiter, Venus, moon together

Look in the southwestern sky — no telescope or binoculars needed. The show will even be visible in cities if it's a clear night

Starting Thanksgiving evening, Jupiter and Venus will begin moving closer so that by Sunday and Monday, they will appear about a finger width apart held out at arm's length.

Monday night, they will be joined by a crescent moon

The next time the three will be as close and visible as this week will be Nov. 18, 2052

[00Billy]

@tandown1000

Id say most come from the Asteroid belt....aka another planet once upon a time

[cerverg]

How big was that piece of rock? grapefruit size?

[JetMechMA]

@TheZAMBONILADY: just north of the great meteor crater -- and didn't stop to see it.

JM: I had driven past the meteor crater twice. I finally made a special trip to see it last summer. It was WELL worth it. As you walk up from the parking lot, the crater becomes visible. I found the crater to appear smaller in diameter but deeper than pictures. That's an optical illusion, because when you look out along the trail at hikers standing next to boulders, the scale becomes apparent.

[TheZAMBONILADY]

I was on a three week bus trip to California from Ontario back in 1981. We passed through Winslow, Arizona -- just north of the great meteor crater -- and didn't stop to see it. Thousands of miles round trip and we couldn't detour a dozen or so miles to see something that magnificent. I've got to go back.

[Thomhanb]

@MariaGarcia281 No kidding there.. Not long ago a small rock hit Russia.. Flatten forrest forest for miles! and that was a small rock!

[CoNiGMa]

@Melma27008 How do you know it isn't fake if you got it from ebay?

[acraze21]

@Melma27008 cool you track pieces down,kinda like that show meteorite men, I have some piece size of walnut black with holes all around it.

[CPLWeeks]

Natures' power is horrifying, but so compellingly beautiful.