Huge Fireball Meteor over Alaska Sets off Volcano Warning System 360 Miles Away
A huge “fireball” meteor that lit up skies across west Alaska also set off newly installed sensors for detecting volcanic activity, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has said.
The event, which took place on October 15, triggered six of the sensors’ alarms at a new monitoring station on the Kenai Peninsula. The sensors are built to detect low-frequency sound waves in the atmosphere during volcanic activity, but in this case they picked up waves coming from the meteor that had streaked across the sky around 360 miles away.
In a Facebook post, the USGS said the meteor also triggered an alarm at Mount Spurr—a large, active volcano that sits around 80 miles from Anchorage that last erupted in 1992. However, as other monitoring systems also picked up on the waves, “it quickly became clear that this was not activity at Mount Spur,” the post said.
Scientists with the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory worked with researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute to investigate the cause. They found the meteor passed over Alaska around 40 miles from the Athabaskan community of Kaltag, which sits on the Yukon River.
In a blog post for the American Geophysical Union, UAF science writer Ned Rozell said witnesses reported the fireball in regions hundreds of miles apart. One resident of Ruby described it as an “enormous ball of light in the sky,” saying it was moving north to south. Another resident said it looked like “fireworks” that split into four dots.
David Fee, head of the infrasound program at UAF’s Geophysical Institute and researcher with the AVO, said he believes the meteor exploded somewhere east of Kaltag. “I typically don’t work on meteors, but they are often really nice infrasound sources to help better understand the performance of our networks, and I think provide valuable information on meteors and bolides themselves,” he said.
Courtesy of newsweek.com
A Meteorite – Asteroid Passed Near Earth at Record Speed
A meteorite called 2020 UF3 passed at record speed from a point that could be considered quite close to our planet on October 22. The asteroid detected by the Virtual Telescope Project has passed only 42 thousand kilometers. This distance roughly corresponds to 11% of the distance between the Earth and the moon.
According to NASA reports, the speed of the asteroid was also very high. The 2020 UF3 was traveling at 22 kilometers per second. In other words, its speed was 79 thousand kilometers per hour. If the asteroid was orbiting our planet at full speed, it could have made almost 2 rotations per hour.
The asteroid also managed to become the fastest meteorite ever observed by this astronomy group, according to the Virtual Telescope Project. The team published an article on the subject on their website.
“The near-Earth asteroid 2020 UF3 has safely come very close to our planet, to a minimum distance of 42000 kilometers from Earth. It is about 11% of the average moon distance ”.
An image of the meteorite was also captured in the project. This image is not very clear. The object, which can be viewed for only 3 seconds by the Elena robotics unit, is a bit blurry and there are slight distortions in the image. Yet enough to witness the passage of the asteroid.
Despite being so close to Earth, the meteorite’s discovery took place only on October 21st. The reason for this is that the celestial body is a relatively small meteorite between 13 and 57 meters tall. The Lemmon Mountain research team discovered the asteroid.
From time to time, such small structures can go around our planet. In fact, the Sun and Jupiter greatly prevent such structures from hitting our planet thanks to their enormous gravitational field.
Courtesy of somagnews.com
Meteorite-like object falls from sky, explosion heard two kms away in Rajasthan, India #Meteorite #Rajasthan #India
A meteorite-like object fell from the sky in Rajasthan’s Sanchore town on Friday morning. The object resulted in a one-foot-deep crater and created an explosive sound that was heard up to two kilometers away. The unidentified object is currently with the police and under investigation.
According to locals, an explosive sound was heard when the object fell from the sky. The fall and the sound resulted in panic in the area.
The object was emitting heat even three hours after it crashed leading many to believe it may explode. As a result, the administration advised locals to stay away. After it cooled down, it was put in a jar. According to the police, the object will be investigated by experts.
“There was a massive sound in the morning when the object fell from the sky — it was as if an airplane had crashed. However, no one could spot what had fallen. It was only after sometime that the object was noticed in a one-foot-deep pit in the ground. It had fallen about 100 metres from my house. We immediately informed local authorities,” says Ajmal Devasi, a local.
Mangal Singh, Information Bureau Inspector, Jalore district, said, “After we received information about the unidentified object, department officials reached the spot. The unidentified object was found to be three kilometers heavy and was very hot. Investigation is underway.”
Courtesy of indiatoday.in
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