Asteroid the 'Size of a Minivan' Exploded Over California 279
astroengine writes, quoting Discovery: "The source of loud 'booms' accompanied by a bright object traveling through the skies of Nevada and California on Sunday morning has been confirmed: it was a meteor. A big one. It is thought to have been a small asteroid that slammed into the atmosphere at a speed of 15 kilometers per second (33,500 mph), turning into a fireball, delivering an energy of 3.8 kilotons of TNT as it broke up over California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, classified it as a 'big event.' 'I am not saying there was a 3.8 kiloton explosion on the ground in California,' Cooke told Spaceweather.com. 'I am saying that the meteor possessed this amount of energy before it broke apart in the atmosphere. (The map) shows the location of the atmospheric breakup, not impact with the ground.' Interestingly, this event was bigger than asteroid 2008 TC3 that exploded over the skies of Sudan in 2008 after being detected before it hit."
Exploding Minivans (Score:5, Funny)
Always said the damn things were dangerous
minivan (Score:5, Funny)
For all the foreigners saying "WTF is a minivan?", it is a large family vehicle, smaller than a mini-bus, like a VW Transporter (Combi) , about 10 hogsheads or 0.00001 Libraries of Congress.
The truth! (Score:5, Funny)
Transformers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:minivan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Can't we detect something that size? (Score:4, Funny)
who says it wasnt tracked the whole 3 seconds it came into our range and blew up?
Re:Exploding Minivans (Score:5, Funny)
It wasn't a minivan though... remember this thing was clocked at 33,000 mph. When's the last time you saw a minivan even doing the speed limit?
Re:minivan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How long... (Score:4, Funny)
Thats right the minivan you heard in the news. A unique, once in a lifetime opportunity to own a piece of history and space.
Slight signs of usage from entering the earths atmosphere make it even more authentic" This is your chance to buy the Minivan from space[tm] [flickr.com]
Chatting on a cellphone (Score:5, Funny)
Typical minivan driver, didn't even see a planet that was, well, the size of a planet before it was too late.
Re:minivan (Score:5, Funny)
For all the Americans saying "WTF is an asteroid?", it is a big space rock made by Jebus 6000 years ago. It has as much blow-uppy power as millions of pounds of dynamite (the calorie equivalent of a billion gallons of Extreme HotPocket PizzaHut Lard Thins), and, if it were to hit California, could result in a a postponed airing of Dancing With the Stars. To prevent this, we must pray for an end to the liberal gay marriage agenda targeting our children in the public schools of Obamamerica, and make sure every patriot has a gun to send future asteroids back across the border before their lazy anchor meteorites take our jobs and food stamps. God bless the troops!
Thankyouverymuch.
Re:SI unit (Score:5, Funny)
Re:mini (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How convenient. (Score:4, Funny)
"few tonnes of iron in orbit is worth a fortune"
no it isn't.
Yes, it is, if it stays in orbit.
"Dear Mr. <World_Leader>,
I have a large chunk of iron orbiting the planet, and it would be a real shame if it were to accidentally drop on your capitol city. How would you like to invest in a little insurance against that?"