Amazing first meteorite ever captured on video in air by lucky winged skydiver confirmed and charact

www.nrk.no...
This is incredible! The skydiver almost gets killed by a falling chunk of asteroid and instead, captures it on video clearly enough to characterize the meteorite.

reply to post by lifestudent


Very interesting. I'm just wondering why the "rock" doesn't appear to be hot. IDK, they seem truly sincere, but I can't but wonder if this could be a hoax, a rock dropped from the plane?

reply to post by lifestudent

If thats a "meteorite" it shoulden't be to hard to find, with all the landmarks you can see from the sky but seems kind of sketchy.

Definitely a small spent rock, and if the plane is below?

reply to post by Mianeye


As they described it, the heat would no longer be visible as light/glow, but it does seem to be moving as fast as claimed. Their analysis also seems credible.

Regarding finding it, if the underbrush was at all thick, I'd imagine it may not be so easy. Incredibly lucky to have filmed and not been hit by something like that though.

lifestudent
www.nrk.no...
This is incredible! The skydiver almost gets killed by a falling chunk of asteroid and instead, captures it on video clearly enough to characterize the meteorite.

Wow... talk about God hitting the smite button and forgetting to correct for wind.

windword
reply to post by lifestudent

 

Very interesting. I'm just wondering why the "rock" doesn't appear to be hot. IDK, they seem truly sincere, but I can't but wonder if this could be a hoax, a rock dropped from the plane?

Most meteorites cool relatively quickly after surviving the trip though the atmosphere. They cool down as they slow down to terminal velocity speeds (150 or 200 mph) once they go through the lower atmosphere.

It should also be noted that the meteor or meteorite itself is not glowing, but the molecules in the atmosphere around that meteor glows. This is due to the heat created by the friction as these objects moving at thousands of mhp hit that atmosphere.

If the meteor is large enough not to disintegrate completely in the atmosphere, the thickness of the atmosphere will cause the meteor to slow down. As it slows down to speeds below 6000 or 7000 mph, it will stop causing the atmosphere around it to glow. Eventually, the atmosphere becomes so thick that it would cause the meteor to slow to terminal velocity (which can vary depending on size and shape, but can be in the 150 to 200 mph range) before falling to the ground.

This is true fro small to medium meteorites. Really large dinosaur-killing asteroids have more momentum behind them, and don't really slow down that much when they hit the atmosphere.

It does seem to be coming from the same direction as the guy behind him. Im not all that convinced its a meteorite. Just doesn't seem to be moving fast enough for what id expect.

Lets hope they find it.

PhoenixOD
It does seem to be coming from the same direction as the guy behind him. Im not all that convinced its a meteorite. Just doesn't seem to be moving fast enough for what id expect.

Lets hope they find it.

edit on 3-4-2014 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)

If the skydiver and the meteorite are falling at about the same velocity (terminal velocity), then what we see could be consistent with a meteorite.

reply to post by Box of Rain


I dont agree, he has deployed his cute which means he is falling at a vastly slower rate than a stone would be as there is more surface area slowing him down. in fact thats the whole idea of a cute.

Plus the wing suit slowed his vertical rate of fall a lot to begin with.

PhoenixOD
reply to post by Box of Rain

 

I dont agree, he has deployed his cute which means he is falling at a vastly slower rate than a stone would be as there is more surface area slowing him down. in fact thats the whole idea of a cute.

Plus the wing suit slowed his vertical rate of fall a lot to begin with.

edit on 3-4-2014 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)

I'm sorry, I was unclear. I meant the rock zipped by him at roughly the same speed as the other falling skydiver.

Sure -- the other skydiver had the wing suit that was affecting his falling speed, but I also wonder what terminal velocity is for a rock of that size and shape.

reply to post by Box of Rain


The scientist identifying the meteorite said it should have been going about 300 Kph (~200 mph). As I remember, terminal velocity for a human is about 120 mph. With the chute just deployed, I'd guess the skydiver would be dropping somewhere around 25-50 mph, which should make the meteorite look like it was going about 150-175 mph. Based on the real time flyby from above, that looks reasonable to me.

Box of Rain
Most meteorites cool relatively quickly after surviving the trip though the atmosphere. They cool down as they slow down to terminal velocity speeds (150 or 200 mph) once they go through the lower atmosphere.

It should also be noted that the meteor or meteorite itself is not glowing, but the molecules in the atmosphere around that meteor glows. This is due to the heat created by the friction as these objects moving at thousands of mhp hit that atmosphere.

If the meteor is large enough not to disintegrate completely in the atmosphere, the thickness of the atmosphere will cause the meteor to slow down. As it slows down to speeds below 6000 or 7000 mph, it will stop causing the atmosphere around it to glow. Eventually, the atmosphere becomes so thick that it would cause the meteor to slow to terminal velocity (which can vary depending on size and shape, but can be in the 150 to 200 mph range) before falling to the ground.

This is true fro small to medium meteorites. Really large dinosaur-killing asteroids have more momentum behind them, and don't really slow down that much when they hit the atmosphere.

edit on 4/3/2014 by Box of Rain because: (no reason given)

So those huge asteroids could potentially hit earth at 6000-7000+ mph?

reply to post by lifestudent


That "rock" is falling too slow to be a meteorite. I think it's a lavatory dump from Malaysia flight 370.

That meteorite (getting that name when it actually reaches the ground) is a frag from a much bigger chondritic bolide that detonated very high up in the atmosphere, typically 20 to 40 miles up. You can see the ablated sides and also the lighter interior exposed where it fragmented out of the original mass. The lighter exposed material means that there was likely no secondary ablation, meaning that it detonated in a lower altitude than normal and the frags decelerated rapidly . This also means there are more than one, and he was actually parachuting through part of a strewn field of falling fragments.

This is all the info a real meteorite hunter needs to know, and there should be a number of them combing the ground with detectors. I would not be surprised if someone does not indeed recover a few, since the area they fell in is so well documented.

A really cool event, indeed.

reply to post by lifestudent


It looks like it was packed in with his parachute and eventually fell out or was timed to come out.
Or the guy above him tossed it out, whichever you please.

Asteroids tend to be moving a bit faster then that.

ShortStuff
reply to post by lifestudent

 

That "rock" is falling too slow to be a meteorite. I think it's a lavatory dump from Malaysia flight 370.

I agree with the dump theory definitely a turd if you look close you can sea a kidney bean good catch saf

it's A Bird.

It looks like a falcon/hawk diving after some prey.

AnteBellum
reply to post by lifestudent

 

It looks like it was packed in with his parachute and eventually fell out or was timed to come out.
Or the guy above him tossed it out, whichever you please.

Asteroids tend to be moving a bit faster then that.

edit on 4/3/2014 by AnteBellum because: add

NOT true. Not once they get through the atmosphere they don't. They really get slowed down by the thick air, and they decelerate to terminal velocity.

Whether it was from space, falling from a plane, or dropped by another person high above, it would fall at the same "terminal velocity", no matter where it fell from. So a small meteorite that size might only be moving at only 150 mph.

Granted, a huge 5 mile-wide asteroid moving at 60,000 mph would barely slow down upon hitting the atmosphere because of its mass and momentum, but a small rock like this would be moving as fast as it would if it was dropped from a balloon.

Box of Rain
...Whether it was from space, falling from a plane, or dropped by another person high above, it would fall at the same "terminal velocity", no matter where it fell from. So a small meteorite that size might only be moving at only 150 mph....

This is correct. meteorites of this size will fall at the same maximum speed that it would if simply dropped from -- say -- 10,000 feet up. That is the terminal velocity.

People are under the mistaken impression that small meteorites would be moving at thousands of miles per hour and are fiery balls as they hit the ground. This is not true at all. Let's blame Hollywood for that myth.

Small meteorites (such as the size of the object seen in the video) would be moving fast in space, but they REALLY get slowed down quite a bit after encountering Earth upper atmosphere, and by the time they get down to the lower atmosphere (such as where planes fly), they would have slowed down to terminal velocity, which is the maximum velocity something dropped from above would fall. A skydiver freefalls at terminal velocity of about 150 mph to 200 mph in the lower atmosphere (exact velocity is based on mass and shape of the skydiver)

So a meteorite the size of the object in the video would not be falling so fast that it would mack a huge crater (maybe a small depression in the ground, but not a crater). The picture below is an example of a small-ish meteor. This is the Peekskill Meteorite that fell back in 1992 -- named for the town of Peekskill, NY where the only known piece of it landed. As you can see, it was moving only fast enough (maybe 150 mph or 200 mph) to put a huge dent in a parked car, but it really wasn't moving like you see in a Hollywood movie.

1992 image of the "Peekskill Meteorite":