Largest fireball since Chelyabinsk falls into the ocean Feb 6th

I must've missed this on the news. I guess because no one got it on cell phone video (sarcasm off). I wonder how often things of this size enter our atmosphere where we're unaware, but NASA knows and releases the news after the fact because they missed something of this size inbound (I know the article says 'several' times a year, but what is the app. #)? . I know the object only measured 7 meters, but they can supposedly read car license plates.

"Largest fireball since Chelyabinsk falls into the ocean: Nasa reports huge explosion of seven meter space rock over the Atlantic
Event took place February 6 at 14:00 UTC, 620 miles off Brazil's coast
Released 13,000 tons of TNT - 40 times less that the Chelyabinsk fireball
Unlikely anyone saw it, but may have been picked up by military sensors
Impacts like this happen several times per year, mostly in the ocean"
www.dailymail.co.uk... lantic.html#ixzz410R2tPrb

originally posted by: UnBreakable
I know the object only measured 7 meters, but they can supposedly read car license plates.

Reading a specific car license plate (or similar spy satellite stuff) is different than being able to scan the entirety of the volume of space near the Earth looking for a boulder.

They probably have the capability of tracking stuff entering the atmosphere (which is needed for defense against ICBM missiles), but they may not be able to see these relatively smaller meteoroids until that time.

originally posted by: Box of Rain

originally posted by: UnBreakable
I know the object only measured 7 meters, but they can supposedly read car license plates.

Reading a specific car license plate (or similar spy satellite stuff) is different than being able to scan the entirety of the volume of space near the Earth looking for a boulder.

They probably have the capability of tracking stuff entering the atmosphere (which is needed for defense against ICBM missiles), but they may not be able to see these relatively smaller meteoroids until that time.

Ok, I'm by no means a satellite/radar/sensor technology expert.

Already posted:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: UnBreakable


The license plate claim is a myth

Required Resolution

Current resolution is around 25cm

originally posted by: UnBreakable
I must've missed this on the news. I guess because no one got it on cell phone video (sarcasm off). I wonder how often things of this size enter our atmosphere where we're unaware, but NASA knows and releases the news after the fact because they missed something of this size inbound (I know the article says 'several' times a year, but what is the app. #)? . I know the object only measured 7 meters, but they can supposedly read car license plates.

"Largest fireball since Chelyabinsk falls into the ocean: Nasa reports huge explosion of seven meter space rock over the Atlantic
Event took place February 6 at 14:00 UTC, 620 miles off Brazil's coast
Released 13,000 tons of TNT - 40 times less that the Chelyabinsk fireball
Unlikely anyone saw it, but may have been picked up by military sensors
Impacts like this happen several times per year, mostly in the ocean"
www.dailymail.co.uk... lantic.html#ixzz410R2tPrb

Several times a year? I don't think so, not for 7-meter objects. The impact simulator at impact.ese.ic.ac.uk... states:

The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth is 5.1 years

Astronomers (but not necessarily NASA) do sometimes get lucky and discover the asteroid some time before the impact, like it was with the 2008 TC3.