Indonesian Super-Bolide Explosion ( why wasn't this on the news?)

I was watching Fox this morning and Dr.Kaku mentioned that a Super-Bolide Explosion happened in an airburst over Indonesia. He said it was approx 5 kilotons. Why isnb't this reported? WTF. How many people were affected by this? I understand and airburst as such will not cause many physical casualties, but DAMMIT TELL US!

this?

neo.jpl.nasa.gov...

It was covered/reported on in the news. Apparently just not to the extent that such an event would Seem to warrant... (?)

Google: Asteroid + Indonesia

ATS - Asteroid: A 10m Asteroid hit Earth's Atmosphere this month and Exploded.

I know you don't want to cause panic but.....dammit...I (and more like me) would like to know if something is fixing to hit the earth. Especially something THAT big.

Thank you for putting this up... They have it on a NASA page and direct you to this Youtube Video...

S&F

Originally posted by djvexd
I know you don't want to cause panic but.....dammit...I (and more like me) would like to know if something is fixing to hit the earth. Especially something THAT big.

It wasn't that big (presumably 5 to 10 meters in diameter). Also, they probably had no idea it was there until it hit the atmosphere -- Therefore they couldn't report that something was "fixing to hit the Earth".

...and I DID hear about it on the news after it happened (probably because someone had a video of the "plume"). I saw it on TV news (and can't remember which), and I read about it online.

[edit on 11/12/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

I would think that even a 1-kiloton explosion over a populated area would be important and newsworthy. A little lower in altitude, and you have a few thousand people dead.

reply to post by Larryman


Events like this occur all the time, probably at least once a week somewhere around the word. They are not that rare.

Our atmosphere is very good at stopping even quite large rocks. Most of them explode harmlessly high up in the atmosphere. Asteroids and meteoroids that are large enough to cause damage on the ground are very rare.

Reporting events like this one in the mainstream news, is a bit like reporting a shooting star because it might have been big enough to cause damage on the ground. What is the point? (although I would very much welcome it since these events interest me)

Sure, events like this one are spectacular in their size and nature, especially to the uninitiated, but they are so common, that unless there is good footage of the actual event itself, and lots of people here in the west see it, it will not usually make the news.

Here is a list of recent events I collected together for another thread on this topic. Keep in mind these are just the events that are observed. The vast majority probably go unreported since most of the surface of this planet is ocean, and much of the remaining land surface is uninhabited or very sparely inhabited. Many also occur in daylight, and may be unobserved because of this.

The fact is, that if you browse the right forums, you can find reports of this event and events like it, even though they may not be in the mainstream news.

[edit on 12-11-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

reply to post by C.H.U.D.


I can agree that astronomical phenomenon happen all the time and to "pre-report" , for lack of a better term, is sketchy at best. However as Larryman said, even a 1 kiloton explosion over a popualtion center is enough to warn people about, let alone 5. So what if it had not of airbursted? What if it had impacted. Granted not a town, city, country, continent killer, SPEAK TELL US, if not to garner interest in space to ensure no one gets injured.

reply to post by djvexd


Not trying to be smart, but you can say "what if..." about allot of things.

What if it was 10x the size? Well it wasn't, and we know from past experience that truly dangerous space rocks are few and far between in terms of human life spans. The ones we need to worry about happen on geological timescales.

Let me make another analogy - Explosions (or CME's as they are known) on the surface of the sun that are big enough to fry the Earth (if it was in that spot at the time), happen every day, but no one reports them in the news because it's unlikely they will affect us.

Granted, Earth will never be in that position (at least in our life times), but the same thing can be said about our atmosphere which defends us from these objects - it will always be there defending us, and it is very good at it!

So although these events can be extremely energetic, there is really not much danger from them.

It would take a much closer call (bigger/harder/faster object) before we need to worry, and those are rare compared to competitively small events like this, that are all bark and no bite.

Looking back into recent history, in the last 100 years there has only been one event that had the potential to cause significant destruction on the ground. I'm sure you've heard of Tunguska!

Also, keep in mind that many of the objects out there are made from extremely weak and low-density material. This material is after all the remnants of the building blocks that were used to make our solar system/planets, and because it was left over and mostly just orbits the sun in very loose collections of objects, it stays very loose and light for the most part itself, unlike the material that has formed into dense planets under the influence of gravity which squeezes out all the gaps and makes what was once soft, into hard rocks like we see here on Earth. So the vast majority will explode when they slam into our atmosphere.

Statistically you have a much greater chance of being hit by a car (or the space shuttle for that matter) and being killed, than by a rock that is big enough to penetrate the atmosphere, but do you ever worry about that when walking down the street?

Gradually we will be able to track all of the dangerous objects, but there are so many objects that we don't know about in the 1-10m range, it would be impossible to find, catalog, and track them all, as well as pointless since they are effectively not that dangerous. Trying to do so might even mean we are distracted from finding the really worrisome objects out there.

Just enjoy the show if you are lucky enough to see one of these, and don't worry too much about getting hit by one. Life is too short to do so.

By the way, if anything this event got much more news coverage than many events in the past have, partly because someone managed to get some footage of the train the meteor left behind in the sky, but I'm sure it would have been much more widespread coverage if someone had actually caught the event itself. The news agencies are mainly interested in ratings, and there is not much of a story without a clip of the fireball itself, so unless it's a very slow day, you don't get to hear of these events on the news.

Here is a great site if you want to keep up with this type of news: lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com...

[edit on 12-11-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

Originally posted by C.H.U.D.
reply to post by djvexd

 

Not trying to be smart, but you can say "what if..." about allot of things.

What if it was 10x the size? Well it wasn't, and we know from past experience that truly dangerous space rocks are few and far between in terms of human life spans. The ones we need to worry about happen on geological timescales.

Let me make another analogy - Explosions (or CME's as they are known) on the surface of the sun that are big enough to fry the Earth (if it was in that spot at the time), happen every day, but no one reports them in the news because it's unlikely they will affect us.

Granted, Earth will never be in that position (at least in our life times), but the same thing can be said about our atmosphere which defends us from these objects - it will always be there defending us, and it is very good at it!

So although these events can be extremely energetic, there is really not much danger from them.

It would take a much closer call (bigger/harder/faster object) before we need to worry, and those are rare compared to competitively small events like this, that are all bark and no bite.

Looking back into recent history, in the last 100 years there has only been one event that had the potential to cause significant destruction on the ground. I'm sure you've heard of Tunguska!

Also, keep in mind that many of the objects out there are made from extremely weak and low-density material. This material is after all the remnants of the building blocks that were used to make our solar system/planets, and because it was left over and mostly just orbits the sun in very loose collections of objects, it stays very loose and light for the most part itself, unlike the material that has formed into dense planets under the influence of gravity which squeezes out all the gaps and makes what was once soft, into hard rocks like we see here on Earth. So the vast majority will explode when they slam into our atmosphere.

Statistically you have a much greater chance of being hit by a car (or the space shuttle for that matter) and being killed, than by a rock that is big enough to penetrate the atmosphere, but do you ever worry about that when walking down the street?

Gradually we will be able to track all of the dangerous objects, but there are so many objects that we don't know about in the 1-10m range, it would be impossible to find, catalog, and track them all, as well as pointless since they are effectively not that dangerous. Trying to do so might even mean we are distracted from finding the really worrisome objects out there.

Just enjoy the show if you are lucky enough to see one of these, and don't worry too much about getting hit by one. Life is too short to do so.

By the way, if anything this event got much more news coverage than many events in the past have, partly because someone managed to get some footage of the train the meteor left behind in the sky, but I'm sure it would have been much more widespread coverage if someone had actually caught the event itself. The news agencies are mainly interested in ratings, and there is not much of a story without a clip of the fireball itself, so unless it's a very slow day, you don't get to hear of these events on the news.

Here is a great site if you want to keep up with this type of news: lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com...

[edit on 12-11-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

None gravitational objects or free roamers in space - gavitation singularities their own preconfined envirnment. would not be affected by the gravitational pull of the galaxies simply travling the curvature of space on average would go many tens of thousands of times of the speed of light. 37 parcecs per second. potential to always return to its orgiginal place ever couple of hundred of thousand years. basicly the mirror image of the sun - its companion nemesis star. would be supper massive at several thousand the times larger than our earth very hard to detect with standard instruments as it wouldnt reflect light particles it would colose with them. dead stars - supermassive red light producing mega star cluster - bits and pieces of star in solid form - it fused together because its been so far out in space its frozen solid. temporality star - existing in and outside our space time continuem at the same time in a state of temperal flux. if absolute zero was achieved then purhaps a singularity formed. you cant defend yourself against something that is and isnt there at the same time. random unconsumable masses could impact earth - nuetronic sludge - waste particles - would not be burned in the atmosphere would because it could be broken down no further. speed of impact would be even faster and coause a bigger shockwave much bigger than any standard impact earth has felt in a long time. in order to avoid exposure you would have to be under several miles of solid state matter(a solid layer in the planet). the earths waste does reorient istelf inside the solarsystem ever several hundred thousand years it usually has little affect however once about every 1.5 billion years it does expose itself to a planetiod. generaly creates extra waste in the solar system but at a distance next time distance wont be an issue it will be within range of damaging earth - last planet it hit would have been mars then before that eroupa. damage would be severe but not unsurvivable - mind would come into play surviving something like this u would need to quickly perceptualy adapt yourself to a current envirnment. basicly would require a rethinking of one owns mind. infrared light has been increasing lately on this planet - would interfier with uv light would cause it to become more damaging(radiation levels would increase). gamma radiation ultimatly is increasing but can be redirected if need be. if stars dont create a full companion star then it will become a form of dead star - it fails to be ignited - fairly common in alot of solar systems. the orginal mass used to create a solar system is starts as a double rotation reticulate - they start out as just neutronic waste basic feul of any form of ongoing nucleonic reaction - 2 rotating blank hyperdwarf stars(eventualy they rotate faster and faster until they colide - spark and ignite themselves - if this doesnt happen.

reply to post by C.H.U.D.

With that extremely well put together AND lenghty post, you are telling me that we should play the odds and put our money on "not gonna happen" ? Statistician you are ....true scientist you are not. Science has a way of defying odds and the fact that you rest so firmly on that assumption is troubling. Especially since we have such a trouble identifying NEO's. So unless you have created some sort of sensor that can detect EVERY wild object in the galaxy or solar system, your point is moot.

Originally posted by djvexd
reply to post by C.H.U.D.

 

I can agree that astronomical phenomenon happen all the time and to "pre-report" , for lack of a better term, is sketchy at best. However as Larryman said, even a 1 kiloton explosion over a popualtion center is enough to warn people about, let alone 5. So what if it had not of airbursted? What if it had impacted. Granted not a town, city, country, continent killer, SPEAK TELL US, if not to garner interest in space to ensure no one gets injured.

I know I have said it before ..... THEY WILL NOT TELL US something is fixen to hit!!!!

just not gonna happen, to many medicated people out there that would freaking panic?

and also what the heck for ...... so it blows up a few million ... just so long as the club they go to is still open!!

Originally posted by djvexd
reply to post by C.H.U.D.

 

With that extremely well put together AND lenghty post, you are telling me that we should play the odds and put our money on "not gonna happen" ? Statistician you are ....true scientist you are not. Science has a way of defying odds and the fact that you rest so firmly on that assumption is troubling. Especially since we have such a trouble identifying NEO's. So unless you have created some sort of sensor that can detect EVERY wild object in the galaxy or solar system, your point is moot.

I don't want to speak for C.H.U.D. here, by I'd like to add my 2¢....

...I'm sure it WILL happen sometime in the future, but you were asking why this specific fireball was not widely reported, as if it should have been HUGE news (as opposed to simply an interesting space weather anomaly). However, the fact still remains that this was not an uncommon event, and therefore is not a huge news story.

Like C.H.U.D. said, you can give a lot of "what ifs", but many low-density asteroids of this size (estimated to be 15 to 30 feet in diameter) burn up in the atmosphere every year. Do you really want to see multiple huge news stories every year about "the meteor that 'could have' done damage if we had no atmosphere to protect us"? Again like C.H.U.D. said, that's analogous to the CME that is not pointed toward Earth -- sure, that CME is a point of interest among Sun weather-watchers, but it's not big new for the rest of us.

Yes, I understand that someday (perhaps -- but not necessarily -- within our lifetimes) there will be an object from space that does considerable damage here on Earth, such as Tunguska. However, that wasn't the original question here.

The question was "why wasn't this particular fireball bigger news", and the answer is "because it was not a hugely uncommon event".

This object was the size and/or density of something that would normally burn up in the atmosphere -- just like it did. It was NOT the size and/or density of something that would make it close enough to the surface to cause damage.


[edit on 11/13/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by djvexd


I think you misunderstood me.

We are talking about two classes of space rocks here. The first category includes objects like the one that caused the event in Indonesia. They are basically harmless to us.

The second category is objects that are capable of penetrating our atmosphere, and causing damage/loss of life on the ground.

What I am saying is that we can pretty much ignore the first category. There is nothing we could do about this category anyway, since there are so many objects out there of that size range, and they are extremely hard to spot.

The second category is a completely different kettle of fish. I'm not saying we should ignore the possibility of an impact, but there is not much point in you and me worrying about it, since there is nothing we could do at this stage to avert it, even if we did find one that was about to hit.

We should definitely be searching for these larger/more hazardous NEOs on a long term basis, and that is what is starting to happen now.

I also agree with you, nature (I'm assuming that's what you meant to say) does have a way of defying the odds, and there is chance that a large object could hit at any time. However, it's unlikely, and worrying about it does nothing. Remember, we have been in this same situation for the past god knows how many thousands (or tens of thousands) of years, and we are still here.

So I'm certainly not saying do nothing about the dangerous NEOs, but at this point in time it's out of our hands. We have to hope that governments fund the NEO surveys that are needed, but we also need to develop ways to deflect dangerous objects, and that is lagging behind. So just throwing all our resources into finding objects won't help us much. Governments are starting to realize this now, but these things move slowly.

Originally posted by svpwizard
I know I have said it before ..... THEY WILL NOT TELL US something is fixen to hit!!!!

just not gonna happen, to many medicated people out there that would freaking panic?

and also what the heck for ...... so it blows up a few million ... just so long as the club they go to is still open!!

Actually, if it was found that one could hit in the immediate future, I doubt it could be hushed up. In many cases it is amateurs that find these objects, and anyone can observe them. It would be difficult to hide it from everyone!

You seem very confident that "they" won't tell us, but there has never been a situation like the one we are hypothesizing about, so how can you know? I'd like to see some evidence that might back up your claim, otherwise it's just an assumption!

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Well said SGIP. I completely agree.