Did a comet hit southern Germany in 200BC?

Did a comet hit Germany around 200BC?

www.spacedaily.com...

Roman accounts of burning rocks falling from the sky... Scorched Celtic artifacts... A large impact crater surrounded by smaller impact sites...

Some scientists think it all adds up to evidence for an ancient comet strike in iron age Germany.

Now... I wonder... just after that time Teutonic people started displacing the Celts in that region. Could the comet have added to the Celtic demise (through economic damage)?

Sorry to be picky, but comets orbit the sun. If something would have hit the Earth, it would have been a meteoroid.

For the record, a meteorite is outside Earth's atmosphere, and meteors are the streak in the sky you see.

Originally posted by diehard_democrat
Sorry to be picky, but comets orbit the sun. If something would have hit the Earth, it would have been a meteoroid.

For the record, a meteorite is outside Earth's atmosphere, and meteors are the streak in the sky you see.

Actually I don�t see a reason why wouldn�t it be a comet? As I see, you like wordplays.

Some quotes:

comet
n : (astronomy) a relatively small extraterrestrial body consisting of a frozen mass that travels around the sun in a highly elliptical orbit
Source: WordNet � 2.0, � 2003 Princeton University

meteoroid
n : (astronomy) any of the small solid extraterrestrial bodies that hits the earth's atmosphere [syn: meteor]

Source: WordNet � 2.0, � 2003 Princeton University

So, it was a meteorite and comet, choose which one you like. Although, it could also be an asteroid as it is written in that article.

Meteoroid: all that "excessive" stuff up there, small piece of rocks....
Meteor: aka shooting star is caused by meteoroid when it comes to atmosphere. If its magnitude is big enough its called bolid.
Object becomes meteorite only when something solid survives to surface.


Object's size in article is little too big... one kilometer object would make crater with diameter over ten kilometers.



[edit on 20-10-2004 by E_T]

Originally posted by diehard_democrat
Sorry to be picky, but comets orbit the sun. If something would have hit the Earth...

That doesn't prevent them hitting Earth. And so are all meteoroids and asteroids.

Actually comets are more dangerous, inner solar system is pretty much cleaned from asteroids in unstable orbits but comets come from outside solar system and can come from pretty much every direction. (and in every possible "orbit")

diehard democrat

Yes, a comet would become a meteorite once it hit the earth. However, up until it entered the atmosphere it would still be a comet. Yes, comets orbit the sun, but so does pretty much everything else. Saying that a comet can't hit the earth because it orbits the sun is like saying an asteroid can't hit the earth because it orbits the sun.

So... I don't get what your point is.




(oops, i thought et wrote the first reply. sorry for the mixup)

[edit on 20-10-2004 by onlyinmydreams]

[edit on 20-10-2004 by onlyinmydreams]

Originally posted by E_T

Object's size in article is little too big... one kilometer object would make crater with diameter over ten kilometers.

[edit on 20-10-2004 by E_T]

The article did say that it broke up at an altitude of 70km, the biggest piece hitting with a force of 106M tonnes of TNT.

That's pretty interesting OIMD thanks for the link.

Originally posted by MrDead
The article did say that it broke up at an altitude of 70km, the biggest piece hitting with a force of 106M tonnes of TNT.

Size around 100 meters gives closest results for energy.

Earth Impact Effects Program