September 7 fireball over Thailand: Meteorite measured 3.5m, weighed 66 tonnes

[jaiyen]

At the terminal speed of a meteorite most of it will be far underground and impossible to find.

[MaxYakov]

Has anyone released the info that the meteor was solid gold and it's just laying in pieces on the ground in the park "scattered in an area about 30 square kilometer in Saiyoke national park". Maybe the government is keeping quiet about that!

Depending on what kind of meteor it was, with the provenance from the video, it could be worth more than gold.

Not likely, but if I had nothing else more lucrative to do- I'd take my metal detector for a look-see.

You'd be betting that it was an iron or stony-iron meteorite and not just a stony one (unless your metal detector can detect silica). Plus, it's doubtful that any pieces would end up buried. Can you tune your metal detector 50 microns or smaller?

[wabothai]

Those Monkeys here dont even know if they see one. Let alone how to find the Meteorite.

Those monkeys here......you could phrase that a little different mr. jinjin.

[MaxYakov]

At the terminal speed of a meteorite most of it will be far underground and impossible to find.

So what's the terminal velocity of the zillions of particles resulting from its violent disintegration at 26 km?

Myth Busters: Bullets fired straight up (sort of applies):

[impulse]

Has anyone released the info that the meteor was solid gold and it's just laying in pieces on the ground in the park "scattered in an area about 30 square kilometer in Saiyoke national park". Maybe the government is keeping quiet about that!

Depending on what kind of meteor it was, with the provenance from the video, it could be worth more than gold.

Not likely, but if I had nothing else more lucrative to do- I'd take my metal detector for a look-see.

You'd be betting that it was an iron or stony-iron meteorite and not just a stony one (unless your metal detector can detect silica). Plus, it's doubtful that any pieces would end up buried. Can you tune your metal detector 50 microns or smaller?

Betcha these guys are happy they didn't take your advice...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a9735/why-is-this-rock-worth-400000-dollars-16134667/

[joshstiles]

wow...thats cool...hope its ok to say this

[PaPiPuPePo]

Couldn't have been 65 or 67 tonnes .............could it?

3.5 meters on a side is 42 cubic meters of rock, if it's typical meteoric rock, high in nickel etc it can easily weigh that.

[bendejo]

At the terminal speed of a meteorite most of it will be far underground and impossible to find.

So what's the terminal velocity of the zillions of particles resulting from its violent disintegration at 26 km?

Myth Busters: Bullets fired straight up (sort of applies):

[youtube link removed]

Thanks. I wonder if Thaksin saw this, he said the massacre at Tak Bai was not from soldiers shooting at protestors, but by the firing into the air, and then the bullets came back and ...

[bendejo]

Anyone seen this this guy around Kanchanburi?

[fish fingers]

Curious to know. How can they tell its weight and volume and where the debris is scattered if they have not found a single fragment.? I suppose there is some scientific explanation.

Because they are always meteoright

[pattayahenry]

a ball of water, 3.5 meter diameter, weighs 22 tonnes, and a meteorite around 3x more, so 66 tonnes is correct, before it entered the atmoshere, then it evaporates. according to the video, it just burnt out 1 second before it reached the ground, therefore no residues are to be expected. just my opinion.
http://www.mathopenref.com/spherevolume.html

[ratcatcher]

At the terminal speed of a meteorite most of it will be far underground and impossible to find.

A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from a source such as an asteroid or a comet, which originates in outer space and survives its impact with the Earth's surface. It is called a meteoroid before its impact. A meteorite's size can range from small to extremely large.

Wiki.

[gk10002000]

"was measured at 3.5 metre in diameter"? doubtful. But the physics of the problem can lead one to make some very reasonable deductions about the size and mass. The brightness of the fireball, the length of the burn, the triangulated altitude and velocity, a few basic assumptions about the type of meteor (stony, iron, etc.). The problem is fairly well bounded. But saying it was measured is wrong. They certainly did not "Weigh" the object in situ

[pattayahenry]

the space surveillance network of the us military recorded 16.674 objects in january 2014, everything bigger than the size of an orange, 10cm diameter. there are hundreds of satellites and other stations around the world, that monitor everything, every meteorite, every rocket, and every explosion anywhere in the world, even every lightning in a thunderstorm is recorded. maybe it burned up in the atmosphere, so that there is nothing left. if it reached the ground, there would be a huge hole.

http://www.welt.de/wissenschaft/weltraum/article124382536/Im-Orbit-droht-eine-unkalkulierbare-Kettenreaktion.html

[speedtripler]

If they have yet to find any pieces of it then how do they know the size and weight of it?

that info was provided by Nasa i would assume ...........

either that or the thai "expert" just guessed it

in other news ,next weeks winning lottery numbers will be 7 3 5 66......

[englishoak]

If they have yet to find any pieces of it then how do they know the size and weight of it?

They dont, but this is Thailand so, they do