The former Chair of Harvard University’s Astronomy Department, Avi Loeb, has provided an update on the material collected from the first known interstellar meteorite to strike the Earth, Interstellar meteor (IM1); not only does this early analysis bolster the idea that IM1 is from beyond our solar system, but Loebread more
A meteor exploded over the Bering Sea on December 18, 2018, at 11:48 a.m. local time, with a force equivalent to roughly 173 kilotons of TNT, roughly ten times the energy released by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Although there were no reported witnesses to the meteor’s dramaticread more
The United States Geological Survey has confirmed that a bright meteor that broke up over the Detroit area on the evening of January 16 caused a 2.0 magnitude earthquake in Michigan. The meteorite fell about five miles (8 kilometers) from the village of New Haven.
"After reviewing several observational datasets, the NWS can confirm the flash and boom was NOT thunder or lightning, but instead a likely meteor," tweeted the Detroit’s National Weather Service office, in response to social media activity regarding the 8:08 PM event. The USGS confirmation followed shortly after the NWS tweet.
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The media is bursting with scare stories over asteroid 1999-FN53. It’s a kilometer wide and it’s going to make a close pass on Thursday at .68 astronomical units (AU). Will it strike Earth? Highly unlikely, NASA says. Its high speed of 30,000 mph means that it should be easily propelled past us without slowing down. If it did, it would essentially destroy civilization, leading to the death of at least a third of mankind.
It will not impact Earth on its initial pass, but only in the extremely unlikely event that it was caught by our planet’s gravity and began to orbit us. If that happened, it would eventually strike the planet. It is approximately twice the size of Mt. Everest and a strike would have devastating results.
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