-Asteroid blast reveals holes in Earth's defences-
As the US government ponders a strategy to deal with threatening asteroids, a dramatic explosion over Indonesia has underscored how blind we still areMovie Camera to hurtling space rocks.
On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.
However, the blast caused no damage on the ground because of the high altitude, 15 to 20 kilometres above Earth's surface, says astronomer Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada.
Brown and Elizabeth Silber, also of UWO, estimated the explosion energy from infrasound waves that rippled halfway around the world and were recorded by an international network of instruments that listens for nuclear explosions.
The explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia. Video images of the sky following the event show a dust trail characteristic of an exploding asteroid.
Sudden impact
The amount of energy released suggests the object was about 10 metres across, the researchers say. Such objects are thought to hit Earth about once per decade.
No telescope spotted the asteroid ahead of its impact. That is not surprising, given that only a tiny fraction of asteroids smaller than 100 metres across have been catalogued, says Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet objects as small as 20 or 30 metres across may be capable of doing damage on the ground, he says.
"If you want to find the smallest objects you have to build more, larger telescopes," says Spahr. "A survey that finds all of the 20-metre objects will cost probably multiple billions of dollars."
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the White House, must develop a policy to address the asteroid hazard by October 2010 under a deadline imposed by 2008 legislation. It is likely to be influenced by a report from the National Research Council on the asteroid problem, which is expected by year's end.
8th of October was a day of very INTENSE seismic activity in the Santa Cruz and Vanuatu areas. Also Sulaswesi had quakes before and after the impact, but not on the day of the impact.
Thanks for the post. My wife and I actually heard this on the night of the 8th. We were just stepping outside when we heard this low deep rumbling noise. We knew it wasn't thunder. About twenty minutes later we heard the noise again, only the duration was shorter. It was freaky and I discribed it like the sound of large bombs going off in the distance-like I remembered B-52's on bombing runs in N. Vietnam. Since we live in Iowa- I can only imagine what that asteroid sounded like in Asia. I'm still wondering why I heard it twice--was there two blasts???--two rocks?? Or one rock and an attempt to blow it up?? I'm glad I wrote to a friend on the 9th about this...
Anonymous Coward User ID: 804379 10/28/2009 4:26 AM
Re: ASTEROID SMASHES INTO ATMOSPHERE OVER INDONESIA WITH FORCE OF 3 HIROSHIMA BOMBS
INDONESIAN ASTEROID: Picture this: A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky:
This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.
The asteroid that caused the blast was not known before it hit and took astronomers completely by surprise. According to statistical studies of the near-Earth asteroid population, such objects are expected to collide with Earth on average every 2 to 12 years. "Follow-on observations from other instruments or ground recovery efforts would be very valuable in further refining this unique event," say Silber and Brown.
They DID make a big deal of the possible meteor -impact crater in Latvia, which was a fraud, claimed to have been caused by a 1-meter asteroid. That was all over the press, CNN, and whatever.
This baby was 10 meters in diameter. And nothing. Somewhat weird, no?
Are they trying to hide the fact from us, that one day we might just be "gone" without warning?
Anonymous Coward User ID: 797835 10/28/2009 7:38 AM
Re: ASTEROID SMASHES INTO ATMOSPHERE OVER INDONESIA WITH FORCE OF 3 HIROSHIMA BOMBS
Don Yeomans, Paul Chodas, Steve Chesley
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
October 23, 2009
On October 8, 2009 about 03:00 Greenwich time, an atmospheric fireball blast was observed and recorded over an island region of Indonesia. The blast is thought to be due to the atmospheric entry of a small asteroid about 10 meters in diameter that, due to atmospheric pressure, detonated in the atmosphere with an energy of about 50 kilotons (the equivalent of 100,000 pounds of TNT explosives).
The blast was recorded visually and reported upon by local media representatives. See the YouTube video at:
A report from Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown at the University of Western Ontario indicates that several international very-long wavelength infrasound detectors recorded the blast and fixed the position near the coastal city of Bone in South Sulawesi, island of Sulewesi. They note that the blast was in the 10 to 50 kT range with the higher end of this range being more likely.
Assuming an estimated size of about 5-10 meters in diameter, we would expect a fireball event of this magnitude about once every 2 to 12 years on average. As a rule, the most common types of stony asteroids would not be expected to cause ground damage unless their diameters were about 25 meters in diameter or larger.
A more extensive report by Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario is here.
Summary of Preliminary Infrasonic Analysis of the Oct 8, 2009 Indonesian Superbolide
Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown
Meteor Infrasound group
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy,
Univ. of Western Ontario
London, ON
N6A 3K7
CANADA
Released: October 19, 2009
On Oct 8, 2009, media reports appeared in the local press in Indonesia concerning a loud air blast occurring near 11am local time (0300 UT). Subsequent to these first media reports, additional English language reports appeared suggesting the event was meteoritic.
Indonesian language reports more clearly identify a bright fireball, accompanied by an explosion and lingering dust cloud as the origin of the air blast. Finally, a YouTube video posted on the same day appears to show a large dust cloud consistent with a bright, daylight fireball.
Based on these initial reports, a detailed examination was made of all International Monitoring System (IMS) infrasound stations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). From this initial examination, a total of 11 stations showed probable signals from a large explosion centered near 4.5S, 120E, with an origin time near 0300 UT on Oct 8, 2009, consistent with the media reports. This signal was notable for having been (a) detected at many IMS stations, including five at ranges over 10,000 km (and one at a nearly 18,000 km range) and (b) being confined to very low frequencies. Both of these observations suggest the explosion source was of very high total energy. All signal motions were between 0.27 - 0.32 km/s, consistent with stratospheric signal returns.
We have used the Air Force Technical Application Centre (AFTAC) period-yield relation as described by ReVelle (1997) as the most robust basic indicator of source energy. To generate measured periods, the average periods of all phase-aligned stacked waveforms at each station were measured, according to the technique described in Edwards et al (2006). These periods were then averaged to produce a single, global average period of 13.4 sec and the AFTAC yield relation applied; this produced an average source yield of 31 kT of TNT. Averaging the individual yields from all stations produces a mean source energy near 50 kT of TNT while using only the eight stations having the highest signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and using the local observed periods of the waveform at maximum amplitude produces a yield estimate of 40 kT of TNT, all of which are basically consistent. It is important to note, however, that the standard deviation of this measurement is nearly 30 kT. That is, the best source energy estimate would be 40 +/- 30 kT TNT. Note that much of this variation may be due to the signal emanating from different portions of the fireball trail as observed at different stations; each period measurement is a "sample" of the size of the cylindrical blast cavity at that particular segment of the trail detected by any one station. As such, the out of atmosphere yield for this event is likely higher than these measurements suggest - very probably in the ~50 kT range.
The yield estimates based on infrasonic amplitude are very uncertain in this instance as the propagation distances are much larger than is typical and outside the range limits where such relations have been developed (e.g. Edwards et al, 2006) and hence the period relationship (which was generated using a dataset of nuclear explosions having yields in this range) is more applicable.
Some examples of the detected and processed waveforms are shown in the appendix.
Based on these infrasound records, it appears that a large (40-50 kT TNT) bolide detonation occurred near 0300 UT on Oct 8, 2009 near the coastal city of Bone in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The infrasonic geolocation is not precise enough to determine if the bolide was over water or land, but it was relatively near the coast.
Follow-on observations from other instruments or ground recovery efforts would be very valuable in further refining this unique event.
Using an average impact velocity for NEAs of 20.3 km/s, the energy limits (10 - 70 kT) suggested by this analysis correspond to an object 5-10 m in diameter. Based on the flux rate from Brown et al (2002), such objects are expected to impact the Earth on average every 2 - 12 years
References
Brown P., Spalding R.E., ReVelle D.O., Tagliaferri E. and Worden S.P. 2002. The flux of small near-Earth objects colliding with the Earth, Nature, 420, 314-316.
Edwards W.N., Brown P.G., ReVelle D.O., 2006. Estimates of Meteoroid Kinetic Energies from Observations of Infrasonic Airwaves, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 68: 1136-1160.
ReVelle D.O. 1997. Historical Detection of Atmospheric Impacts by Large Bolides using Acoustic-Gravity Waves, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Near-Earth Objects - The United Nations International Conference, editor J.L. Remo, New York Academy of Sciences, 822, 284-302.
Appendix : Example waveform detections.
In each of the following the infrasound signals across each station have been array processed in windows (typically of 30-60 second length) to search for coherent signals with consistent back-azimuth measurements. The top panel in each display is the F-statistic, a measure of the relative coherency of the signal across the array elements in any particular window (essentially a SNR measure). The second window shows the apparent trace velocity of the acoustic signal across the array in the direction of the peak F-stat. Similarly, the third plot shows the best estimate for the signal back-azimuth in the direction of maximum F-stat for each window. The fourth plot shows the raw pressure signal for one array element bandpassed according to the chosen Low - High frequency combination, shown in the boxes of the lower plot.
8th of October was a day of very INTENSE seismic activity in the Santa Cruz and Vanuatu areas. Also Sulaswesi had quakes before and after the impact, but not on the day of the impact.
They DID make a big deal of the possible meteor -impact crater in Latvia, which was a fraud, claimed to have been caused by a 1-meter asteroid. That was all over the press, CNN, and whatever.
This baby was 10 meters in diameter. And nothing. Somewhat weird, no?
Are they trying to hide the fact from us, that one day we might just be "gone" without warning?
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 176293
FOX NEWS talked about it, sorry you do not watch T.V. or the #1 NEWS station in history
On October 8, 2009 about 03:00 Greenwich time, an atmospheric fireball blast was observed and recorded over an island region of Indonesia. The blast is thought to be due to the atmospheric entry of a small asteroid about 10 meters in diameter that, due to atmospheric pressure, detonated in the atmosphere with an energy of about 50 kilotons (the equivalent of 100,000 pounds of TNT explosives).
The blast was recorded visually and reported upon by local media representatives. See the YouTube video at:
A report from Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown at the University of Western Ontario indicates that several international very-long wavelength infrasound detectors recorded the blast and fixed the position near the coastal city of Bone in South Sulawesi, island of Sulewesi. They note that the blast was in the 10 to 50 kT range with the higher end of this range being more likely. Assuming an estimated size of about 5-10 meters in diameter, we would expect a fireball event of this magnitude about once every 2 to 12 years on average. As a rule, the most common types of stony asteroids would not be expected to cause ground damage unless their diameters were about 25 meters in diameter or larger.
GraftedPromise User ID: 802642 10/29/2009 1:54 PM
Re: ASTEROID SMASHES INTO ATMOSPHERE OVER INDONESIA WITH FORCE OF 3 HIROSHIMA BOMBS
.
... so ... why is the MSM in the USofA quiet about this event? ...
.
... is there something else out there ... and no attention is supposed to be drawn to it? ...
.
-Asteroid blast reveals holes in Earth's defences-
As the US government ponders a strategy to deal with threatening asteroids, a dramatic explosion over Indonesia has underscored how blind we still areMovie Camera to hurtling space rocks.
On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.
However, the blast caused no damage on the ground because of the high altitude, 15 to 20 kilometres above Earth's surface, says astronomer Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada.
Brown and Elizabeth Silber, also of UWO, estimated the explosion energy from infrasound waves that rippled halfway around the world and were recorded by an international network of instruments that listens for nuclear explosions.
The explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia. Video images of the sky following the event show a dust trail characteristic of an exploding asteroid.
Sudden impact
The amount of energy released suggests the object was about 10 metres across, the researchers say. Such objects are thought to hit Earth about once per decade.
No telescope spotted the asteroid ahead of its impact. That is not surprising, given that only a tiny fraction of asteroids smaller than 100 metres across have been catalogued, says Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet objects as small as 20 or 30 metres across may be capable of doing damage on the ground, he says.
"If you want to find the smallest objects you have to build more, larger telescopes," says Spahr. "A survey that finds all of the 20-metre objects will cost probably multiple billions of dollars."
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the White House, must develop a policy to address the asteroid hazard by October 2010 under a deadline imposed by 2008 legislation. It is likely to be influenced by a report from the National Research Council on the asteroid problem, which is expected by year's end.
8th of October was a day of very INTENSE seismic activity in the Santa Cruz and Vanuatu areas. Also Sulaswesi had quakes before and after the impact, but not on the day of the impact.
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