Record Meteorite Hits Norway

equex256 writes "Early Wednesday morning, a meteorite streaked across the sky in northern Norway, near Finland and Russia. A witness (Article in Norwegian) went up the mountain to where it hit and reported seeing large boulders that had fallen out of the mountainside, along with many broken trees. Norwegian astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard told Aftenposten, Norway's largest newspaper, that he would compare the explosive force of the impact with the Hiroshima bomb. This meteorite is suspected to be much larger than the 90-kilo (198-pound) meteorite which hit Alta in 1904, previously recognized as the largest to hit Norway. From the article: 'Røed Ødegaard said the meteorite was visible to an area of several hundred kilometers despite the brightness of the midnight sunlit summer sky. The meteorite hit a mountainside in Reisadalen in North Troms.'"

Lucifer's tack hammer.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

(See Niven and Pournelle for consequences of a larger one.)

Giant Røck

[Anonymous Coward]

Do meteørites sound different with a slash through the middle?

Obligatory Meteor Video

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah its probably fake, but cool nonetheless:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4653448813 733199771&q=meteor [google.com]

And for all you language nazis out there, meteorite is a silly word and should be abolished.

Yeah, but...

[tool462]

he would compare the explosive force of the impact with the Hiroshima bomb.

Yeah, but how many Libraries of Congress is that?

Meanwhile in Cupertino...

[daeley]

Steve Jobs's giant wallscreen sparkles to life. A visibly pale and shaken Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg appears with a panicked situation room full of Norwegian officials behind him.

"Ah, Prime Minister, good," Jobs says with a trademarked smile. "I see you got our little message. Let's finish our chat about DRM regulations...."

(reference [aftenposten.no])

A Meteørite ønce hit my sister

[EGSonikku]

Nø really! She was carving her initials intø the side øf a røck with a sharpened interspace tøøthbrush given tø her by Svenge -her brøther in law- an an øslø dentist and star øf many Nørweigan møvies: "The Høt Hands øf an øslø Dentist", "Fillings øf Passiøn", "The Huge Mølars øf Hørst Nørdfink"...

Mynd you, Meteørite hits kan be pretti nasti .....

Good, but...

[nstlgc]

.. what we're really concerned about: Høw many møøses gøt killed?

Re:Obligatory Meteor Video

[MustardMan]

PROBABLY a fake?!?

It hits a fucking truck and the yahoos inside drive out hootin' and hollerin' like a buncha texas cowboys, the truck unscathed.

Re:Is this real?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's on slashdot -- it MUST be real!

Is it listed on eBay yet?

[elgee]

Someone could make some SERIOUS money off that meteorite.

Re:Hiroshima?

[Anonymous Coward]

If Little Boy was detonated in the far northern mountains of Norway, it also would have had similar minimal effect.

I don't know. I think that might have had a significant effect on American-Norwegian relations, even if Norway was Nazi-occupied at the time. :)

8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC

[TCQuad]

Yeah, but how many Libraries of Congress is that?

Well, Hiroshima was 15 kilotons [wikipedia.org] or 6.3x10^13 J and one burning Library of Congress is 7.3×10^14 J [slashdot.org], so ~8.5% of one LoC per meteor strike.

Yeah, I'm going to go pretend I didn't just spend part of my Friday night researching that calculation now...

Re:Obligatory Meteor Video

[darthgnu]

Just ask McGuyver (tm)

Re:Giant Røck

[wildsurf]

A Meteør once bit my sister... Mind you, Meteør bites Kan be pretty nasti.

A møøse...

[dj245]

..ønce bit mi sister...

Must've been an expensive movie promotion

[Kalkin]

What, Superman is released soon...next there will be reports of flying men with capes originating from the meteor's site?

Re:8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC

[1u3hr]

Brilliant calculation, but useless without knowing the meteor's volume in Volkswagens.

Meteor sizes are measured in the "Texa". This meteorite was approximately 5 microTexas, nothing to get excited about.

Re:Hmmm...

[Tablizer]

made the case for a mostly iron meteor. The author's contention was that the object slowed due to air resistance, it would heat up. As is heated, the metal would have softenned. As it softenned, the metal would start to pancake like a dum-dum bullet. As it pancakes, its air resistance increases, causing it to slow down even more and heat up even faster, causing it to pancake even more.

Metal? Pancake? You sir have just described a flying saucer. So much for ending the Tungusta conspiracy theories :-)
     

they deserve it

[stud9920]

A møøse once bit my sister

Re:Obligatory Meteor Video

[Crizp]

McGuyver(tm) - The anime mecha version of MacGyver!

Re:8.5 x 10^-2 bLoC

[Farmer Tim]

Meteor sizes are measured in the "Texa".

Damn it, when are you Americans going to start using internationally recognised units?!?

Re:Giant Røck

[SamSim]

The people responsible for the parent post have been sacked.

The Witness

[Frightening]

After climbing a little higher, he found a large, glowing piece of rock. He walked around it, astonished, and from one angle you could see an unmistakable engraving on the side.

LEAVE THE PIRATES ALONE

Re:The Witness

[Frightening]

Dazzled, he walked onwards, only to find another large chunk of meteorite not far from the first. On this one the etchings read:

SORRY. WRONG NUMBER