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Colorado meteor event - Dec 6, 2008

By Dr. Mark D. Nispel | December 7, 2008

“COLORADO SUPERBOLIDE: Last night, Dec. 6th at 1:06 a.m. MST, a meteor of stunning brightness lit up the skies of Colorado. Astronomer Chris Peterson photographed the event using a dedicated all-sky meteor camera in the town of Guffey, near Colorado Springs.

Video

Fireballs this bright belong to a rare category of meteors called
superbolides. They are caused by small asteroids measuring a few to 10 meters
in diameter and massing hundreds of metric tons. Superbolides trigger
seismic detectors on the ground, produce waves of infrasound that
can travel thousands of miles, and they are tracked by military
satellites scanning Earth for nuclear explosions. Recent examples
include the El Paso fireball of 1997 and the Slovenian Superbolide of 2007.

Last night’s fireball is on the low end of the superbolide scale.
Nevertheless, it was still a beauty and likely peppered the ground
with meteorites when it exploded.”

Above report from here:

SpaceWeather

m.

Topics: meteors, space |

One Response to “Colorado meteor event - Dec 6, 2008”

  1. Colorado meteor event - Dec 6, 2008 at Nebraska Engineer Says:
    December 7th, 2008 at 6:27 pm

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