[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Greenland Strike


>>CNN had a note this morning that a meteorite strike in Dec. 97 in Greenland
(with the impact of an A-Bomb) was to be investigated.  Anyone have any info
on this?

I know we had quite a discussion on whether it was natural atmospheric
phenomenon or not and then it just died out.  Apparently someone thinks it was
a strike.
Harper<<
-----------------------
Harper, I came across this little ditty below in regards to the greenland
event. 
George Zay
--------------------------- 

>>Danes Plan Meteorite Recovery Expedition to Greenland

Bjørn Franck Jørgensen
Tycho Brahe Planetarium & Omnimax Theater
Copenhagen, Denmark
bjorn@inet.uni-c.dk

The Tycho Brahe Planetarium & Omnimax Theater is now organizing a search
for meteorites from the fall of December 9, 1997.  Several institutions are
involved in the preparing for an expedition that, considering the surface
conditions, must take place in late July.  Currently the area is covered by
2-3 meters (7-8 feet) of snow, which will normally melt in May and June.
During this time the site will be a very dangerous area to visit.  Floods
and ice sumps cover the melting zone and there will be hidden ice canyons
and holes in the surface, where the water suddenly disappears and falls
hundreds of meters into deep tunnels.  We have to wait until the surface
dries out in late July.

Holger Pedersen and Torben Risbo (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen) have
put a lot of work into predicting possible locations of the strewn field,
or dispersion ellipse, on the icecap.  The suspected area is in the area of
what we call the melting zone, about 10-15 km (8-10 miles) from the edge of
the icecap on the southwest coast of Greenland.

The size of the original object was probably from meter-size to a small
house.  After the object had penetrated nearly 200 km (125 miles) of
atmosphere it came to an explosive fragmentation at an altitude of 14 km (9
miles).  Nearby eyewitnesses noticed that more than twenty larger fragments
continued in the original direction, still moving fast enough to ionize the
air around them, until they disappeared behind the local horizon (zenith
distance 87ø), equal to an altitude of 3.5 km (2.2 miles). The calculated
fall area has an altitude of 1400-1500 meters (4200-4500 feet) and is
located on the icecap.

The fact that the fragments continued to travel fast enough to cause
ionization of the air around them tells us that they must be rather massive
and of a size that should make it resonable to search for them, when icecap
conditions permit.

We are now preparing a four man expedition.  The logistics of such an
expedition are difficult, but we are receiving great help from more
experienced groups that have worked in similar regions.

We are convinced that this work is scientifically important, and it would
be of a great help if anyone with satellite data (military or otherwise)
that traced the visible or infrared signal from the meteor of December 9,
1997 (8.11 UT) over the southwestern coast of Greenland would contact us.
We need this assistance to narrow our search area.  We have two predicted
areas, about 19 km (12 miles) apart.  One is the direct result of geometric
measurements from the eye-witness reports and the other is based on
mathematical calculations of the track. The distance between the areas is
not large, but considering the very difficult conditions we will be working
under, concentrating the search in one 50-70 square kilometer (20-30 square
mile) area rather than two will greatly aid our effort. We hope to solve
this problem in one way or another before leaving for Greenland.

Involved in the search:
* Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University
* Tycho Brahe Planetarium & Omnimax Theater (TBP)
* Greenland Geological Investigations
* Danish Meteorological Institute
* Danish Polar Center

TBP web site: http://www.astro.ku.dk/tycho.html (mostly Danish, but links
in English).<<