[meteorite-list] 'The high-pitched scream'?

From: lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu <lebofsky_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:21:23 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <2135.71.226.60.25.1200180083.squirrel_at_timber.lpl.arizona.edu>

Hi all:

I just saw a movie on TV the other night. I was at the American
Astronomical Society meeting and could not sleep, turned on the TV and
there was a movie about meteorites. In it, on a number of occations, you
could hear the sound of the incoming meteorite before the hit the ground
and exploded.

The movie was "Meteorite!" with Tom Wopat (Luke Duke). I know this is fact
because a few weeks ago when I was preparing for a presentation on meteor
showers, I found on the Web (so it must be true) two video clips: one from
'Armageddon" and one from "Smallville" (where Superman grew up) and they
both had screaming incoming meteors.

Sorry, but along the lines of what Sterling said, there is some much bad
science in these movies it has you screaming from the room in horror!

Larry

On Sat, January 12, 2008 12:20 pm, Sterling K. Webb wrote:
> Hi, Mark,
>
>
> That "high-pitched scream" you hear
> as the one kilometer impactor drops on the planet is not coming from the
> impactor -- it's coming from us! My research indicates about half the
> human population emits a "high-pitched scream" while the other half creates
> a strong low-frequency rumble that sounds alot like "Oh, Sh----!"
>
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ---------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mark Crawford" <mark at meteorites.cc>
> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2008 9:34 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] "The high-pitched scream"?
>
>
>
> Hi folks,
>
>
> On another forum someone posted about a recent TV programme he'd watched
> about NEOs. At the end the guest astronomer said something to the effect
> that "the first we know about an incoming impactor could be the
> high-pitched scream as it speeds through the atmosphere."
>
> It got me wondering; a sizeable body would be travelling at cosmic (ie
> very supersonic) velocity right through to impact, and therefore the
> "scream" should trail behind the object - in other words, we wouldn't
> even get that much warning.
>
> Was the speaker using poetic license or would there be any kind of
> fore-shock?
>
> Mark
>
>
> --
> Mark's Meteorite Pages: http://meteorites.cc
>
>
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Received on Sat 12 Jan 2008 06:21:23 PM PST