[meteorite-list] Norwegian skydiver nearly struck by meteorite

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:39:39 -0600
Message-ID: <533DB8FB.7010403_at_alumni.caltech.edu>

I'd put the terminal velocity for a stone of that apparent size between
50 and 100 m/s. Say, between 100 and 200 mph (and I'd lean towards the
lower end given the tumbling). That seems about right given the few
frames it appears in (of course, estimating both size and distance is
difficult). The camera is fixed focus, with everything beyond a few feet
being in good focus; again, the image looks about right for what I'd
expect a meteorite (or any stone) falling a few meters away to record.
In bright daylight, the camera's frame exposure time could have been
just a few thousandths of a second, so freezing the motion isn't
unreasonable.

Again, I'm not saying that a meteorite is the best explanation, just
that nothing leaps out as suggesting it isn't.

If it actually were a meteorite, finding it might not be that hard. It
would be falling vertically (with an offset for the wind, but they
wouldn't be jumping in high winds), and they were only a thousand meters
or so up, so the rock should have hit almost immediately below the
jumper. I don't know if that camera GPS tags the video or not- that
would be great. But I'd think that between the front and back cameras,
calculating a ground position could be done with pretty high accuracy.
The area they were searching on the video seemed much too large.

Chris

*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 4/3/2014 1:08 PM, Michael Farmer wrote:
> I just don't see how the camera
> could even focus at those speeds, the skydiver and rock intersecting at what, 300+ mph minimum? How
> could the camera catch it in focus? For even a split second.
> It is just all to crazy to believe.
> Michael Farmer
Received on Thu 03 Apr 2014 03:39:39 PM PDT