If a cosmic stone exploded in the atmosphere, and no one saw it, then the tabloid press gives this event as a striking event? Of course!
This largely demonstrates the tremendous meteor impact over the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, which occurred on February 6, and was recorded in the Fireball and Bolide reports, NASA near-Earth objects documentation programs.
The event itself is remarkable in that it is the largest atmospheric impact since the time of the Chelyabinsk race car, which exploded over Russia in 2013. As a result, extensive structural damage and injuries were recorded in a city with a population of one million people.
A recent event on February 6 released an energy equivalent to 13,000 tons of TNT exploding instantly (also known as the “13-kiloton explosion”). If to compare, in Chelyabinsk over the Ural mountains only 440 kilotons of energy was released.
Initially, the phenomenon was noticed by NASA employee Ron Baalke, and then investigated by the Bad Astronomer (Bad Astronomer - known skeptic, writer and blogger) Phil Playt. After the observations, it was decided that the heavenly impact was caused by a piece of cosmic rock about 5-7 meters (16-23 feet) wide. The event in Chelyabinsk was caused by a stone almost 20 meters (65 feet) wide.
On February 6, most of the mass of the meteor most likely burned as it entered the atmosphere. And the rest of the pieces fell in the form of small, safe debris into the ocean. The event did not occur in a densely populated area, and as far as can be judged, there was not a single message from eyewitnesses (sailors or pilots) who could be in the zone at that time. Although this is certainly a very important and interesting event for science, whose influence on life forms on Earth (with the exception of a few unlucky fish off the coast of Brazil) was minimal. But the fact that NASA “failed” to tell the world about this event has influenced some of the news releases.
“The space agency is not able to warn the world about a massive explosion, although this is the biggest event since the time of the Chelyabinsk meteor,” writes Mirror.co.uk.
But perhaps the best headline belongs to another British news publication The Express (“Express”): “The front number meteor appeared from nowhere and exploded with the power of the Hiroshima bomb”. We take note that the “front room” (from the British means “living room”) is now the universal standard for meteoroid measurements.
The Mirror (“The Mirror”) also wandered through a conspiracy, trying to figure out how NASA was able to record the event on February 6, focusing on Plate's analysis, that an event in the atmosphere could most likely have been detected by secret military equipment.
As a rule, atmospheric explosions are recorded by seismic monitors, microphones or / and satellite observations. As Plate pointed out, since the impact fell on the open ocean, seismic monitors could not be used to record the impact energy. The military has many obvious reasons for monitoring atmospheric explosions. And it is likely that the data came from secret sources, perhaps from satellites. Although an interesting and energetic event on February 6, this is not the only time the Earth has been exposed to cosmic stones. Every day, the planet is littered with about 100 tons of space debris. The vast majority of this mass is nothing more than grains of sand, and on a clear night you may be lucky to see how these tiny specks burn in the upper layers of the atmosphere, like meteors.
When they crash into the upper layers of the atmosphere, these tiny pieces of cosmic stones create a shock wave, which, due to the rapid heating of atmospheric gases, incinerates debris, erupting in the rapid brilliance of light. They are known as meteors (or “shooting stars”).
Large (and rare) pieces of cosmic stone hit the atmosphere as a meteor or can explode like a car (as in the case of Chelyabinsk).
Monitoring the regularity of these big hits is the key for scientists to help understand our interplanetary environment. And although the event on February 6 is now broadcast headlines, remember that most major collisions will occur over water (after all, 70% of the earth is the ocean). And the event of the Chelyabinsk meteor is from the category once in 100 years.
