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

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:20:17 -0600
Message-ID: <01f101c85550$2a6584e0$795fe146_at_ATARIENGINE>

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 02:20:17 PM PST