[meteorite-list] Asteroid Impactor Reported over Indonesia

From: Gary Fujihara <fujmon_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:32:26 -1000
Message-ID: <84A684D6-154C-43AE-9D78-79D132F7714C_at_mac.com>

Asteroid Impactor Reported over Indonesia

Don Yeomans, Paul Chodas, Steve Chesley
NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office
October 23, 2008

On October 8, 2009 about 03:00 Greenwich time, an atmospheric fireball
blast was observed and recorded over an island region of Indonesia.
The blast is thought to be due to the atmospheric entry of a small
asteroid about 10 meters in diameter that, due to atmospheric
pressure, detonated in the atmosphere with an energy of about 50
kilotons (the equivalent of 50,000 pounds of TNT explosives).

The blast was recorded visually and reported upon by local media
representatives. See the YouTube video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQBzTkJNhs&videos=jkRJgbXY-90

A report from Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown at the University of
Western Ontario indicates that several international very-long
wavelength infrasound detectors recorded the blast and fixed the
position near the coastal city of Bone in South Sulawesi, island of
Sulewesi. They note that the blast was in the 10 to 50 kT range with
the higher end of this range being more likely.

Assuming an estimated size of about 5-10 meters in diameter, we would
expect a fireball event of this magnitude about once every 2 to 12
years on average. As a rule, the most common types of stony asteroids
would not be expected to cause ground damage unless their diameters
were about 25 meters in diameter or larger.

A more extensive report by Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the
University of Western Ontario is here: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news165.html

Gary Fujihara
AstroDay Institute
105 Puhili Place, Hilo, HI 96720
(808) 640-9161, fujmon at mac.com
http://astroday.net
Received on Fri 23 Oct 2009 10:32:26 PM PDT