[meteorite-list] Meteorites 101-The Bolide and the Nuclear Bomb

From: Chris Peterson <clp_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:07:14 -0700
Message-ID: <2AADF136D124484683CE76289C5FD248_at_bellatrix>

The comparison is nothing to do with (ionizing) radiation. It is simply a
matter of using references that people are comfortable with. Meteors in the
range of very bright fireballs to impact events happen to produce energy
levels that are equivalent to nuclear bombs. Unlike nuclear bombs, however,
the energy released by meteors and impacts is substantially non-ionizing.
And the processes involved in the release of energy are completely
different.

As an aside, some meteors are detected by instruments that are designed to
record nuclear blasts. Those instruments are normally calibrated with energy
units in tons of TNT. Depending on whether energy data is presented in
joules or in tons of TNT, you can sometimes guess what the monitoring agency
was really looking for <g>.

Chris

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


----- Original Message -----
From: "Regine Petersen" <fips_bruno at yahoo.de>
To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "Chris Peterson"
<clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101-The Bolide and the Nuclear Bomb



Hi all,

can some of you explain to me the similarities of an exploding meteor and a
nuclear bomb? There seem to be a lot of references and explosive asteroid
events are often measured in Hiroshima bombs to scare the hell out of
people.

I always asked myself the question why that is? Is there not a different
process at work, that of nuclear fission (atom bomb) and fusion (hydrogen
bomb)?

But when considering Tunguska, the aftermath seems to be very similar. I
would like to know more about this: There has been accelerated tree growth
due to the radiation, have there been any cases of mutations or illnesses of
animals? Is such a radiation as severe as that of a bomb? And what is the
difference / similarity of Tektites and Trinitite?

Regine
Received on Mon 17 Jan 2011 05:07:14 PM PST