[meteorite-list] Boom 28 secs after Russian meteor passes overhead

From: Robin Whittle <rw_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2013 12:41:53 +1100
Message-ID: <51203561.6040205_at_firstpr.com.au>

Hi Rob,

Indeed 8.7km is low. I didn't do the calculations - I just wanted to
share with the folks on this list ASAP. This is about the elevation of
Mt Everest (Sagarm?th?). According to:


http://fiziknota.blogspot.com/2008/04/atmospheric-pressure-and-altitude.html


the air pressure there is about 1/3 of that at sea level.

It is my impression that the very brightest part of the trail - which in
other videos is seen as incandescent orange in the middle of the smoke -
was around this location (between Roza or Korkino and Emanzhelinsk /
Yemanzhelinsk) and at about this altitude.

Commercial jetliners cruise at around 11km. Any aircraft flying within
a few km of the meteor would have felt a very strong blast indeed. I
guess that an aircraft within a few km above or below might not have
survived the blast forces bending its wings up or down.

Like lightning and volcanic eruptions, it would be great to be close to
these extraordinary events - but not so close as to be injured or
killed. Actually, I think it would be worth a few minor injuries to be
a little closer.

This is kinetic energy from the gravitational collapse of the solar
system directly impacting us on Earth. A million or more people felt
this energy directly - and many people were injured and hospitalized.

 - Robin


On 2013-02-17 12:15 PM, Rob Matson wrote:

> Great find, Robin. (Though I nearly could bear to listen to that "music"!) One could
> probably get a pretty good estimate of the average speed of sound below 10 km
> altitude with a typical temperature profile for this part of Russia in early morning in
> mid-February (presumably quite cold!) At, say, 310 m/sec, the bolide range is
> only 8.7 km, so given the high maximum elevation angle of the meteor as seen
> in the video, the altitude will only be a smidge lower than this. (This is VERY low,
> which explains the severity of the shock waves.) --Rob
Received on Sat 16 Feb 2013 08:41:53 PM PST