[meteorite-list] NASA Fireball Website Launches with New Russian Meteor Explosion Details

From: Jeff Kuyken <info_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 23:28:53 +1100
Message-ID: <000b01ce20af$7ed53270$7c7f9750$_at_meteorites.com.au>

http://www.space.com/20216-russian-meteor-nasa-fireball-website.html

NASA has launched a new website to share details of meteor explosion events
as recorded by U.S. military sensors on secretive spacecraft, kicking off
the project with new details of last month's fireball over Chelyabinsk,
Russia.

The new "Fireball and Bolide Reports" website, overseen by NASA's Near-Earth
Object Program, debuted Friday (March 1) with its first entry: a table with
a chronological data summary of the Russian meteor explosion of Feb. 15
gleaned from U.S. Government sensor data. Scientists are calling the event a
"superbolide," taken from the term "bolide" typically used for fireballs
created by meteors.

Sharing the information publicly is part of a renewed collaboration between
the U.S. military and the scientific community.

"And what better way to kick this site off than the Chelyabinsk superbolide

 the most energetic recognized-fireball event since Tunguska in 1908," said
Don Yeomans, a senior research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He is also manager of NASA's Near-Earth
Object Program Office at JPL.

"This website is meant to be the vehicle for future reports of
fireballs/bolides as seen by U.S. government sensors," Yeomans told
SPACE.com. "This is the first posting of its kind on this site. Future data
on bright fireballs will be added to this table. We won't capture every
fireball event
 only the unusually bright ones," he said.

"I consider this a major step forward since these fireball events are by far
the most frequent impactors into the Earth's atmosphere," Yeomans said. "And
these reports will go a long way toward defining the annual flux of small
Earth impactors."

This public release of government detector data was made possible by a newly
signed memorandum of agreement (MOA) between NASA?s Science Mission
Directorate and Headquarters Air Force Space Command Air, Space and
Cyberspace Operations Directorate.

The MOA was signed on Jan. 18, said Capt. Chris Sukach, spokesperson for
U.S. Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. For
security reasons, the actual MOA is classified, she told SPACE.com.?

As a result of the agreement, Sukach said, NASA's Near Earth Object (NEO)
Program is receiving information on bolide/fireball events based on analysis
of data collected by U.S. Government sensors.

"Data on the recent Chelyabinsk event has been released," Sukach said.

Sukach added that when Air Force Space Command receives data on bolide
events, it pushes that data to the NASA Near Earth Object Office. "From then
on, it is a NASA-owned process, but our understanding is NASA distributes
the information via the publically-accessible Near Earth Object Office
website to assist the scientific community?s investigation of bolides," she
said.

According to Don Yeomans and Paul Chodas, also of the NASA/JPL Near-Earth
Object Program office, the Russian fireball was technically a "superbolide"
that was observed on the morning of Feb. 15 in the skies near Chelyabinsk,
Russia.

The object was a relatively small asteroid, approximately 55 to 65 feet (17
to 20 meters) in size. As it roared through the Earth's atmosphere at high
speed and a shallow angle, the asteroid released a huge amount of energy.
The object broke apart at high altitude, producing a shower of pieces of
various sizes that fell to the ground as meteorites. [Russian Meteor
Fragments Found (Video)]

"The fireball was observed not only by video cameras and low-frequency
infrasound detectors, but also by U.S. Government sensors," Yeomans and
Chodas said. "As a result, the details of the impact have become clearer.
There is no connection between the Russian fireball event and the close
approach of asteroid 2012 DA14, which occurred just over 16 hours later."

Congress wants to know about NEOs

Congressional action on NEOs for this year, spurred in part by the Russian
event, was initially slated kick off on March 6 during a House subcommittee
hearing, but the meeting was postponed due to weather concerns. The meeting
is now scheduled for Tuesday, March 19.

The full committee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
is expected to hold a multi-panel hearing on "Threats from Space: a Review
of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors."

Slated to testify on one panel is John Holdren, White House science officer;
General William Shelton, commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command; and
Charles Bolden, NASA's chief.


Cheers,

Jeff Kuyken
Meteorites Australia
www.meteorites.com.au
Received on Thu 14 Mar 2013 08:28:53 AM PDT