Around 10 pm Wednesday evening, a meteor in Wisconsin was seen going across the sky from west to east. Anyone who saw it instantly overwhelmed the emergency response phone lines saying they saw a blue/yellow fireball tracking from northwest to southeast. A meteorologist with the National Weather Service said the meteor exploded over Iowa County in southwest Wisconsin at about 24,000 feet, showering meteorites to the ground, which began some forest fires. Those who saw it reported a window-rattling sonic boom.
Data wanted from meteor in Wisconsin
If you got to see the meteor in Wisconsin, the International Meteor Organization wants to hear from you. Information about where the meteor in Wisconsin may have landed is a pay day for The International Meteor Organization to help scientists discover any possible meteorites. Any info given will help scientists track the orbit of the meteor and link it to either asteroids or comets.
Meteor in Wisconsin video
The meteor was a natural object that originate in space. Friction caused it to superheat into a brightly glowing fireball captured on video after it entered the atmosphere. Those pieces of the meteor in Wisconsin that actually hit the Earth will now be called "meteorites." After being reported by witnesses as meteors, about 1,086 meteorites have been found as of February 2010. Well over 38,000 meteorites have been found. Apollo astronauts also found meteorites on the moon.
Did meteor in Wisconsin become a meteorite?
Although bigger than most meteors, the meteor in Wisconsin wasn't unique. The American Meteor Society Fireball Sightings Log: 2010 shows nearly daily reports of numerous meteor sightings from all around the country. Meteorite discoveries, nevertheless, are very rare. On Jan. 22, 2010, a meteorite struck the office building of Dr. Frank Ciampi in Lorton, VA. The meteorite put a hole in the roof and ripped up the floor 10 feet from where Ciampi was working. Fragments of meteor rock the size of tennis balls were strewn around the room. He won't need a loan to fix it given that damage was light.
Unlikely for meteor in Wisconsin
According to astronomer Alan Harris on wikianswers.com, the chances of getting hit by a meteorite in any person’s lifetime are the same as Bill Gates needing a payday installment loans: 1 in 700,000." As a comparison,” he said, “you’re more likely to die in a fireworks accident; But what’s funny is, this is a slightly higher chance than being killed by a terrorist!” The last recorded impact on a human was in 1954, when Elaine Hodges of Sylacauga, Ala., was struck in the hip as she was napping on her couch. There is a Life magazine image of her showing the injury.
Meteor in Wisconsin not the first
The meteor in Wisconsin is not the first fireball to have an impact on the state. Reported by Space.com, scientists, years ago saw something different about rocks around Wavery, Wis., and concluded an ancient catastrophic event occurred. They believe that at 67,500 mph a 650 to 700 foot meteorite hit the earth. The alleged impact 450 million years ago let out a lot more than 1,000 megatons of explosive energy, blasting a giant hole in a 4-mile area called Rock Elm about 70 miles east of Minneapolis, said three scientists in an article published within the Geological Society of The US Bulletin. Over time, shale, dirt and sediment filled the hole. The impact was blunted by a shallow sea covering Wisconsin at the time. Within the world, there are around 200 meteorite impact sites known. About a couple dozen are in the U.S. Scientists estimate they occur every few hundred thousand years, and only a couple dozen within the United States. They are believed to have occurred only! each few hundred thousand years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfKrd2NrnHk
Article Sources
National Weather Service
The American Meteor Society
wikianswers.com
Space.com
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