Delta4Embassy
Gold Member
Seeing a shooting star used to be fun, but not as much now. Watching tv with the living room light off as I often do in the evening I happened to glance outside at the semi-clear nighttime sky just in time to see a fireball streaking in the northern sky. Lost sight of it as it went below the top of the apartments across the courtyard. As I do when I see these I waited a few moments to see if a bright flash as with a ground-impact occured but it didn't thankfully.
Were 10 such fireballs last night it seems, all 'sporadics.' I assume that means random 'we had no idea it was coming' rocks. And while it's comforting they've hardly ever hurt anyone on the ground, I'm reminded of some lady's car that was totalled by one, and another's whose home was struck causing a fair hole in her roof. So while unlikely, a hypervelocity impactor can pose a problem for those on the ground.
Thus the stress. Knowing that this was a rock perhaps the size of a car travelling at Mach 20 or something, and if it reached the ground would create a small-yield kiloton range impact equivilent. Was so much more enjoyable back when it was just 'ooh pretty!'
Were 10 such fireballs last night it seems, all 'sporadics.' I assume that means random 'we had no idea it was coming' rocks. And while it's comforting they've hardly ever hurt anyone on the ground, I'm reminded of some lady's car that was totalled by one, and another's whose home was struck causing a fair hole in her roof. So while unlikely, a hypervelocity impactor can pose a problem for those on the ground.
Thus the stress. Knowing that this was a rock perhaps the size of a car travelling at Mach 20 or something, and if it reached the ground would create a small-yield kiloton range impact equivilent. Was so much more enjoyable back when it was just 'ooh pretty!'
