Meteor impacts news and updates

[EarthlingX]

http://www.esa.int : Egyptian desert expedition confirms spectacular meteorite impact

23 September 2010


Expedition leader Mario Di Martino at Kamil crater

A 2008 Google Earth search led to the discovery of Kamil crater, one of the best-preserved meteorite impact sites ever found. Earlier this year, a gritty, sand-blown expedition reached the site deep in the Egyptian desert to collect iron debris and determine the crater's age and origins.

One day within the last several thousand years, a rare metallic meteorite travelling over 12 000 km/hour smashed into Earth's surface near what is today the trackless border region between Egypt, Sudan and Libya. The impact of the 1.3 m, 10-tonne chunk of iron generated a fireball and plume that would have been visible over 1000 km away, and drilled a hole 16 m deep and 45 m wide into the rocky terrain.

Since then, the crater had sat undisturbed by Earth's geologic and climatic processes, which usually render all but the very largest terrestrial impact craters invisible. It was also, as far as is recorded, unseen by humans.

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Kamil crater seen by satellite (small round dot near centre of image)

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After a tiring, GPS-guided, three-day drive across the desert in 40°C heat, the team reached the crater.


Three-day drive to reach Kamil crater

They collected over 1000 kg of metallic meteorite fragments, including one 83-kg chunk thought to have split from the main meteorite body shortly before impact (it was found 200 m away from the crater). The joint team also conducted a thorough geological and topographical survey, using ground-penetrating radar to create a 3D digital terrain model. Geomagnetic and seismic surveys were also carried out.

The researchers were stunned to find that Kamil crater, named after a nearby rocky outcrop, remains pristine, and must have been created relatively recently.

"This demonstrates that metallic meteorites having a mass on the order of 10 tonnes do not break up in the atmosphere, and instead explode when they reach the ground and produce a crater," says ESA's Dr Detlef Koschny, Head of Near Earth Objects segment for the SSA programme.

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The intriguing story of the Kamil crater discovery will be presented in a joint paper by Telespazio, e-Geos, ASI and INAF, 'Radar observation of impact craters using COSMOSkyMed' at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 19-25 September 2010, in Rome. A public and media outreach event, 'Kamil: a Lunar Crater on Earth', will be presented on 23 September at the University of Rome (more information here).

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Kamil crater in Google maps

 

[MeteorWayne]

I think there's already a thread on this crater; I know I posted about this a month or two ago. I may merge and and/or retitle the topic.

MW

 

[EarthlingX]

I missed it, but i think it might be good to have a thread as an index to the other impacts - it's easier to find. I'm not married to the title, though.

If you would drop here links to the other impacts, because i think you know about all of them, and then some more, it might be the best, at your leisure and discretion, of course.

 

[EarthlingX]

SDC : Brilliant Fireball Over New Mexico Caught in Video

By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com Managing Editor
posted: 24 September 2010
06:20 pm ET



A brilliant fireball lit up the night sky above parts of New Mexico and Texas this week in a fiery display recorded by a skywatching camera.

The fireball, thought to be created by a small space rock, occurred Tuesday night (Sept. 21) at about 11:01 p.m. EDT (0301 GMT) and was captured in a video camera as the meteor carved its fiery trail across the sky. It lasted 23 seconds and covered parts of New Mexico and west Texas, according to the website Spaceweather.com. [Video of the Sept. 21 fireball.]

"I was inside at the time, but heard and felt the sonic boom," said radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft, who operates the all-sky camera 20 miles (32 km) outside of Santa Fe, NM that recorded the fireball as it flew overhead.

At first, Ashcraft thought the sound was thunder, but no storms were expected. Then a phone call inquiry led him to check his camera's data, where he saw "a ]spectacular meteor occurrence."

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