1000-pound meteoroid measuring 2 ft in diameter came crashing to earth over Texas
Asteroids and other substantial bodies in space are the sources of meteors. Meteoroids are the common name for asteroids that are smaller than one metre. When meteoroids or tiny asteroids collide with the atmosphere of the Earth, they become visible but generally disintegrate, occasionally generating spectacular fireballs as a result. A meteorite is anything that remains after an impact. The majority of meteors that penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere often experience this explosion.
According to NASA, a meteor that was roughly the size of a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and roughly the weight of four young elephants struck the Earth last Wednesday near McAllen, Texas. Eyewitnesses saw what may have been a meteor impact in the sky last Wednesday at 6 p.m. local time, according to the local Fox affiliate KDFW for the Dallas area. The National Weather Service later corroborated this, claiming that a Geostationary Lightning Mapper had seen a meteor flash barely 30 minutes before. As there were no thunderstorms in the region at the time that could have caused the flash, it was unclear what caused it.
The meteor in issue, according to specialists from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, had a diameter of just over 60 centimetres and weighed half a tonne (or around 454 kilograms). This indicates that the meteor weighed as much as four baby elephants despite having a diameter that was only slightly larger than the typical Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Several times the speed of sound, the meteor was travelling at a speed of about 43,452 kilometres per hour when it exploded in the Earth’s atmosphere about 34 kilometres above the ground. However, some of the meteor’s pieces did manage to land on the ground. Eight tonnes of TNT’s worth of energy were released during the meteor collision.
However, it doesn’t appear that any injuries or impact-related damage have been recorded. In either case, meteor strikes do occur frequently. The Texas meteor was actually just one of at least three meteor impacts that occurred over the span of three days, according to the American Meteor Society; the other two, according to CBS News, occurred in France and Italy. The meteor fragments could potentially be hazardous while they are landing, but once they have landed they essentially pose no risk to anyone. These space rocks typically cool quickly and don’t inherently contain any dangerous contaminants. To seriously harm the earth, a meteor or asteroid would need to be much bigger.
The majority of meteors that do strike the Earth burn up in the atmosphere; this is what occurs during meteor showers. If not, the atmosphere at least considerably slows them down, lessening the impact’s force.
The space agency published a report on the incident and a map indicating the probable landing site for meteor fragments. Birds fleeing and the sound of a sonic boom can be heard in a video uploaded by KDFW that was taken from a home security camera. The National Weather Service in Brownsville/Rio Grande Valley reports that numerous individuals saw what appeared to be a meteor west of McAllen. The weather service also stated that a Geostationary Lightning Mapper had just before 5:30 p.m. caught the meteor’s flash.
Stellar clusters from far-off galaxies are revealed by the Webb space observatory. The NWS stated in a Facebook post on Wednesday that there was no thunderstorm activity in the region when the meteor crashed, according to measurements of lightning taken by the lightning mapper satellite from orbit. Air traffic controllers in Houston notified Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra via Twitter that two aircraft had also reported seeing a meteor in the sky near McAllen.
