Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994

Details Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994 Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994

Feb 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995jgr...100.3245m&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227), vol. 100, no. E2, p. 3245-3249

Physics

15

Earth Atmosphere, Kinetic Energy, Meteoritic Composition, Meteoroids, Remote Sensing, Asteroids, Debris, Fragmentation, Pacific Ocean

Scientific paper

Infrared and visible wavelength sensors on board platforms operated by the U.S. Department of Defense detected an energy release over the central Pacific Ocean on February 1, 1994, estimated to be of the order of at least tens of kilotons of TNT. The event has been assessed by the Defense and Intelligence Community to be a meteoroid entry. The object broke up into several fragments and created debris clouds which were tracked for over an hour. The meteoroid entered at about 24 km/s and an angle of approximately 45 deg on a heading of approximately 300 deg. From this, the object's heliocentric orbit just prior to entry was calculated to have a semimajor axis of about 1.6 AU, an eccentricity of about 0.65, and inclination of 2.1 deg. The radiant energy released is modeled to be between 1.4 x 1013 J and 2.6 x 1014 J or equivalent to 3.4 to 63 kilotons of TNT, and the total kinetic energy of the meteoroid is estimated to be in the range 1.4 x 1014 J to 2.6 x 1015 J or equivalent to 34 to 630 kilotons of TNT. From the kinetic energy and if we model the object as composed of silicates with a density of 3.5 g/cu cm, we derive a mass range of 5 x 105 to 9 x 106 kg and a diameter range of 6 to 17 m.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Detection of a meteoroid entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 1994 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1635372