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Meteor Lights Up Southern Michigan (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the slow-moving dept.

New submitter Foundryman writes: Amidst fake missile reports in Hawaii and Japan, Michigan gets hit by something real. From a report via Ars Technica: "Early last night local time, a meteor rocketed through the skies of southern Michigan, giving local residents a dramatic (if brief) light show. It also generated an imperceptible thump, as the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that there was a coincident magnitude 2.0 earthquake. The American Meteor Society has collected more than 350 eyewitness accounts, which ranged from western Pennsylvania out to Illinois and Wisconsin. They were heavily concentrated over southern Michigan, notably around the Detroit area. A number of people have also posted videos of the fireball online. The American Meteor Society estimates that the rock was relatively slow-moving at a sedate 45,000km an hour. Combined with its production of a large fireball, the researchers conclude it was probably a big rock. NASA's meteorwatch Facebook page largely agrees and suggests that this probably means that pieces of the rock made it to Earth. If you were on the flight path, you might want to check your yard.

38 comments

  1. That was BitCoin by mnemotronic · · Score: 4, Funny

    That was BitCoin, going out in a flashbang blaze of glory. Turn out the lights, the party's over.

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  2. imperceptible thump by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    >> imperceptible thump

    Well, which was it?

    1. Re:imperceptible thump by daenris · · Score: 2

      Probably imperceptible to people, but clearly not imperceptible to machines since it was picked up as a magnitude 2 earthquake.

    2. Re: imperceptible thump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What your ex reported

    3. Re:imperceptible thump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hardly "imperceptible to people" when it shook my damn house... We all came out of our rooms trying to find out who knocked over a bookshelf, or if a tree had fallen on us.

    4. Re:imperceptible thump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >> imperceptible thump

      Well, which was it?

      You need to learn English. It's what happens when you stifle a fart.

  3. Fake != False by djbckr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For God's sake, it wasn't fake, it was false. Big difference. If it was fake, then it wasn't from legitimate sources. But it was from legitimate sources, so it was "fact". It was a false alarm, but it wasn't fake.

    1. Re:Fake != False by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you upset?

      You seem upset.

    2. Re:Fake != False by Foundryman · · Score: 1

      Well, Miriam Webster believes that fake and false are synonyms:
      https://www.merriam-webster.co...
      fake Synonyms
      Synonyms
      artificial, bogus, dummy, ersatz, factitious, imitation, false, faux, imitative, man-made,

      I didn't intend to imply that I felt the missile warnings had been intentionally faked, so I'd agree with you that the use of "false" would have been a better choice of words.

  4. Impercievable! by Sumus+Semper+Una · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It also generated an imperceptible thump

    the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that there was a coincident magnitude 2.0 earthquake

    I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    1. Re:Impercievable! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It also generated an imperceptible thump

      the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that there was a coincident magnitude 2.0 earthquake

      I do not think that word means what you think it means.

      I do not think that means what you do not think that means.

      According to this,

      Magnitude 2.5 or less: Usually not felt, but can be recorded by seismograph.

      so an event comparable to a 2.0 earthquake would have registered on seismographs, but wouldn't likely have even caused the glasses in the kitchen to chime against one another.

  5. I must have slept through it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't notice a thing in Battle Creek. It would have been nice if the explosion warmed the place up a degree or two.

  6. Detroit area by PPH · · Score: 1, Troll

    It was a direct hit from the looks of the subsequent aerial photography.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Detroit area by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was a direct hit from the looks of the subsequent aerial photography.

      It wasn't actually anywhere near the Detroit area, but given the size of the country and the tendency for the media to report everything in Michigan as being in the Detroit area, I'm no longer surprised.

  7. imperceptible ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This means it was imperceptible, but it was still registered as a 2.0 earthquake - which means the machine perceived it, thus it was perceptible. This is just another example of how stupid writers have become.

    1. Re: imperceptible ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans perceive. Machines measure and record.

  8. Coincidentally... by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    It's amazing that exactly the same type of event happened in Russia about a week ago with almost exactly the same description. There must have been an earthquake in Russia at the same time as their meteor.

    Coincidentally, this happened at the same time as a false missile warning because 'some guy' pressed the wrong button. Which is amazing because coincidentally the Japanese issued a false missile warning because 'some guy' pressed the wrong button the next day.

    What an amazing set of coincidences!!

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    1. Re:Coincidentally... by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      Actually, I remember reading a short story years ago about a nuclear missile that came out of nowhere and destroyed Washington DC. The US was about to launch missiles at the Soviet Union when somebody figured out it was a meteor.

  9. Rattled by JBMcB · · Score: 1

    It rattled the windows of my friend's house. He thought a utility pole transformer exploded a block over. It was quite a bit more than imperceptible.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  10. Wait a dang minute! by GerryGilmore · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I've been assured repeatedly that NASA and other orgs are tracking potentially dangerous asteroids, etc., so - How DaFuck did this appear without warning? Had the trajectory and/or speed been ever-so-slightly off, the impact would have been far more, well, impactful. Anyone who follows this more closely know?

    1. Re:Wait a dang minute! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be a small boulder. The glow is only noticable because it is night-time. The heat friction would have made it glow white hot, vaporize and explode due to heat stress between the hot base and close to absolute zero core.

    2. Re:Wait a dang minute! by Guybrush_T · · Score: 2

      They only track (very) large objects. Such small object are tiny specs of dust until they're in our atmosphere. Scale matters.

    3. Re: Wait a dang minute! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was harmless. There's a gigantic number of objects in the same class that we can't even detect, let alone track. Let's let them focus on the extinction-level threats first, OK? Then again...it would be really cool if NASA could tell us where and when to look for the next such spectacle.

    4. Re:Wait a dang minute! by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      hahaha! You should read NASA's website and learn the reality:

      How good are we at finding and tracking NEOs?
      Over 2015-2016, observers discovered more than 1500 previously unknown NEOs each year. Roughly half of the known catalogue of NEOs are objects larger than about 460 feet (140 meters) in size. The estimated population of NEOs of this size is about 25,000. Current surveys are finding NEOs of this size at a rate of about 500 per year.

      The 460-foot cutoff point was established by a NASA NEO survey science definition team (SDT) in 2003. The SDT determined that impacts from objects of that size would only produce regional effects, while larger objects would have corresponding wider effects such as large sub-global effects from impacts of a 984-foot (300-meter) object and global effects from 0.6 mile (1-kilometer) object impacts. In 2016, NASA appointed a new NEO survey SDT to reevaluate this cutoff point in light of research conducted and events occurring since 2003. The new SDTâ(TM)s recommendations should be available in 2017.

      Ground-based telescopes alone have limitations - for instance, they can only survey the skies at night and in clear skies. Based on statistical population estimates, about 74 percent of NEOs larger than 460 feet still remain to be discovered.

      What can be done to improve the NEO detection rate?
      Larger ground-based telescopes and a dedicated space-based infrared asteroid survey telescope would substantially increase the discovery rate and meet the goal in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of 90 percent of the NEO population down to 140 meters in size. NASAâ(TM)s currently operating NEOWISE space-based survey was not designed for this purpose. NEOWISE is a repurposed astrophysics spacecraft, and while it has made significant contributions to NEO discovery and characterization, its capabilities are limited.

      from: https://www.nasa.gov/planetary...

    5. Re:Wait a dang minute! by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      see my other comment where I quote NASA. they don't and can't even track all the large ones.

    6. Re:Wait a dang minute! by burtosis · · Score: 2

      Specks leave a thin streak. Ones that pop with a flash like that one are probably a few pounds to a few tens of pounds of loose material. If it was lighter it wouldn't be so bright, if it was heavier it would be far more impressive, and if it was more solid it would bounce off the atmosphere or make it to ground.

    7. Re:Wait a dang minute! by infolation · · Score: 1

      Regarding size and weight specifics...

      From the Nat Geo site: Estimates say the rock likely measured three to six feet across, and could have weighed more than a ton.

    8. Re:Wait a dang minute! by hackertourist · · Score: 2

      NASA is working on tracking potentially dangerous asteroids, but is limited in what they can track by funding. They have projects to track the large asteroids (i.e. ones capable of destroying a country), but no funding to track all of the smaller ones. An asteroid 100 m across can make a big dent when it lands, but is difficult to find at 100 million km.

      This video shows the rate at which asteroids (some of which are near-Earth objects) are discovered.

    9. Re:Wait a dang minute! by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      How DaFuck did you come to the conclusion that this was a potentially dangerous asteroid that NASA should have been monitoring?

      Had the trajectory and/or speed been ever-so-slightly off, the impact would have been far more, well, impactful.

      And you know this how?

      Anyone who follows this more closely know?

      Oh. Got it.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  11. I'm from Michigan... by Balthisar · · Score: 1

    I'm from Michigan, and I've got to ask: why is this slashdot worthy???

    --
    --Jim (me)
    1. Re:I'm from Michigan... by Howitzer86 · · Score: 1

      Lol, no you don't.

    2. Re:I'm from Michigan... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing that goes on in Michigan is considered noteworthy enough to be published somewhere as prestigious as the front page of Slashdot, so it should obviously raise some eyebrows if one of those stories gets out anyway.

      Except for that junkyard fire that burned down a bunch of crushed cars out in Detroit just last Friday. That's the real story. Stop the presses for that one.

  12. You mean 46Mm? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Saying "46,000km" is just silly. We are not on "(Unamerican) Fox News. You can expect people here to understand prefixes.

    Even "46,000,000m" would make more sense.

    Also:
    > Amidst fake missile reports in Hawaii and Japan, Michigan gets hit by something real.

    *GROAN*
    Trying very hard to... well fuck, I don't even know what.

  13. Zuma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, it had to come down somewhere, they thought Hawaii, so set off alarms, but it stayed up a few orbits longer.

  14. Wake on up, eclipse in 12 days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, see, space is fake. The Earth is flat.

    You notice those craters on the moon? All very round. No angled impacts, with ovals. How strange.