This 8-minute video posted at Norway's NRK is quite a bit more detailed than the one-minute version being shown on most news channels. (audio in Norwegian, with subtitles)
Although Helstrup is still not completely convinced that it was indeed a meteorite that flew past him, the experts are in no doubt.Addendum: A tip of the hat to reader Adrian Morgan for finding extended commentary on the incident at Bad Astronomy.
“It can’t be anything else. The shape is typical of meteorites – a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded,” said geologist Hans Amundsen. He explained that the meteorite had been part of a larger stone that had exploded perhaps 20 kilometres above Helstrup.
Amundsen thinks he can make out coloured patches in the stone, and believes that in that case it may be a breccia – a common type of meteorite rock.
I call BS!
ReplyDeleteIt's moving SOOOOOOOOOOOO slow, and that can only mean it came out of the chute itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with anonymouses statement.
DeleteSee Phil Plait's latest post on this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/04/07/skydiving_meteorite_was_it_an_object_from_space_or_just_a_rock.html
ReplyDeleteI would discount Anonymous's reasoning -- before listening to someone's opinion about the speed of an object in a video and what that speed implies for the nature of the object, I would want to know their qualifications -- but Phil's post agrees that a stone caught in the parachute is more likely than a meteorite.
Thanks, Adrian. I've added the Slate link to the post.
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