meteorite impacts

11.22.09

That Meteorite Impact Last Week: Did it Really Happen?

A skeptical look at the physics of projectiles from space

By Adam Weiner Posted 06.16.2009 at 12:56 pm 8 Comments

Last week we were treated to the unusual story of a human-versus-meteorite collision.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the youth whose hand was in the path of the pea-sized meteor saw a "ball of light." The article also made the claim that the impact with the ground left a "foot-wide crater." Both of these assertions are highly unlikely, as we shall see by simply applying some basic physics to the situation.

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Mars Attacks

My brother and I have a bet: Would it be possible to blow up Mars?

By Elizabeth Svoboda Posted 06.02.2006 at 1:00 am 0 Comments

In a word: no. It would be impossible to destroy the Red Planet with any device scientists can build, let alone finance. Planets can survive enormous assaults; the Hellas Basin, a Martian crater about 1,300 miles wide, testifies to the planet having once collided with an asteroid so massive that the impact generated well over a hundred million megatons of energy. If a meteoroid that size were to hit Earth, it could wipe out life on an entire continent.

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