March 16, 2008

From Armageddon Online

Look back at the Peru Meteorite

The News - Science-Astronomy
Written by Administrator
March 12, 2008
A meteorite which ploughed into the Peruvian countryside last year should have shattered and dispersed long before reaching the ground.

That is the conclusion of scientists who have been examining samples of the space rock and the 15m-wide crater it dug out in Carancas last September.

The discovery of a water-filled hole, following reports of a fireball in the sky, made headlines around the world.Now experts say the event challenges conventional theories about meteorites. This has nothing to do with the mass panic that famously followed the impact; rather it has to do with the science of space impacts.

Usually, only meteorites made of metal survive the passage through Earth's atmosphere sufficiently intact to scoop out a crater. But the object which came down in the Puno region of Peru was a relatively fragile stony meteorite. During the fiery descent through Earth's atmosphere, these are thought to fragment into smaller pieces which then scatter over a wide area. Yet pieces of the estimated 1m-wide meteorite are thought to have stayed together during entry, hitting the ground as one.

Source : BBC Science

Peruvian crater (AP)

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