Re:Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57
by sk5t on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @11:20AM
(#19683335)
It would be neat to find, but--who is going to go scouring the seafloor off the coast of Delaware for a not-very-large magnetic rock?
Re:Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57
by dsfyu404ed on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @11:38AM
(#19683501)
There's also probably a bunch of other junk down there to throw false positives. You'll make more selling the scrap metal you haul up than you will selling the meteorite (still won't be a money-maker though).
Re:Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57
by ip26 on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @12:50PM
(#19684220)
Depends on whether the DoD believes it was a rock. Delaware is pretty close to D.C.
Re:Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57
by elil17 on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @04:31PM
(#19686245)
We have other ways to determine the nature of a falling object. Much can be assertained from its trajectory, deceleration, and luminance. It’s trivial to determine that this was not a reentry vehicle.
Re:Fireball over US, Wednesday, April 17th 2019 around 02:57
by craftyguy on Thursday April 18, 2019 @12:07AM
(#19688639)
Exactly. If that was a vehicle/projectile, even watching the dashcam videos of it, it's quite obvious that parts of it underwent rapid, unplanned desintegration. So it likely would't have done anything significant if it was (it was not.)
Personal grumpiness aside though, I'm relieved that it didn't end up making landfall considering how close it was to some pretty major cities. I wonder if there's any hope for recovery of the meteorite itself since it appears to have fallen in the bay/ocean. Is it possible that it's close enough to land that they could find even a few parts of it?
Either way, I'm hoping more footage of the entry event starts coming in. Preferrably with audible reactions.