Meteor?

[Stranger]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Cool ... I'm a Battle River boy too, although from a ways upstream on the Alberta side. My brother still lives on the family farm and was outside when it happened. He said he could hear crackling and thought it might have landed just a few miles to the east. Sounds like it might have landed about 50 miles to the east though rather than just a few miles.

What town are you from? Our farm is about 7 miles from the Sask border in the Edgerton area and only about 1 mile from the Battle River Coulee.

[tete]

Originally Posted by KevanGuy

They said on 660 yesterday that some meteor-dude in the States will pay $10,000 for a piece of it. He then went on to say there could be as much as $1,000,000 worth of material out there from this thing. Road trip!

This is probably the same guy who was contacting my dad, wanting to pay a pile of cash for space rock. Legit? No clue. My dad found a meteorite about 15 years ago. The rest of us thought it was just a rock, he was convinced it was a meteorite. Left it kicking around in the garage for years. Fast forward 8 years and he takes it into the Prairie Meteorite Clinic hosted by the UofC in a town next to ours. Finds out it actually WAS one. Generally speaking, meteorites tend to go for $1/gram. His was 20 kg. Largest intact one found in Manitoba. Just finished up the donation to the Manitoba Museum a few weeks ago and while he didn't get $20 K in cash, he did pretty well in tax credits and a small amount of cash. Not exactly enough money to retire but still pretty darn neat.

[Bagor]

Out of curiosity, how were they able to estimate the weight at ~10 tonne (from the article)?

The size from the images? amount of light? speed?
Combination of all of the above?

I saw one in eastern England about 7 years ago which was very different but just as spectacular. Was white then finished up as red and green. Nowhere near as bright as that one but just as spectacular.

[Montana Moe]

Many people on Northern Montana reported seeing it as well. That is a huge area for it to be seen, N. Alberta to N. Montana, wow!

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/app...=2008811220301

Geoff Chester, a spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.:

"It sounds like you guys had a great light show," he said. "I'm intensely jealous."

[photon]

Originally Posted by Bagor

Out of curiosity, how were they able to estimate the weight at ~10 tonne (from the article)?

The size from the images? amount of light? speed?
Combination of all of the above?

Probably amount of light. The size from the images would be useless as it wasn't actually the size of the object that you saw on the videos, just the light being bright enough to wash out the sensor on the camera. The actual object was 1.5 - 2m across, no way you're going to see that any distance away let alone in Edmonton.

The amount of light probably gives an idea of how much material is burning, and they probably have a good idea of how much material would burn for all different sizes of incoming rocks. If you know the size, and the approximate density you can get the mass. Approximate density would be a WAG from the way it burned up and knowledge of general composition of past meteors... if it was an ice ball it would have looked different.

Speed, things fall at the same rate regardless of their mass in a vacuum, and the air resistance will depend on the shape as well as the mass so it's hard to say. Something that small isn't big enough to form itself into a sphere so who knows what shape it was originally.

[Nancy]

Originally Posted by calf

Sweet - I'm going to be driving through the Marsden area in a couple of weeks. Actually hit a ditch there this time last year. Looks like I'll be doing some meteor hunting!!

Is the big Flames flag on the acerage on the west end of Lloyd on hwy 16 still kicking around?

Just make sure not to get any meteor shhh!t on you... I hear it really itches like something else.

And if you get a green rash, call a doctor:

[Stranger]

They found the meteor. It landed just south of Lloydminster near a small place called Lone Rock. I'll look for an article.

[ok, ok,....I get it]

Originally Posted by Stranger

They found the meteor. It landed just south of Lloydminster near a small place called Lone Rock. I'll look for an article.

punny

[stang]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Cool ... I'm a Battle River boy too, although from a ways upstream on the Alberta side. My brother still lives on the family farm and was outside when it happened. He said he could hear crackling and thought it might have landed just a few miles to the east. Sounds like it might have landed about 50 miles to the east though rather than just a few miles.

Originally Posted by Stranger

They say it landed along the Battle River near Marsden, Saskatchewan. If that's true it only came within a couple of miles of our farm. I'll have to ask Dad if he's heard anything.

And I also live in Oilerville here in Lloydminster. One of the few Flames fans to be found around these parts.

Holy guys.. It was my Uncle and Aunty's farm they found it on... SPent lots of time out there as a kid.

Battle River Ranch... Used to work out there in the summers, helping with the cows and fencing...

I got some friends in Lone rock, and remember Swimming/partying at Buzzard Bridge as a teen.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by stang

Holy guys.. It was my Uncle and Aunty's farm they found it on... SPent lots of time out there as a kid.

Battle River Ranch... Used to work out there in the summers, helping with the cows and fencing...

I got some friends in Lone rock, and remember Swimming/partying at Buzzard Bridge as a teen.

Cool ... I'm glad some Battle River farmers will cash in on this.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by photon

Probably amount of light. The size from the images would be useless as it wasn't actually the size of the object that you saw on the videos, just the light being bright enough to wash out the sensor on the camera. The actual object was 1.5 - 2m across, no way you're going to see that any distance away let alone in Edmonton.

The amount of light probably gives an idea of how much material is burning, and they probably have a good idea of how much material would burn for all different sizes of incoming rocks. If you know the size, and the approximate density you can get the mass. Approximate density would be a WAG from the way it burned up and knowledge of general composition of past meteors... if it was an ice ball it would have looked different.

Speed, things fall at the same rate regardless of their mass in a vacuum, and the air resistance will depend on the shape as well as the mass so it's hard to say. Something that small isn't big enough to form itself into a sphere so who knows what shape it was originally.

Meteorite's don't all go the same speed, they enter the atmosphere anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 MPH. depending on the angle they enter,their mass and makeup some slow a lot some very little as they break up.

[photon]

Originally Posted by T@T

Meteorite's don't all go the same speed, they enter the atmosphere anywhere between 30,000 and 60,000 MPH. depending on the angle they enter,their mass and makeup some slow a lot some very little as they break up.

I didn't say meteorites all go at the same speed, I said things fall at the same speed. Falling isn't the same as relative velocity of the earth and whatever the meteorite was before it hit the earth.

I said "things fall at the same speed" because Bagor asked if speed could be used to determine the object's mass; I didn't intend it as a comment about the meteor I intended it as a comment about physics, which is why I said "fall".

What happened to the object being "very big" BTW?