Re: Possible Historical Asteroid Strike?

From: hal@finney.org
Date: Sat Jun 17 2000 - 12:20:53 MDT


On Fri, Jun 16, 2000 at 09:38:13PM -0700, phil osborn wrote:

> I witnessed a major atmospheric near miss around the early '80's as best I
> recall, from Long Beach. It passed overhead as a clearly visible fireball,
> with a trail of fire behind it, and continued West as far as I could follow
> it. Just last week I ran into someone else who apparently saw it as well,
> but from much further inland to the North. I never saw any news on it at
> the time. Anyone have any info?

Such meteors are called bolides, and they are not all that rare. Some are
seen across thousands of miles.

Just based on statistical grounds, it would seem a lot easier to hit
the 8000 mile diameter earth than to miss it by less than 100 miles.
So I assume that there are many more impacts of such objects than these
near misses.

Hal



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