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Meteorite destroys NZ warehouse in fire, witnesses say
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A warehouse in Auckland, New Zealand was destroyed by fire after what witnesses claim was a direct meteorite hit.
According to the NZ Herald:
Some people were convinced the fire was caused by what may have been a meteorite, which was seen from various parts of the upper North Island streaking across the sky just after 10 o';clock.
Several callers claim the light in the sky was very bright, and it was described by some as a blinding flash. Others said it was trailing smoke.
One man, Mike, says he saw the object crash with an exploding noise in the Ponsonby area, and reckons it could have started the fire.
On December 6, a fireball reported as "100 times brighter than a full moon" exploded over Colorado. Space News reader Liz Nicolai reported that the meteor "... was spectacular. ... It was like a beacon!"
In November, a 10-ton meteor impacted Canada. Researchers are still investigating that event.
The image is courtesy of ESO, the European Southern Observatory. The Geminid meteor shower, overshone by a record-setting full moon at perigee, peaks tonight. ESO gives some tips for photographing meteor showers.
What, exactly, are meteors, meteor showers, and meteorites? NASA offers some basic background information, including this look at meteorites and the 1908 Siberian explosion that devastated a 20-mile area:
There are three kinds of meteorites, stony, iron, and stony-iron. Stony meteorites consist of minerals rich in silicon and oxygen, with smaller amounts of iron, magnesium, and other elements. One group of stony meteorites, called chondrites, are pieces of the same material from which the planets formed. Another group of stony meteorites, the achondrites, were once part of a parent body, such as an asteroid, that was large enough to have melted and separated into an iron-rich core and a stony crust. Achondrites come from the outer crust; stony-iron meteorites, from the inner crust; and iron meteorites, from the metallic core. Iron meteorites consist mostly of iron and nickel. Stony-iron meteorites have nearly equal amounts of silicon-based stone and iron-nickel metal.
The size of meteorites varies greatly. Most of them are relatively small. The largest meteorite ever found weighs about 66 short tons (60 metric tons). It fell at Hoba West, a farm near Grootfontein, Namibia. However, much larger bodies, such as asteroids and comets, can also strike the earth and become meteorites.
Meteorites reach the earth's surface because they are the right size to travel through the atmosphere. If they are too small, they will disintegrate in the atmosphere. If they are too large, they may explode before reaching the earth's surface. One such object exploded about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the Tunguska River in Siberia in 1908, leaving a 20-mile (32-kilometer) area of felled and scorched trees.
Thousands of small meteorites have been found in Antarctica, providing a rich supply of specimens for scientists to study. Scientists study meteorites for clues to the types of material that formed the planets.
Was the Auckland warehouse fire caused by a meteorite? Investigators haven't yet released their findings.
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