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If everyone is in awe of this one, perhaps I should note that last month there was a much bigger one reported in Indonesia:

A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky:

This really happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, Indonesia. The Earth-shaking blast received remarkably little coverage in Western press, but meteor scientists have given it their full attention. "The explosion triggered infrasound sensors of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) more than 10,000 km away," report researchers Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown of the Univ. of Western Ontario in an Oct. 19th press release. Their analysis of the infrasound data revealed an explosion at coordinates 4.5S, 120E (close to Bone) with a yield of about 50 kton of TNT. That's two to three times more powerful than World War II-era atomic bombs.

Bold mine. Click the link for video - can't seem to embed it.

by Nomad on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:46:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Perhaps you meant this video, it's far better.

wow, daytime.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 05:35:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Jesus christ in a sandwich! 50 kT's! What wouldn't I do to se that upfront!

By the way, am I the only person here who'd like to see a live nuclear surface test, standing a few (or a lot of) kilometres away (depending on the yield)?

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 05:55:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You can see a(n upside-down) mushroom cloud by dropping a droplet of lemon juice into a glass of water.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 06:04:16 AM EST
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