Fireball from August 10, 1972

The fireball of August 10, 1972 (in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking area ' Great Daylight Fireball of 1972 ' , for "large daylight bolide of 1972" ) - also called Grand Teton Meteor (from English ' Grand Teton Meteor ' ) and US19720810 - was a meteoroid that entered the earth's atmosphere on August 10, 1972 over the US state of Utah at 2:30 p.m. local time (20:29 UTC ), lit up brightly, lost mass and speed and left the atmosphere as a much smaller body. It was visible as a fireball (or bolide ) in full daylight . It was the first ever observed and scientifically examined bolide.

more details

The meteoroid entered the atmosphere at a speed of about 15 km / s and crossed it in a northerly direction of flight with a maximum approach to the surface of the earth of 53 kilometers. It left the atmosphere after about 100 seconds over the Canadian province of Alberta . The fireball was observed by many people, recorded on film and recorded by sensors in space.

Scientific research showed that the meteoroid was between 3 meters (in the case of a carbonaceous chondrite ) and 14 meters (in the case of cometary ice) before it entered . An analysis from 1994 concluded that the passage through the earth's atmosphere reduced the mass of the meteoroid to a third. Its speed was reduced by about 800 meters per second, and the inclination of the orbit (compared to the ecliptic ) changed noticeably from 15 to 7 degrees.

Other Bolia that did not hit the ground

Up to 2008 only three other such incidents were observed: The fireball EN131090 on October 13, 1990 at a height of 100 km over the Czech Republic , the possible fireball on March 29, 2006 over Japan and EN070807 on August 7, 2007 over Europe .

Web links

Grand Teton National Park (USA / Canada) Fireball - August 10, 1972 , photos and short film (24 seconds) by Linda Baker (English)
Grand Teton Meteor on YouTube - the same video, technically edited and at a slightly higher speed (19 seconds), released November 10, 2007.

Individual evidence

↑ Note. The fireball lost speed both in relation to the affected earth and on its orbit around the sun.
↑ Observation of Meteoroid Impacts by Space-Based Sensors (English) - Edward Tagliaferri for the ASP , 2013; 'It was first detected by satellite at an altitude of about 73 km, tracked as it descended to about 53 km, and then tracked as it climbed back out of the atmosphere', 'object is still in an Earth-crossing orbit around the Sun. and passed close to the Earth again in August 1997 '
^ ^A ^b C. Kronberg: "Daylight Fireball of August 10, 1972" ( Memento from January 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Munich Astro Archive, (English-language archived summary by Gary W. Kronk on the basis of early analyzes and the paper by Zdenek Ceplecha (published in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1994); '3 meters, if a carbonaceous chondrite, or as large as 14 meters, if composed of cometary materials', 'post-encounter [...] 2 or 10 meters'
↑ ^a ^b US19720810 (Daylight Earth grazer) ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - formerly in the Global Superbolic Network Archive , 2000 (now in the Internet archive , last saved there on October 20, 2013); u. a. with ' Size: 5 to 10 m '
↑ Abe, Shinsuke et al: "Earth-grazing fireball on March 29, 2006" (English), European Planetary Science Congress 2006, bibcode : 2006epsc.conf..486A , p. 486 .; 'the first and second Earth-grazing fireballs observed on August 10 1972 (Jacchia, 1974; Ceplecha, 1979) and on October 13 1990 (Borovicka and Ceplecha, 1992)'
↑ Shinsuke et al. Abe: "Earth-grazing fireball on March 29, 2006" (English; PDF, approx. 2.7 MB)

[1] Note. The fireball lost speed both in relation to the affected earth and on its orbit around the sun.

[2] Observation of Meteoroid Impacts by Space-Based Sensors (English) - Edward Tagliaferri for the ASP , 2013; 'It was first detected by satellite at an altitude of about 73 km, tracked as it descended to about 53 km, and then tracked as it climbed back out of the atmosphere', 'object is still in an Earth-crossing orbit around the Sun. and passed close to the Earth again in August 1997 '

[maa-3] A ^b C. Kronberg: "Daylight Fireball of August 10, 1972" ( Memento from January 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive ), Munich Astro Archive, (English-language archived summary by Gary W. Kronk on the basis of early analyzes and the paper by Zdenek Ceplecha (published in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1994); '3 meters, if a carbonaceous chondrite, or as large as 14 meters, if composed of cometary materials', 'post-encounter [...] 2 or 10 meters'

[gsna-4] US19720810 (Daylight Earth grazer) ( Memento from October 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - formerly in the Global Superbolic Network Archive , 2000 (now in the Internet archive , last saved there on October 20, 2013); u. a. with ' Size: 5 to 10 m '

[5] Abe, Shinsuke et al: "Earth-grazing fireball on March 29, 2006" (English), European Planetary Science Congress 2006, bibcode : 2006epsc.conf..486A , p. 486 .; 'the first and second Earth-grazing fireballs observed on August 10 1972 (Jacchia, 1974; Ceplecha, 1979) and on October 13 1990 (Borovicka and Ceplecha, 1992)'

[6] Shinsuke et al. Abe: "Earth-grazing fireball on March 29, 2006" (English; PDF, approx. 2.7 MB)