[meteorite-list] Norway Meteorite Impact Site Believed to be Found

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1348689.ece

Here's where the meteorite hit
Aftenpoften (Norway)
June 12, 2006

Residents of the Norwegian county of Nord-Troms were shaken when a
meteorite struck the valley of Reisadalen last week. Experts are
debating its impact, but they've found the site where it hit the ground.

[Photo]
This is where last week's meteorite is believed to have hit Norway, at
Reisadalen, east of Tromsø.

An astronomer at the University of Oslo, Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, told
Aftenposten.no last week that he thought the meteorite that was
photographed streaking through the sky could have had the same impact as
the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima in 1945.

"Of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we
may be able to compare it to the (atomic) bomb," Røed Ødegaard said.

Truls Lynne Hansen of the Northern Lights Observatory
(Nordlysobservatoriet) in Tromsø disputes Røed Ødegaard's description,
calling it an exaggeration.

"Our atmosphere is peppered with small stones from outer space all the
time," Hansen told newspaper Aftenposten. "Most burn up and disappear,
but some land here."

He thinks that what hit northern Norway last week was a stone weighing
around 12 kilos (about 26 pounds). "Out in space it generated enormous
speed, but after entering our atmosphere its tempo eased," Hansen said.
"This kind of meteorite isn't radioactive and it's not glowing when it
hits the ground."

The meteorite, whatever its size, created a stir nonetheless. Norway's
Defense Ministry tries to track all flying objects and be prepared via
radar on land, at sea and in the air.

"We can observe such meteorites," said John Espen Lien of the northern
military command in Bodø. "But everything happens so fast, and most of
them disappear before they hit the ground."