[meteorite-list] Fwd: Earth Impacts

[lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu]

Hello Everyone:

I just received this from a colleague of mine and rather give him my best
guess, thought it would be best to ask the experts. Don McCarthy is an
infrared astronomer an instrument builder who does everything from
asteroids and comets, to extrasolar planets, to the origin of the
Universe, to doing astronomy camps for kids and adults.

Thanks in advance.

Larry

Hi Larry,

I wonder if you help clarify a point about impact events and the Earth.

For the numbers I see, Earth is likely to be hit annually by a
meteoroid (2-3 meter) dissipating the energy of a Hiroshima bomb (~10
ktons TNT). This amount of energy seems very large. Do these generally
go unnoticed because they explode in the atmosphere or over oceans? Is
"explode" even the right word to use?

Don