[meteorite-list] Meteorites 101-The Bolide and the Nuclear Bomb

[Chris Peterson]

The comparison is nothing to do with (ionizing) radiation. It is simply a 
matter of using references that people are comfortable with. Meteors in the 
range of very bright fireballs to impact events happen to produce energy 
levels that are equivalent to nuclear bombs. Unlike nuclear bombs, however, 
the energy released by meteors and impacts is substantially non-ionizing. 
And the processes involved in the release of energy are completely 
different.

As an aside, some meteors are detected by instruments that are designed to 
record nuclear blasts. Those instruments are normally calibrated with energy 
units in tons of TNT. Depending on whether energy data is presented in 
joules or in tons of TNT, you can sometimes guess what the monitoring agency 
was really looking for <g>.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Regine Petersen" <fips_bruno at yahoo.de>
To: <Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>; "Chris Peterson" 
<clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Meteorites 101-The Bolide and the Nuclear Bomb



Hi all,

can some of you explain to me the similarities of an exploding meteor and a 
nuclear bomb? There seem to be a lot of references and explosive asteroid 
events are often measured in Hiroshima bombs to scare the hell out of 
people.

I always asked myself the question why that is? Is there not a different 
process at work, that of nuclear fission (atom bomb) and fusion (hydrogen 
bomb)?

But when considering Tunguska, the aftermath seems to be very similar. I 
would like to know more about this: There has been accelerated tree growth 
due to the radiation, have there been any cases of mutations or illnesses of 
animals? Is such a radiation as severe as that of a bomb? And what is the 
difference / similarity of Tektites and Trinitite?

Regine