Norwegian Fireball
You know, if it weren't for the random mailing lists that I subscribe to — I mean, do any of the "top blogs" cover this stuff? — I wouldn't even know about cool things like last week's fireball in Norway (thanks to NASA's Space Weather):
NORWEGIAN FIREBALL: A spectacular fireball that flew over Norway last week, causing sonic booms and making the ground shake when a meteorite presumably hit the ground, was not quite as spectacular as first reported. Researchers now estimate the kinetic energy of the event as 300 tons of TNT, far short of the Hiroshima-like blast described in some news reports.
Space rocks with this much energy hit Earth more often than is commonly supposed–once a month or so. Most go unnoticed because they enter the atmosphere over uninhabited stretches of our planet, or during broad daylight when fireballs are difficult to see, or at late hours of the night when would-be sky watchers are asleep. This one was seen (and by some accounts felt), so it made a bigger "splash" than usual. Searchers are still scouring the countryside for possible fragments of the meteorite.
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on Saturday, 17 June 2006 at 15.01
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That is interesting, but I'd hardly call an explosion equivalent to 300 tons of TNT penny ante.
on Saturday, 17 June 2006 at 16.28
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Indeed: hardly penny ante, just a scientist's type correction in precision to counter exaggerated claims comparing the explosion to massive, atomic-scale detonations. We must fight back innumeracy at every opportunity!