# How big was this metor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893 "2015-10-27T18:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Cardboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardboard)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/1 "2015-10-27T18:31:14Z")
Last night, I saw a fireball meteor. It saw it through cloud cover and the fact that there was a full/near full moon. My question: Judging by those (sparse) details, how big do you think that meteor was when I saw it and how big was it originally, when it was a meteoroid drifting through space? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/2 "2015-10-27T18:40:40Z")
This one was about 15m across when it entered the atmosphere: [http://www.nature.com/news/russian-meteor-largest-in-a-century-1.12438](http://www.nature.com/news/russian-meteor-largest-in-a-century-1.12438) So probably smaller than that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/3 "2015-10-28T00:31:39Z")
Most are the size of sand. The amazingly bright ones at night are more like gravel. Without more detail on brightness and thickness of cloud cover there’s not much more to say. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/4 "2015-10-28T04:07:14Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > This one was about 15m across when it entered the atmosphere: > > [Russian meteor largest in a century | Nature](http://www.nature.com/news/russian-meteor-largest-in-a-century-1.12438) > > So probably smaller than that. Holy cow. I either hadn’t heard about that when it happened or had somehow forgotten. I just watched a bunch of videos about it, including a clip of a PBS news show where Neil deGrasse Tyson was interviewed. Amazing and scary stuff. I wonder how many people in central Russia saw that and thought it was a nuke. I probably would have had a flashback to the Cold War if I had seen that. Yikes. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/5 "2015-10-28T20:27:43Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Holy cow. I either hadn’t heard about that when it happened or had somehow forgotten. I just watched a bunch of videos about it, including a clip of a PBS news show where Neil deGrasse Tyson was interviewed. Amazing and scary stuff. I wonder how many people in central Russia saw that and thought it was a nuke. I probably would have had a flashback to the Cold War if I had seen that. Yikes. When this happened something a lot of us Westerners didn’t understand is how _ **little** _ reaction the Russian people seemed to have had\*!\* In most of the videos the people don’t do much of anything, they don’t stop their cars, they don’t scream or panic etc. Just that unflappable, ‘tough-like-bear’ Russian stoicism I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/6 "2015-10-28T21:17:14Z")
That was also the start of the “Russian dash-cam” youtube craze. Apparently, Russians see a _lot_ of crazy while driving. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/7 "2015-10-28T22:57:19Z")
IIRC, the Peekskill meteor was about the size of a fist, and that was visible across the entire eastern United States. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/8 "2015-10-28T23:51:14Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > IIRC, the Peekskill meteor was about the size of a fist, and that was visible across the entire eastern United States. So not much bigger than a chihuahuas head. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/9 "2015-10-29T00:34:38Z")
And with about the same number of brain cells. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/10 "2015-10-29T01:36:46Z")
One that was visible in the night sky [last year](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYRaSlW29qU) in Texas was estimated to be four feet long and 4,000 pounds. About six years ago, I had [witnessed one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=506712) in the middle of the day that was estimated to be the size of a pickup truck. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-was-this-metor/735893/11 "2015-10-29T02:05:28Z")
> [@Unpronounceable](#): > > That was also the start of the “Russian dash-cam” youtube craze. Um, no. > **[Why Almost Everyone in Russia Has a Dash Cam](https://www.wired.com/2013/02/russian-dash-cams/)** > > How is it possible that a dozen different motorists around the Russian city of Chelyabinsk were able to capture video of a massive meteor flying through the sky? Because almost everyone in Russia has a dash-mounted video camera in their car.