# Meteor explosion/strike near Auckland **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 11, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385 "2015-02-11T14:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/1 "2015-02-11T14:14:31Z")
Here’s the article: > **['Almost certainly extra terrestrial'](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/almost-certainly-extra-terrestrial-meteor-lights-up-night-sky-across-new-zealand/MH3O4D4HXS2Y6OR5EF524RVYN4/?c_id=1&objectid=11400450)** > > A "blinding" flash, intense explosion and sonic booms experienced over much of the country last night were probably caused by a meteor, experts agree. These events seem to happening a lot more lately. Is there any chance that this is space junk re-entering the atmosphere? I’d hate to think Putin is playing chicken with his satellites like he is with his MIGs… ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/2 "2015-02-11T14:27:27Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > These events seem to happening a lot more lately. Is there any chance that this is space junk re-entering the atmosphere? From a news report last year: [Asteroid strikes are far more common than previously thought.](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27039285) > [@](#): > > \*The CTBTO (Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization) operates a network of sensors that listens out for clandestine atom bomb detonations. Between 2000 and 2013, this infrasound system catalogued 26 major explosions on Earth. None were caused by A-bombs; they were all the result of asteroid strikes. > > They ranged in energy from one to 600 kilotons.\* ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/3 "2015-02-11T16:03:59Z")
600 Kt? Thats larger then a US Trident missile Warhead. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/4 "2015-02-11T16:14:59Z")
I’d be interested in knowing where the 5-600kt strikes were, and when. ETA: Having read the article, I will bet AUS$1 that the meteor came nowhere near “a few hundred meters” of the two observers’ location. Meteors are famously responsible for all kinds of UFO reports that describe windows, jet flames, intelligent movement and “passing within a few hundred feet” when they are miles or even hundreds of miles away. Even pilots and astronauts have made such observational errors. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/5 "2015-02-11T16:38:20Z")
This is my favorite part of that article: > [@](#): > > Fletcher Hodge, 33, and Michael Mckee, 30, **were travelling back from Rotorua having purchased a possum plucker off TradeMe** when they noticed the sky getting “bluer and brighter”. The hell is a Possum Plucker? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/6 "2015-02-11T16:39:09Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > I’d be interested in knowing where the 5-600kt strikes were, and when. Probability suggests most were in the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/7 "2015-02-11T16:52:19Z")
> [@](#): > > This is my favorite part of that article: > > > [@](#): > > > > Fletcher Hodge, 33, and Michael Mckee, 30, **were travelling back from Rotorua having purchased a possum plucker off TradeMe** when they noticed the sky getting “bluer and brighter”. > > The hell is a Possum Plucker? For once, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Rev it up, drop a possum in one end, out comes a naked corpse and a separated possum pelt. Ewwwwwwwww. Your whole bolded phrase sounds like something from Downunda Doc Seuss. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/8 "2015-02-11T16:58:31Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > For once, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Rev it up, drop a possum in one end, out comes a naked corpse and a separated possum pelt. Ewwwwwwwww. That sounds like a possum skinner. A possum plucker sounds like you’ve got possums with feathers. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/9 "2015-02-11T17:00:03Z")
Or a possum that’s stuck up in a tree… I was picturing something you’d use to get one off of a branch or something. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/10 "2015-02-11T17:02:56Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > For once, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Rev it up, drop a possum in one end, out comes a naked corpse and a separated possum pelt. Ewwwwwwwww. > > Your whole bolded phrase sounds like something from Downunda Doc Seuss. Please tell me the poor possum is dead before that happens. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/11 "2015-02-11T17:03:23Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > That sounds like a possum skinner. A possum plucker sounds like you’ve got possums with feathers. 😉 Gogol it. It’s… amusing. I take it they are modeled after automated pluckers used by poultry farmers, hence the slightly odd name. Oh, they don’t skin the beast, just rub off all the fur (for felt or some such, I gather). So it is “plucking” rather than “skinning.” I used pelt in the sense of what you shear off a sheep, not skin off a carcass. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/12 "2015-02-11T17:05:55Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > Please tell me the poor possum is dead before that happens. ☹ I dunno, this is the outback… :eek: (Apropos of nothing much, Brian Daley had a little vignette in one of his novels, where far-future hunters were feeding their kills into a taxidermy machine. Through entirely appropriate actions, a vicious hunting beast got sucked into its maw, processed alive [and making ‘grisly sounds’], and came out looking “very lifelike.”) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/13 "2015-02-11T17:24:03Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > So it is “plucking” rather than “skinning.” What’s the market for plucked possum? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/14 "2015-02-11T17:28:10Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > What’s the market for plucked possum? None. I am writing from distant second-hand understanding, but it looks as if there is a market for hunting and trapping possums to remove them as vermin (government bounty?), and then a market for the fur (felting, or some such?) - but what the carcasses are good for, I have no idea. Nor, I think, do I want to. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/15 "2015-02-11T17:31:58Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > What’s the market for plucked possum? Perfect, prime, plated, plucked possum?..pretty pricey per pound. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/16 "2015-02-11T17:33:42Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Gogol it. It’s… amusing. I take it they are modeled after automated pluckers used by poultry farmers, hence the slightly odd name. Oh, they don’t skin the beast, just rub off all the fur (for felt or some such, I gather). So it is “plucking” rather than “skinning.” I used pelt in the sense of what you shear off a sheep, not skin off a carcass. The machine was obviously invented by Taras Bulba. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/17 "2015-02-11T17:38:30Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The machine was obviously invented by Taras Bulba. Not Abdul Abulbul Ameer? Or Ivan Skavinsky Skavar? Hey, look, it’s Halley’s Comet! True story: I dated a girl in high school named Hailey who drove her grandmother’s Comet. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/18 "2015-02-11T18:00:14Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > 600 Kt? Thats larger then a US Trident missile Warhead. What is the chance, if one went off in or near a populated location, that it could trigger a nuclear response from the country in question (if it has said capability), them assuming that someone launched a nuke at them? ---
**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:** [February 11, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/19 "2015-02-11T18:49:54Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > None. I am writing from distant second-hand understanding, but it looks as if there is a market for hunting and trapping possums to remove them as vermin (government bounty?), and then a market for the fur (felting, or some such?) - but what the carcasses are good for, I have no idea. Nor, I think, do I want to. What the heck else ya gonna make possum pie outta? Sure can’t use armadillo carcasses, tire marks on their back or no. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385/20 "2015-02-11T19:23:04Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > What is the chance, if one went off in or near a populated location, that it could trigger a nuclear response from the country in question (if it has said capability), them assuming that someone launched a nuke at them? Around 1980? _Shut up! Just shut up, damn you!_ It probably did come within a hair’s breadth of happening a few times, only some of which we know about. Now? Probably a great deal less. I don’t think any country has its nuclear forces on hair-trigger alert, and there would be time to differentiate a meteorite strike from even a single rogue missile (or ground bomb) attack. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meteor-explosion-strike-near-auckland/712385.md?page=2)