They say it was probably only the size of a fist, and that they likely won’t find it.
Great. Now they’re never gonna find that toolbox…
By the time it fell through the atmosphere, it was probably the size of a chihuhua’s head.
Not if they were Craftsman.
I should have known it was a fake when the woman was saying, “No! Don’t go down there!” A meteorite lands 40 feet from you, and your first instinct is to NOT go look? I don’t think so. 
It made the Bad Astronomer’s blog !
One local astronomer is putting it as between one and ten tons, but that it probably all broke up: Meteor likely broke on entry:
And a professional meteorite dealer (such jobs exist?) says that if you were close enough to hear the sonic boom, you’re probably in the neighbourhood of where the pieces came down:
$10,000 for 1 kg? might be worth going for a stroll in the fields, FarmerChick!
That was not a large meteor. This was a large meteor:
- Second in size only to the Vredefort Dome, the Sudbury Basin is a 40-mile-long, 16-mile-wide, 9-mile-deep crater caused by a giant meteorite that struck Earth about 1.85 billion years ago. Located in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, the crater is actually home to about 162,000 people. In 1891, the Canadian Copper Company began mining copper from the basin, but it was soon discovered that the crater also contained nickel, which is much more valuable, so the miners changed course. Today, the International Nickel Company operates out of the basin and mines about 10 percent of the world’s nickel supply from the site.
I’m told that the initial hit punched a crater about 60 miles wide, and mountain sized chunks can still be found up to 500 miles away. I’ve always wanted to see some really high def video of a strike like that… on some other planet far, far away.
Are these numbers accurate? You’d think something would be visible on Google Maps satellite imagery. The 9-mile-deep part is what I’m having trouble with.
The whole Sudbury area does look kind of bare when you zoom out. Is that area what they’re referring to? And why doesn’t it fill up with water?
A Leonid possibly? Seems around the right time.
The damn things sell for a fortune, and meteorite hunters usually flock to an area where there’s a known strike.
I wasn’t close enough to hear the sonic boom. My dogs heard it though, a couple of minutes after it pasted, they went nuts, so I assumed that’s what they reacted to.
Why was the object glowing though, so close to contact with the ground? I thought these sort of objects did all their burning up as they entered the atmosphere?
They glow for as long as some material remains to be vaporized.
Most are small enough that they burn up soon after contact with the atmosphere. Larger ones last longer, giving a longer and brighter trail. The really big ones have enough material that not all is vaporized by the time they reach the ground (where heating stops).
can i go poke around for a few hours and list “Meteorite Hunter” as part of my resume?
A fake… very very fake… but not exactly so bad that you can pick up on it right off.
Bad acting and the bad science of a chunk of rock the size of a car just dug into the ground only about 2 feet kinda gives it away, though…
There’s been a meteor strike?
Well, that’s a picket line nobody will want to cross.
I would. Come to think of it, I’m unemployed right now, with a full tank of gas in the car. ROAD TRIP1!!!
Only if you have a licence.
You need a license for that now?