Meteorite caught on skydiver's camera

[Elsig]

I wasn't sure where to post this....it's not really KSP related, but it IS space related!

I'm sure many has seen this video by now which is making the rounds in the news.

Here's the video:

(turn on youtube captions for the translation)

I've been reading the various youtube comments as well as comments people have made under the many articles dotted around the interweb.

It seems people are expecting meteorites to glow and travel at lightning speeds at this low altitude!

Of course, us kerbonouts knows that when our s<strike>pacecrafts</strike> contraptions, <strike>fly controlled,</strike> tumble violently through the atmosphere like a glowing fireball awaiting the impending doom, it eventually reaches terminal velocity and travels at more "relaxed" speeds. Not that it increases the chance of survival, unless your name is Jeb and you land with your head in just the right position to soften the blow.

Not saying that this IS a meteorite. But it is certainly very plausible. The expert on the video certainly seems sure in his case. Some people are saying the must have gotten a rock in the parachute by accident. I don't think so, you'd notice!!

[stupid_chris]

Not really. A meteorite travels at multiple km/s, there's no chance an object this size would have slowed down before impact to reach terminal velocity. A 20m wide meteorite can cause a 500m wide crater, just so you get the idea of how fast it's traveling.

Also, moved to the space lounge.

[Tobyz28]

If it were caught in the Chute, it would have fallen past him much sooner.

[magnemoe]

Not really. A meteorite travels at multiple km/s, there's no chance an object this size would have slowed down before impact to reach terminal velocity. A 20m wide meteorite can cause a 500m wide crater, just so you get the idea of how fast it's traveling.

Also, moved to the space lounge.

However drag don't scale much with mass but weight scale 1:1, this is why and cat can survive falls who would kill you and a mouse would probably survive being dropped from a plane.

The lighter the item the lower terminal speed. This was 1100 meter above ground so speed was close to ground speed. Small meteorites does not impact in high supersonic speed, you can see their impact and its not so impressive, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap021118.html

An massive meteorite will not be slowed much by atmosphere as it has lite surface area compared to mass so it will hit harder.

Another note is that most medium sized meteorites 1-30 meter tend to air-burst, both the two in Russia the 100 year separated and multiple other.

I guess this is because of the reentry stresses it and if its not an robust rock this will cause it to break up and loose parts, this will increase the surface area who again increases the stress and heating causing more fragmentation, who increase it even more in an runaway faction and yes this is very good as it the one who hit Russia last year would be far more dangerous if it hit the ground.