Might we suggest some light, enlightening reading?
• Dark matter?
• Or, maybe, zebra stripes around planet Earth?
• Perhaps contemplating the multiverse?
• Or puzzling over the “strangest magma on Earth”? How about extraterrestrial volcanoes?
• Would you believe the Permian-Triassic extinction was caused by microbes?
• Was that whole skydiver and meteorite thing true?
If we told you what you’re looking at in this picture, you wouldn’t believe us. Therefore, we’ll have Nancy Atkinson explain:
It sounds like a remarkable story, almost unbelievable: Anders Helstrup went skydiving nearly two years ago in Hedmark, Norway and while he didn’t realize it at the time, when he reviewed the footage taken by two cameras fixed to his helmet during the dive, he saw a rock plummet past him. He took it to experts and they realized he had captured a meteorite falling during its “dark flight” — when it has been slowed by atmospheric braking, and has cooled and is no longer luminous.
Yes, really.
(Via S.L., with many thanks. Photo credit: Anders Helstrup.)
It has been quite a day for a falling sky. As murmurs rippled around the world that the end may be near, and astronomers worked to reassure everyone that asteroid 2012 DA14 would not strike the Earth today, despite its historic pass inside our satellite orbital ring, an unrelated meteorite chose to scare people in Russia this morning.
novus advocatus scientiae 