Meteor Video

Question 1

what did the nuclear weapons monitoring system reveal about the explosion of the meteor?

Answer 1

as the shockwave gets bigger, the tone of the sound gets lower (infrasound)

received a huge signal of low tonal frequency, indicating that the meteor was big as it reached a far distance – the sound kept ringing as the noise traveled around the world
——- low frequency noise propagates further than high-frequency
——- indicated that the explosion occurring will also be big

Question 2

how do small depressions the size of thumbprints form in meteors?

Answer 2

as the meteors move in space, air scours away the rock - it chips it

Question 3

in the laboratory, why are the scientists interested in learning about the density of the meteor? The Chelyabinsk meteor fragments were found to be 10% metal and 90% rock. what else did the microscope scans reveal about the meteorite fragments?

Answer 3

low density will break up earlier and high density will last longer

the scan revealed that there were cracks in the meteor so it was more likely to break - when it hit the atmosphere, it led to a mutually reinforcing cascade of failure

Question 4

how is the angle of the meteor related to the intensity of the shockwave felt at Earth’s surface (i.e. which types of angles would create more intense shockwaves)?

Answer 4

and how the blast wave (following the explosion) will be expended

a more shallower angle will be less intense

Question 5

what is NASA planning to do to discover more asteroids in the future?

Answer 5

an infrared telescope in space (space-based observance system) - as the objects are dark but release/radiate infrared sounds

increased accuracy and distance