I agree with the scientist interviewed: On the "that's really cool" radar, it's pretty up there.
posted by Gelatin at 10:42 AM on January 14 [4 favorites]

In the video they mention that the meteorite is only visible in one frame of the video. Is there a way to see that frame? I suspect that it's probably really blurred, but am curious.
posted by indexy at 10:46 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

hey now home security cameras have also been useful for recording raccoons and deer doing cute stuff.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:47 AM on January 14 [24 favorites]

indexy, the video in the article is pretty cool, if you haven't watched it yet - but given the speed of the object, I doubt finding that specific frame is possible (without access to the original video).
posted by davidmsc at 10:53 AM on January 14

neat!
posted by Wretch729 at 10:56 AM on January 14

You can see it in the video... this is a screen grab: https://i.imgur.com/AQh5Ur4.jpeg

If you keep hitting play/pause quickly you can see it move in from about the 26 second mark of the video.
posted by Laura in Canada at 10:57 AM on January 14 [15 favorites]

wow
posted by supermedusa at 10:57 AM on January 14

Laura in Canada: Thank you! That's a lot clearer than I would have imagined.
posted by indexy at 10:59 AM on January 14

It's estimated that something like 50 tons of space debris/dust land on earth every day. I'm surprised videos like this aren't more common at this point considering how many personal security cameras there are.

If you happen to leave a dish or bowl of water outside for, say, a week - and it hasn't been windy or your area is prone to tornadoes or haboobs or whatever - and you come back to bits of black sand or stone in it, there's a chance that it's actually meteorite dust. Especially if you can pick it up with a magnet.

People who hunt for meteorite fragments tend to do so in winter and go out to open places with fresh, untracked snow fields so they can look for stones on top of or in the snow above the ground.

There's apparently enough meteorite material that not only can you buy it like any other semi-precious stone, you can find people who work it into things like RPG/game dice or jewelry, and sometimes even forged iron/steel knives that use meteorites as a source of iron.

I was out in the deep desert on a solo bike ride once in the middle of a large dry lakebed taking a break and probably having a smoke or something when a small pebble a bit bigger than a lima bean thunked me right on the noggin with enough force that it felt like someone dropped it off of a tall building, or mildly winged me with a rock out of a cheap sling shot.

Barely hard enough to sting, but hard enough to get my attention and know that it wasn't just a loose rock that fell out of my clothes or something. It was perfectly calm, cloudless and there wasn't a bird in the sky.

It wasn't until years later and in hindsight that I realized that I may have actually been hit by a bit of meteorite and space debris. I wish I had held on to that rock but at the time I didn't really think much of it except "huh, that was weird." but weird stuff happens in the deep deserts, so *shrug*.
posted by loquacious at 11:11 AM on January 14 [30 favorites]

Ha, was preparing a post for this and while searching to see if it had been posted before fell into a black hole of previous interesting meteorite posts. There are a lot of cool meteorite posts in a search of the site.
posted by Mitheral at 11:15 AM on January 14 [3 favorites]

an actually useful function for home security cameras

It's useful to know whether the dogs are barking because biscotti is home and we should all run around joyfully or whether it's just pakidge.

Also it's worth watching Port Neches Grandpa in his raw and uncensored form. I always liked how he went outside expecting to see something vaguely impressive but then he hikes up his boxers in the purest moment of SHIT JUST GOT REAL.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 11:26 AM on January 14 [9 favorites]

I can't turn my speaker on at the moment could someone please type the approximate sound of the meteor strike?
posted by Rumple at 11:28 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

This is just so cool.

SCIENCE!!!

This guy is just so excited. As he should be.

It's never been documented before, therefore, incoming new science!
posted by Windopaene at 11:32 AM on January 14 [2 favorites]

type the approximate sound of the meteor strike?

PKSSHHHHHHHHtinkletinkletinkle
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:35 AM on January 14 [24 favorites]

I don't know. We don't see the actual moment of impact. It is hidden behind that short wall. Fake news.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:46 AM on January 14 [1 favorite]

> but then he hikes up his boxers in the purest moment of SHIT JUST GOT REAL

Yeah, the repeated tactical boxer-hiking is hilarious and not to be missed.

As someone who is, ah, flexible - this is something I've noticed that mostly only guys do.

It's so common you can predict it with high accuracy.

If shit is about to get real or if there's some heavy work to do like, say, unloading truck full of bags of cement or timber or something there will be the requisite 15-30 seconds of all the guys hiking up their pants and tugging on their belts. In the absence of belts and if a guy is, say, wearing bib overalls there will be shoulder strap pulling and/or pants tugging.
posted by loquacious at 11:49 AM on January 14 [7 favorites]

Well if no one else is going to mention it, it seems clear we now have a definitive answer to the age old question: If a meteorite falls on your pavers and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
posted by thecincinnatikid at 12:07 PM on January 14 [4 favorites]

My dog was dealing with some digestive issues last year and one of the small silver linings was getting to see all the neighborhood animals enjoying the food she was too sick to eat after she went back inside. First the crows noticed and their interest drew the interest of a handful of squirrels, and then a raccoon who scared away all other comers. It's actually so fun and pleasant to be able to observe these suburban wildlife dynamics without scaring all the animals.
posted by potrzebie at 12:19 PM on January 14 [5 favorites]

loquacious your comment has suddenly made me wonder if belts are just an objectively terrible method of keeping pants up and my stereotype of suspenders being the domain of older men is not because they are holding on to old fashion but because they have figured this out and do not give a hoot about fashion.

I am questioning my universe now.
posted by Zalzidrax at 12:25 PM on January 14 [8 favorites]

Hey I capture deer, coyotes, cats, rabbits, and the occasional owl or hawk on my security cameras. They're very useful!
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:45 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

We've got a cam solely for the entertainment of watching the menagerie of animals that walk past or investigate the screen/pit of our crawl space.

At least 8 cats, 5 different skunks, at least 2 oppossums, racoons, birds, squirrels and the neighbor's dog does cameos once in a blue moon...
posted by Chuffy at 1:06 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

my stereotype of suspenders being the domain of older men is not because they are holding on to old fashion but because they have figured this out and do not give a hoot about fashion.

I'm in this picture and I don't care.
posted by Mitheral at 1:11 PM on January 14 [6 favorites]

I am 53 and am having buttons for braces sewn into pretty much all my trousers. You need some precise proportions and tailoring for a belt to do the full job without being uncomfortably tight, and sometimes not even then. The big issue is that this is a look that is either very formal or very informal unless you¡¯re wearing a sweater or pullover.
posted by MattD at 2:17 PM on January 14 [2 favorites]

I don't know. We don't see the actual moment of impact. It is hidden behind that short wall. Fake news.

We didn't even see the meteorite, we just saw the photons reflecting off of the meteorite. Pshaw!

guys hiking up their pants and tugging on their belts

Dem loins ain't gonna gird themselves.
posted by The genius who rejected Anno's budget proposal. at 4:04 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

It wasn't until years later and in hindsight that I realized that I may have actually been hit by a bit of meteorite and space debris. I wish I had held on to that rock but at the time I didn't really think much of it except "huh, that was weird." but weird stuff happens in the deep deserts, so *shrug*.

Indeed, it would have been really cool if you could have proven that, because it would have made you only the second person in recorded history(!) documented to have been hit by a meteorite.
posted by fifthrider at 5:13 PM on January 14 [4 favorites]

My brother is the skywatcher of the family and he. Loves. This. Shit.
posted by ginger.beef at 5:32 PM on January 14 [3 favorites]

You can see it in the video... this is a screen grab: https://i.imgur.com/AQh5Ur4.jpeg

It looks like there are 2 meteorites in that grab.
posted by waving at 6:34 PM on January 14

We didn't even see the meteorite, we just saw the photons reflecting off of the meteorite. Pshaw!

We didn't even see photons reflecting off the meteorite, we just saw a pattern of glowing red green and blue dots that attempt to reconstruct what standard human visual systems would perceive as an approximation of an approximation of a visualization of voltage data from a device that purports to translate photon strikes into electric potential using a pattern of red green and blue filters to reject most of the photons.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:19 PM on January 14 [4 favorites]

They guy complaining in the comments that this is likely faked, due to the extremely high price that meteorite fragments will fetch, is funny.

Here is a typical meteorite sales page.

Looks like 7g of chondrite goes for about $10 retail.

So this guy could have netted maybe $50 or $100 with his perfidious lies, looks like.

(That's assuming experts can't tell at a glance real from fake meteorites as well, which they can. So Step 1. Buy sufficient quantity of real meteorite. Step 2. Fabricate a whole story about a meteorite fall at your house, including fake video. Step 3. Sell the meteorite fragments for the same price you bought them for. Step 4. Profit!!!1!!1!11!1)
posted by flug at 7:21 PM on January 14 [4 favorites]

This is so cool!
posted by doctornemo at 8:06 PM on January 14

we just saw a pattern of glowing red green and blue dots that attempt to reconstruct what standard human visual systems would perceive as an approximation of an approximation of a visualization of voltage data from a device that purports to translate photon strikes into electric potential using a pattern of red green and blue filters to reject most of the photons.

You make it sound so sexy!
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:24 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

Indeed, it would have been really cool if you could have proven that, because it would have made you only the second person in recorded history(!) documented to have been hit by a meteorite.

Sure, buuuuuut...

...there wasn't any way to prove or actually document it. I was completely alone and the nearest human was probably at least 5 miles away. Cell phones with video cameras didn't exist yet, and even if they did it's not like I was going to be filming instagram selfie reels of me sitting in the middle of a huge lake bed smoking a doobie.

And then I would either end up being a crank trying to prove it, and even if I did then I'd be famous/infamous for being someone lucky or unlucky enough to have been hit by a rock from space, and it's never been one of my life goals to end up in the Guinness Book of World Records or whatever.

And, well, miss me with that whole media circus, even a small local one. I was living on a then still very illegal cannabis farm and wasn't exactly looking for that kind of attention.

I sure wish I still had that rock, though. It had all the hallmarks of a nickle-iron space rock and had a kind of mottled-smooth look, very dense and metallic feeling. It was also notably cold despite the fact I was in the desert on a scorching 100+ F day.

Which I didn't know at the time was often a hallmark of landfall meteorites when people find them. They don't land scorching hot, but frozen since they've been in deep space for millennia and plasma and ablation carry away all of the heat from re-entry, which is probably why people can find small fragments on top of snow and ice fields.

If the same thing happened today I would have been able to check it with one of the magnets that are on my flashlight, helmet or bike to see if it was ferrous, and maybe even cross-reference the all sky fireball tracking networks we have now to see if there was anything logged that lined up and made sense.

Personally I presume that this kind of thing happens a lot more than we think it does, it's just that most people go "huh, that was weird!" and go on about their day. Or maybe even choose not to think about it too much because they're intentionally avoid weird, unexplainable things out of a sense self preservation for their sanity and personal status quo

That and the estimated 50 tons of daily space debris that makes landfall is just dust.

There's a non-zero chance that everyone here has been "hit" by a meteorite at some point in their lives, it's just that they didn't notice a speck of dust and dirt landing on them.

Also, if you're curious? Leave a dish, bowl or baking sheet outside for a few days during calm, clear weather with some water in it, preferably as far off the ground as you can like on top of a balcony or roof or something and maybe away from overhead trees.

Or just leave out a dish with a strong magnet in it, as birds visiting it for water and bathing may contaminate your experiment, but the water will keep any captured dust/sand from simply blowing away.

If you can pick up any of the dust/sand with a magnet and it is, say, the size of coarse sand too heavy to be lofted in calm air and breezes - there's a pretty good chance that it's space debris.
posted by loquacious at 10:29 AM on January 17 [1 favorite]

The Charlottetown meteorite entry in the Meteoritical Bulletin. The meteorite is an H5 where "H" means high in iron (25-31%) and "5" means the contents have been moderately altered by water (prior to encountering Earth). H5s are always pulling this kind of shit.
posted by neuron at 12:20 PM on January 17 [3 favorites]