NASA Detects Giant Meteor Explosion Over Bering Sea - Geek

NASA recently detected a massive fireball explosion over the Bering Sea and it’s the second largest of its kind in 30 years.

The blast, which occurred when a huge space rock exploded in our planet’s atmosphere, initially happened in December, BBC News reported. However, the blast remained largely unnoticed, because it took place off the coast of Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

Some color views of the #meteor that flew over the North Pacific in December 2018, taken by Japan’s #Himawari satellite.
The meteor is really clear here – bright orange fireball against the blue + white background!

Background: https://t.co/r403SQxicZ pic.twitter.com/ctNN8zxsXb

— Simon Proud (@simon_sat) March 18, 2019

This fireball explosion wasn’t a small incident though: Lindley Johnson, NASA’s planetary defense officer, told BBC News that a, “fireball this big is only expected about two or three times every 100 years.”

On Dec. 18, the fireball traveled through Earth’s atmosphere at 32 kilometers per second. The space rock, which blew up 15.91 miles above our planet’s surface, had an impact energy of 173 kilotons, which could give other atomic bombs a run for their money. Military satellites detected the massive blast, and then the U.S. Air Force notified NASA about it.

“That was 40 percent the energy release of Chelyabinsk [a fireball that blew up over Russia in 2013], but it was over the Bering Sea, so it didn’t have the same type of effect or show up in the news,” Kelly Fast, NASA’s near-Earth objects observations program manager told BBC News. “That’s another thing we have in our defense, there’s plenty of water on the planet.”

Even though this fireball explosion remained under the radar, Dr. Johnson told BBC News that the large space rock was close to an area near routes used by commercial flights. NASA researchers have also contacted airlines to see if they’ve spotted the giant blast.

NASA’s Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam), which can help locate potentially hazardous asteroids. (Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Teledyne)

NASA is also working with the U.S. government to monitor these type of space rock explosions: In 2005, Congress requested that NASA find 90 percent of near-Earth asteroids that are 140 meters or larger in size by next year. These types of blasts are dubbed “problems without passports” because they might impact entire regions if they come into contact with Earth’s atmosphere.

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