Travelers in the Night Eps. 331E & 332E: Asteroid Defense & Another Close One

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an
observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired
from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006.
travelersinthenight.org


From April 2025.


Today's 2 topics:


- In 2013 a 56 foot diameter space rock exploded over
Chelyabinsk, Russia releasing the energy of 450 kilotons of TNT
and filled local hospitals with some of the 1,500 people who were
injured. Fortunately no one died. In 1908 a 200 ft diameter
meteor exploded over a largely unpopulated region at Tunguska,
Siberia knocking down trees over a 750 square mile area. If it
had hit over a populated area it could have caused a million
casualties. 


 


- Asteroid hunters have become aware of the many small space
rocks which come near Earth because of improvements made to
telescopes, cameras, and computer analysis software. Recently, my
Catalina Sky Survey teammate Rose Matheny used her skills and a
new camera to discover the second small space rock in 32 days
which came between the communications satellites and the Earth's
surface. 


 


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