Queensland meteor confirmed by satellite data as largest over Australia in 30 years

[psyche101]

The fireball lit up the sky between Mackay and the Gulf of Carpentaria on May 20.

The event was picked up by US government Sensors with data published to the NASA website on Monday.

When it exploded, the meteor had an altitude of 29 kilometres over Blackbull, a small rural locality between the Gulf communities of Normanton and Croydon, in north-west Queensland.

The data revealed the meteor was travelling at a velocity of almost 28 kilometres per second.

The force of the blast was equivalent to exploding 7.2 kilotons of TNT.

From this, scientists have calculated the incoming space rock would have had a diameter of 3.5 metres — roughly the size of a caravan — and weighed about 80,000 kilograms.

 

 

 

Lots of people hunting the crash site now. I suspect it will be found soon.