A rare double #meteor crater was recently found in #Sweden. Holy balls of fire! - http://clapway.com/2015/09/14/double-meteor-craters-sweden123/

Last week, news about a green and orange “fireball” in Thailand made headlines and spread rapidly across social media. The topic seems to be rather popular, not only in Thailand, but also around the world. Just recently, for instance, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden uncovered evidence of twin meteors, both of which hit Earth at roughly the same time, about 458 million years ago.

DOUBLE METEOR IS A RARE OCCASION

According to Live Science, the “fireball” (or meteor) craters were found in central Sweden, in the county of Jämtland. Erik Sturkell, a geophysics professor at the University, stated that the meteors that formed the impacts coincidentally crashed into Earth just a few miles apart from each other at the same moment. The larger crater, located 20 kilometers south of Östersund in Brunsflo, has a diameter of 7.5 kilometers, while the smaller crater, just 16 kilometers away, has a diameter of 700 meters.

“Around 470 million years ago, two large asteroids collided in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and many fragments were thrown off in new orbits. Many of these crashed on Earth, such as these two in Jämtland,” says Erik Sturkell.

The scientists were able to determine this by analyzing the geological sequences, or layers of rock, found inside each crater; the sequences were identical and the accumulated sediment inside the craters were also found to date back to the same time.

During this period, Jämtland was still under the sea. Thus, when the meteors struck, water was force away from the site of impact, giving way to two completely dry pits.

“The water then rushed back in, bringing with it fragments from the meteorites mixed with material that had been ejected during the explosion and with the gigantic wave that tore away parts of the sea bed,” says Erik Sturkell.

SWEDEN AND ITS METEOR HISORY

In the past, scientists have also found evidence of meteor impacts in what is now Sweden. During the 1940s, quarry workers came across a red meteorite, made out of limestone, on Kinnekulle hill, located in the county of Västergötland. Since then, roughly 90 or so meteorites have been uncovered in the same area just in the past 15 years.

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WHERE DO METEORS COME FROM? FROM SPACE!

 

Rare Double Meteor Craters Uncovered in Sweden

Opportunity Rover"s Mars Marathon Complete! - http://clapway.com/2015/07/08/opportunitys-mars-marathon-complete987/

Although one wouldn’t imagine a group of scientists specialized in interplanetary probe adventures to be of the jogging sort, NASA’s Opportunity, a probe with wheels exploring Mars for the past eleven years, has just completed a 26.2-mile marathon. This may seem slow to us bipeds, but the Opportunity rover snapped enough pictures for NASA to compose an eight-minute video, which brings us a lovely synopsis of the rover’s run.

THE MARS MARATHON WAS RECORDED

The Opportunity rover began its marathon in January of 2004, finishing this past April. It was by no means a walk in the park, however, as one can surmise from the constant crackling soundtrack, generated by the rover’s accelerometer as vibrations were tracked. Both Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, were expected to run for only 90 days, but, per de rigueur of NASA ingenuity, they both continued to extend their exploratory missions, dauntlessly weathering the worst of Mars’ dust storms, frigid temperatures and other environmental hazards.

CASUALTIES OF MARS

Spirit died in 2009, but Opportunity kept trekking for an additional six years, carrying on the baton of scientific exploration. Opportunity is actually still running, though, exceeding Earthlings’ expectations by 45 times its original life-expectancy.

OPPORTUNITY rover’S GREAT FINDINGS

In its eleven-year tour, the Opportunity rover discovered many indications of the former presence of water on Mars, and even hinted at the possibility that Mars may still be sustaining life. Spirit’s journey ended rather anticlimactically as it fell into a sand trap, but Opportunity carried on despite a bad case of gimpy shoulder and damaged wheel. Tack on top of these physical issues its memory problems: the Opportunity rover no longer uses flash memory, which refused to self-repair despite several earlier attempts. What this has meant is that Opportunity has to relay its data and findings to NASA on Earth every single day or risk losing its data to the dusty horizon. Think Groundhog Day with amnesia.

Opportunity rover project manager John Callas explained that “[f]lash memory is a convenience but not a necessity for the rover…It’s like a refrigerator that way. Without it, you couldn’t save any leftovers. Any food you prepare that day you would have to either eat or throw out. Without using flash memory, Opportunity needs to send home the high-priority data the same day it collects it, and lose any lower-priority data that can’t fit into the transmission.”

So, despite recent space blunders like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket mishap, it should be noted that, even when some things go very wrong, when it comes to space exploration, if things go a little right, they go extraordinarily well. Three cheers for Opportunity!

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Opportunity Rover"s Mars Marathon Complete!