Did you know an asteroid exploded over Indonesia with a 50 kiloton force 2 weeks ago? Me neither.

[charlie]

On October 8, 2009 about 03:00 Greenwich time, an atmospheric fireball blast was observed and recorded over an island region of Indonesia. The blast is thought to be due to the atmospheric entry of a small asteroid about 10 meters in diameter that, due to atmospheric pressure, detonated in the atmosphere with an energy of about 50 kilotons (the equivalent of 50,000 pounds of TNT explosives).
...

Assuming an estimated size of about 5-10 meters in diameter, we would expect a fireball event of this magnitude about once every 2 to 12 years on average. As a rule, the most common types of stony asteroids would not be expected to cause ground damage unless their diameters were about 25 meters in diameter or larger.

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news165.html

Local news report has video of the aftermath, with smoke trails and schoolkids freaking out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeQBzTkJNhs

[Lasher]

1. No, I did not know that.

But ask me anything about Baloon Boy.

Thanks for sharing.

[Forkboy]

2. For comparisson, Hiroshima was around 15kt, I believe.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. But that was at ground level.

Enormous rocks burning up high up in the atmosphere is a fairly regular occurence, I believe, although on this scale it's rarer.

[Forkboy]

12. Yep.

Didn't mean an exact comparison, just a loose handle on the power involved. :)

[ensho]

3. me either - thanks for the info - what a blast!

nt

[jwirr]

4. The poor people of Indonesia must be terrified what with that and

the really big earthquakes they have had lately and the live volcanoes acting up.

[SIMPLYB1980]

5. And people laugh when I tell them space is trying to kill us.

I say we need to prepare for retaliation. Space is asking for it.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

7. It's just retaliating for NASA's unprovoked bombing of the moon. N.T.

[SIMPLYB1980]

11. Which was retaliation for the moon hitting the Earth first. nt

[no limit]

15. Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity. I say we talk with space

not bomb it.

[The Straight Story]

8. We need to send in our military to save them from the asteroid overlords

:evilgrin:

[neverforget]

13. We need to deploy this to stop the incoming asteroids

[pansypoo53219]

9. butbutbut

here was just a fireball over germany.

[slackmaster]

10. This happened on our watch

:-(

[flyarm]

14. opps..the boy/ ballon hoax was much more important don'tcha know!! eom

[JVS]

16. The moon is angry and it's sending its friends to get us!