Space
Norwegian Skydiver Nearly Hit Mid-Air by a Meteorite Hurtling toward Earth [VIDEO]
Benita Matilda
First Posted: Apr 04, 2014 08:08 AM EDT
A Norwegian skydiver narrowly missed being hit by a space rock hurtling toward Earth and captured the event on his helmet camera, the first ever incredible footage of a meteorite travelling through air.
The skydiver, Anders Helstrup, reported to Norway's state TV Channel that the footage of the space rock that appeared moments after he opened the parachute was captured in 2012. It is after a couple of years that he realized the falling object was a meteor and not an object that had come from his skydiving partner's parachute.
"I got the feeling that there was something, but I didn't register what was happening," Helstrup of the Oslo Parachute Club told Norwegian TV channel NRK.no. "When we stopped the film, we could clearly see something that looked like a stone. At first it crossed my mind that it had been packed into a parachute, but it's simply too big for that."
The footage was examined by meteor experts and geologists who further confirmed that the falling object was indeed a meteor.
"It can't be anything else," geologist Hans Amundsen told the channel after examining the video. "The shape is typical of meteorites -- a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded."
The meteorite was in its dark flight, when the flames from the meteorite cease and it hurtles straight to Earth.
According to the geologists, the meteoroid had exploded nearly 20 kilometers above Helstrup and his other skydiving partners.
Amundsen said that if the skydiver had jumped a fraction of a second later he would have been hit by the meteorite and cut into half by the impact. Ever since the incident took place, Helstrup along with a few meteor enthusiasts began hunting for the space rock near the jump location. From one and a half square kilometers of scouring, the group is now focusing on an area that measures just 10,000 meters.
During the search, they came across a stone with colored patches and resembled breccias, a common type of meteorite rock. But the Natural History Museum in Oslo dismissed their find.
The hunt is still on, but it is extremely challenging as the land is covered with thick forest, scrub and marshes.
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NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
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First Posted: Apr 04, 2014 08:08 AM EDT
A Norwegian skydiver narrowly missed being hit by a space rock hurtling toward Earth and captured the event on his helmet camera, the first ever incredible footage of a meteorite travelling through air.
The skydiver, Anders Helstrup, reported to Norway's state TV Channel that the footage of the space rock that appeared moments after he opened the parachute was captured in 2012. It is after a couple of years that he realized the falling object was a meteor and not an object that had come from his skydiving partner's parachute.
"I got the feeling that there was something, but I didn't register what was happening," Helstrup of the Oslo Parachute Club told Norwegian TV channel NRK.no. "When we stopped the film, we could clearly see something that looked like a stone. At first it crossed my mind that it had been packed into a parachute, but it's simply too big for that."
The footage was examined by meteor experts and geologists who further confirmed that the falling object was indeed a meteor.
"It can't be anything else," geologist Hans Amundsen told the channel after examining the video. "The shape is typical of meteorites -- a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded."
The meteorite was in its dark flight, when the flames from the meteorite cease and it hurtles straight to Earth.
According to the geologists, the meteoroid had exploded nearly 20 kilometers above Helstrup and his other skydiving partners.
Amundsen said that if the skydiver had jumped a fraction of a second later he would have been hit by the meteorite and cut into half by the impact. Ever since the incident took place, Helstrup along with a few meteor enthusiasts began hunting for the space rock near the jump location. From one and a half square kilometers of scouring, the group is now focusing on an area that measures just 10,000 meters.
During the search, they came across a stone with colored patches and resembled breccias, a common type of meteorite rock. But the Natural History Museum in Oslo dismissed their find.
The hunt is still on, but it is extremely challenging as the land is covered with thick forest, scrub and marshes.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone