Forces behind Bolides: Natures Ramjets. Extract from upcoming report on Bolides and Whale Strandings.

Forces behind Bolides: Natures Ramjets

A simple overview: Asteroids are large objects found throughout the solar system. They are enormous, with some reaching hundreds of kilometres in diameter. Occasionally, these asteroids break apart, giving rise to smaller meteoroids that enter Earth's atmosphere. These meteoroids come in various sizes and shapes. Their chemical makeup can vary, but typically consists of two main components: Iron/Nickel and Stony Irons, for simplicity's sake. Bolides can approach from almost any angle, with speeds varying significantly. However, a common scenario involves a meteoroid entering Earth's atmosphere at a 45-degree angle. Some meteoroids bounce off the atmosphere and reenter space, disappearing forever. There was a case where scientists believed a procession of bolides encircled the Earth at varying altitudes. I refer to these long-lasting airborne bolides as "Nature's Ramjets." Others get destroyed upon entry, while some descend like slabs (as I term them). You can find these events and historical incidents on my Twitter account.

Some meteors streak in rapidly and are deemed noteworthy events. The distinction between a meteoroid shower and a meteor shower is a technically misunderstood and underrepresented field in earth science. Meteor showers, like the well-known Perseids, are caused by comets. These showers consist mainly of benign dust particles and pea-sized objects, occasionally including larger ones. On the other hand, meteoroid showers are unpredictable and can occur at any time. Their origin lies in the asteroid belt, where they typically reside until external forces act upon them. Jupiter's gravity and other planets play a role, as do internal collisions. Another factor, not yet discussed, is the perturbation caused by passing comets. In simple terms, this perturbation refers to a deviation in the path of an asteroid belt object due to the gravitational influence exerted by a passing comet. This influence propels or redirects the object from its usual trajectory, causing it to deviate from its inert path.

Comets literally drag these objects out of the asteroid belt, creating closely linked showers that have been somewhat obscured in modern history. As you will observe from events over the last 180 years, this historical oversight of bolides can be attributed to global events such as both world wars, extended intervals between events, event isolation, and the decline of natural warning systems, including stranded whales themselves. The final point is that if commercial whaling had not been prevalent for a significant portion of the past 180 years, humans might have recognized sooner the correlation between these events. Due to the low whale population, people failed to see the connection between bolides and whale strandings. Had whale numbers been unaffected, it's likely someone would have made the connection much earlier. During the peak of bolide activity in the last century, if whale numbers matched today's population density, thousands of individual whales would have died each year. The lack of numbers prevented anyone from identifying this natural process; however, it would have been apparent that something from above was causing these strandings.

At the end of the 1950s, super bolide activity declined in Australia and New Zealand. It remained quiet until 2015 when, in my opinion, the super bolide season recommenced. The duration of this resurgence is unknown. With the comets well on their way, we are poised for an eventful era.

I have observed that these meteoroid streams often provide warnings. The "rubble," so to speak, can extend for millions of kilometres. It is not uncommon for electrical interference to manifest days before a main body meteoroid appears as a violent super bolide. Occasionally, rocks simply plummet from the sky at terminal velocity. These streams can also fuel electrical storms that give rise to intense atmospheric reactions. This occurs when iron and other elements mix with water vapour and atmospheric gases. The result can be volatile components and the formation of fireballs—intense plasma clouds that are highly hazardous but generally benign. Interestingly, it has been noted that rain sometimes falls on clear nights after a bolide sighting. This is due to the introduction of fine particles into the upper atmosphere. Water vapour is consistently present in the upper atmosphere, whether the skies are clear or not. At any given time, there is as much water vapour above the Sahara as there is over England.

To put it simply, bolides can be thought of as nature's atomic bombs, though with unparalleled forces. Many bolides surpass the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Some go undetected due to their slow breakup during entry into the atmosphere. The Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to 15 kilotons of TNT. In 2013, the Chelyabinsk super bolide event exceeded 440 kilotons of TNT. Such events were commonplace before 1960, during the peak of the bolide season. To give you an idea of meteor speed. If a meteor travelling at 30 km a second passed over the North Coast of New South Wales, it would take 1 (One) minute to reach New Zealand's North Island. The world record observation of meteor speed was over 70 km a second. Secondly, the power of a meteor is simply immense. An object weighing just a kilo impacting the sea at 48 km a second is like dropping 75 fully loaded train carriages full of rock into the water at terminal velocity. That's a kilo; imagine something in the tons? Or you have a sonic boom, which has been known to cause terrible effects in humans, let alone whales and other fish species in the medium of water.

When I talk about a bolide going “slow,” I mean 10 to 15, even 20 kilometres per second. For reference of how fast that still is, here is a link to something going a mere 2.8 km a second. To me, that's standing still. But just imagine if it weighed 10 tons hitting the water or blowing up above the water.

https://youtu.be/3qeoH_8jQ5E?si=ulzl1BVWzNqw2uTv

This is when sonic booms turn into violence that is truly terrifying. A witness once described a bolide turning inside out, and that's a fair and apt description. They literally explode like popcorn, and when they do, the percussion, the detonation of a solid iron/nickel meteor, is a force that is unmatched in nature. The sonic boom literally folds over the meteoroid, causing a reaction like a whip cracking.

It is true that speed is our friend. The faster a bolide comes in, the more likely it will destroy itself when impacting Earth's atmosphere. The problem arises when they enter at slower speeds. A rock weighing tons can survive; they do survive often, and when they do, it's devastating to the sea community. When discussing meteoroids and what people see, it's important to add, and I will repeat this many times, that we live on a tiny strip of coastal land. The population of Australia is found in a line of sky sight maybe 500 km wide. That leaves an immense amount of land unmonitored, so what is happening outside this realm when the land/sea ratio is 1:2.

In conclusion, here is a final representation of these phenomena. When a bolide does cut a path through the atmosphere, it is essentially creating a particle accelerator that creates fireballs. These fireballs are a conundrum that has baffled scientists for decades. Because of their complexity, I will not go into what they are at this time. However, fireballs in their own right can be dangerous and sometimes benign. Simply put, it's an object called plasma mixed with elements from the meteoroid itself; a highly intense supercharged object, complex and not to be discounted in bolide activity. Fireballs are misunderstood and further represent what will be a magical show as the bolide season unfolds. It must be said that explosive bolides do seed the ocean with elements, so the question should also be asked: Do these clouds sometimes bring something less than healthy with them? Further research is needed on this topic.