The SA Tesla meteor event

Looking back through my meteor data, this event really does seem like what it is — a meteor strike. But it’s not actually a rock, at least not in the usual sense. Sometimes these things dissolve before they even reach the ground, sometimes hundreds of meters up. What happens next is a mix of particles, gas, and heat that keeps moving forward at an incredible speed.

It’s kind of like a pillow slamming into a windscreen at 500 km/h — super directional and unbelievably forceful. This sort of thing happens more often than you’d think, and not every meteor creates a sonic boom. It all depends on things like speed, what it’s made of, and the atmosphere at the time. I call these “close-proximity impacts” because it’s not really the rock itself that hits — it’s a soup of energy and powdered debris that comes with it.

I’m really curious to see what the scientists find out about this one.