A Georgia Tech researcher has modified the signals of the Russian Meteor to make them audible to people so that they can hear what these meteors sounded like.
The meteor shower blast that took place above the central Russian city of Chelyabinsk was so powerful that it injured more than 1,500 people and damaged many properties. A Georgia Tech researcher has modified the signals of the Russian Meteor to make them audible for people to hear what these meteors sounded like when they blasted through the Russian sky.
So how powerful exactly was it meteor? According to a study published by GA Tech, the meteor was so powerful that its explosive entry into the Earth's atmosphere was detected almost 6,000 miles away in Lilburn, Ga., by infrasound sensors.
Lilburn is home to one of the 400 seismic/infrasound stations dotting the eastern U.S. that record seismic waves from earthquakes but are also capable of recording sound waves.
"The sound started at about 10 hours after the explosion and lasted for another 10 hours in Georgia," said Peng, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "They are like tsunami waves induced by large earthquakes. Their traveling speeds are similar, but the infrasound propagates in the atmosphere rather than in deep oceans."
Reportedly the meteor was traveling at a speed of 40,000 miles an hour and weighed more than 7,000 tons. Its energy is estimated to be as much as 30 nuclear bombs.
"The initial sound of the nuclear explosion is much stronger, likely due to the efficient generation of compressional wave (P wave) for an explosive source," Peng said. "In comparison, the earthquake generated stronger shear waves that arrived later than its P wave."
