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Concept
Meteor air burst
Summary
A meteor air burst is a type of air burst in which a meteor explodes after entering a planetary body's atmosphere. This fate leads them to be called fireballs or bolides, with the brightest air bursts known as superbolides. Such meteoroids were originally asteroids and comets of a few to several tens of meters in diameter. This separates them from the much smaller and far more common "shooting stars", that usually burn up quickly upon atmospheric entry.
The most powerful meteor air burst in the modern era was the 1908 Tunguska event. During this event a stony meteoroid about in size exploded at an altitude of over a sparsely populated forest in Siberia. The resulting shock wave flattened an estimated 80 million trees over a area.
Extremely bright fireballs traveling across the sky are often witnessed from a distance, such as the 1947 Sikhote-Alin meteor and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, both over Russia. If the bolide is large enough fragments may survive, as from both such meteorites. Modern developments in infrasound detection by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization and infrared Defense Support Program satellite technology have increased the likelihood of detecting airbursts.
Meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere from outer space traveling at speeds of at least and often much faster. Despite moving through the rarified upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere the immense speed at which a meteor travels rapidly compresses the air in its path. The meteoroid then experiences what is known as ram pressure. As the air in front of the meteoroid is compressed its temperature quickly rises. This is not due to friction, rather it is an adiabatic process, a consequence of many molecules and atoms being forced to occupy a smaller space. Ram pressure and the very high temperatures it causes are the reasons few meteors make it all the way to the ground. Most simply burn up or are ablated into tiny fragments. Larger or more solid meteorites may explode instead.
The use of the term explosion is somewhat loose in this context, and can be confusing.
Official source
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