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On Mon, 28 Feb 2000, brian wrote:
> Question? Can a meteorite burning up in the atmosphere or exploding
> cause a power loss (1 second)enough to make your reset your digital
> clocks...
I heard about the fireball you are describing the day after it happened.
A story appeared on the CNN website, but it was buried in the science
news. The story you saw was probably the latest news, in which pieces of
the meteorite were recovered. Bright meteors that result in meteorites are
not uncommon, just most of them occur over parts of the Earth that are
unpopulated, such as the ocean.
I do not know if it is possible for a large meteor to cause a
fluctuation in electrical grids. I do know that activity on the sun is
known to cause such fluctuations, and so it would not surprise me if a
meteor could do the same. Any explosion in the atmosphere tends to create
various electromagnetic pulses, and these pulses could, perhaps, interrupt
a power grid or cause fluctuations. (It could also be that somebody was
out driving their car, was distracted by the fireball, and ran into a
utility pole.)
So, in short, I cannot confirm that the fireball caused the power
fluctuations, but it would not surprise me if it did.
Thanks for asking!
Sincerely,
Kurtis Williams
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