Meteor Strike Over Scotland

Image via Wikipedia

Every day, if you watch the Discovery channel, you’ll be told how close to death we constantly are.   What with aeroplanes falling out of the sky,  super volcanoes about to erupt, mass murderers behind every lamppost, how do we survive.   Thing is, we do, and we have survived this stuff throughout history (well, the planes falling out the sky is a bit newer, I’ll grant you that).

Just to let you know nothing is new, I came across a report in the Scotsman Newspaper Archives.   The article is dated 22nd May 1819, and tells of a singular event witnessed near Aberdeen, Scotland, on the 5th of May of that year.

At 12.30 in the afternoon, a ball of fire with a short tail was seen clearly in the sky.   Spectators from all over the country followed the progress of this object easily, even in the bright sunshine of that day.   The meteor was tracked for five minutes on it’s rapid downward journey, over the Aberdeen area, until it exploded with a loud bang.   This explosion was loud enough to scare the cattle in field’s within the Parishes of Kintore and Fintry, among others.

After this mid air explosion, all that was left of the meteor was a small white cloud.   That, and bellowing cattle.  It must have been some spectacle, what with the clear blue sky, empty, apart from one small cloud.

What if this meteor had been larger, what damage would it have caused.   An explosion in the air of a larger object would have devastated the north of Scotland, and such explosions are known to have happened in the past.   In fact, 89 years later, a fragment of Encke’s comet is said to have caused the devastation at Tunguska, in Siberia, Russia.   This event in June 1908, devastated an area roughly 2,150 square kilometers, knocking over an estimated 80 million trees.   Fortunately, this forested area was uninhabited, but cosmically, it was pretty bloomin’ close.

In conclusion, just remember, it’s already happened, it’s nearly happened, it’s going to happen.    What’s the point of worrying about something you cannot control.  

If it’s a near miss, just enjoy the view, but if it’s a direct hit, we wont be in a position to worry, will we.

(author wanders off, stage left, singing “We’ll all go together when we go”.)