An international network of sensors designed to detect illicit nuclear blasts has been used to study the fiery break-up of a large meteoroid over Indonesia in October 2009.
Every decade or so, a meteoroid a few metres in diameter explodes in Earth's atmosphere with a force equivalent to that of a mid-sized nuclear weapon. Elizabeth Silber at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, and her group analysed low-frequency sound-wave data from 17 sensors maintained by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. The team found that the explosion was probably equivalent to between 8 and 67 kilotonnes of the explosive chemical TNT.
They conclude that the network could be used to study future meteoroid strikes, improving our understanding of near-Earth objects.
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Nuclear network detects fireball. Nature 475, 9 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/475009b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/475009b
