Wayward Meteorite Defies Laws of Solar System

Skies Light Up Over Western Australia

Source:  NASA Glazing Fireball

Streak of Light the Width of Texas 

The celestial event, called a Grazing

Fireball, happened over Western Australia.

The meteorite that blazed over the night

skies took a highly unusual path.  For a minute

and a half it burned, carving an arc of

blazing light as wide as the state of 

Texas, then it faded away and took back

off into space.  It's being called the

meteorite that ignored the one way signs

of our Solar system.

On to Jupiter

What's incredible is this meteorite didn't

disintegrate in our atmosphere or crash

to Earth.  After the light display faded, it

took off back into space.  According to

Australian astronomers and scientists, who

have just released their findings on the

event, that happened in July 2017, the wrong 

way meteorite is headed to Jupiter

They say, the likely arrival date is 2025.

Blazing Speed

This is an extremely unusual celestial 

event.  And, it's an extremely rare

meteorite that grazes into the Earth's

atmosphere at a very low angle.  It

skipped across the skies like a skipping

stone on a pond.  The Australian team

estimates that the meteorite weighs

130 pounds, is a foot across and moves

at a blazing speed of 10 miles per second. 

They believe it originated in the asteroid

belt between Jupiter and Mars.

Ignoring the One Way Signs of Space

Grazing fireball events are extremely

rare.  In 1783, historical records tell us that 

that the Great Meteor streaked

across the skies of England and Europe

and streaked back to space.

There was a similar meteorite,

the "Great Comet", that blazed across 

the skies of the northeast US in 1860. 

And one was spotted in 1972.

Interstellar Space

When the Australian meteorite reaches

Jupiter in 2025, it will have to grapple with

Jupiter's gravity.  Then it is likely to be

tossed into interstellar space.  Astronomers

are not speculating on the next leg of

its quixotic journey.  This is the first

grazing fireball that's been studied by

scientists.  And, it's also the one that

spent the longest amount of time in the

Earth's atmosphere, as far as scientists

know.

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