Did You Miss It? Meteorite Hits Norway

How could we have missed this? A meteorite hit Norway last Wednesday. According to this Norwegian news report, it had the force of an atomic bomb. A discussion has ensued in The Volokh Conspiracy blog as to what exactly this type of impact could mean. Yesterday a clarification in the newspaper was made, explaining that the force of the impact was exaggerated; however:

The original reactions to the witness reports of the meteor, also reported on forskning.no, are attributed to popular astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, and were slightly guarded and very excited. Røed Ødegaard wrote the original report about the meteorite on the Institute’s web site.

“We cannot be completely sure, but the light and sound phenomena were exceptional. It indicates that there has been a great deal of energy involved,” Røed Ødegaard said then.

Seismic research center NORSAR registered powerful sound phenomena at their Karasjok measuring station, as well as seismic disturbances.

“We have run out of words for how exciting this is,” Røed Ødegaard said at the time.

“There is midnight sun in the area and objects in the sky must therefore shine very strongly to be visible at all. The object is descried as a reddish ball of fire and lit up like a powerful flash. The brightness must have been exceptional,” Røed Ødegaard said.

This website about the Leonid meteor storms from NASA has a lot of good related information, but is alas updated only to about 2004.

Pulling this back to the realm of law, if someone finds a meteor rock on the ground, who has ownership of it? Inquiring mimes want to know…