AMERICAN NOTES: Running Out of Worries?

On Aug. 10, 1972, a meteor streaked northward across the U.S. sky. From the ground, it was first observed south of Salt Lake City, and observers watched it pass over Idaho and Montana before disappearing north of Calgary, Canada. Not until last week, however, was it revealed that the 1,000-ton meteor was also seen from above, by a U.S. Air Force satellite. It was these observations that told scientists how chilling a phenomenon the meteor actually was.

At 13 ft. across it was an extraordinarily large meteor; its maximum brightness near the middle of its course through the sky exceeded that of the moon. But most startling of all, it came within 36 miles of the earth’s surface, traveling at 33,000 m.p.h. before soaring off into space. Had it hit, says one expert, the impact would have rivaled the blast of the atomic bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.