February 18, 2004

It's raining Bowling Balls (14-pound, red-swirl)

All in the name of science - WPVI Philadelphia reports that amateur astronomers wanting to study meteorite craters have: bq. Last Friday they tossed a bowling ball out of an airplane over the Utah desert. No danger of a gutter ball here. bq. But there's more to their airborne tenpins than strikes and spares. bq. Patrick Wiggins says the idea was to simulate meteorite craters. bq. They used a 14-pound, red-swirl bowling ball, which was dropped from a rented Cessna at more than 800 feet. bq. Wiggins says they're not done with the bowling bombing yet. They're going to try varying heights and different objects. bq. Next time they may try some iron slag or rocks, which are more like meteorites than a bowling ball. Heh... Posted by DaveH at February 18, 2004 4:57 PM
Comments

But if we attract hippies to the drop site, maybe we can thin the herd as a collateral benefit...

Posted by: DaveH at February 18, 2004 9:48 PM

Couldn't they just use a reproduction Civil War mortar? How about dropping a toilet, just to see what happens? Aren't the craters just going to convince hippies that the drop zone is a UFO landing site?

Posted by: George Turner at February 18, 2004 5:37 PM