New Zealand has a cosmic mystery

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


A small metal object crashed through the roof of a house and slammed into the floor in northern New Zealand, and officials said Thursday its origin was a mystery. A police officer initially speculated that it fell from a small plane passing over the small town of Whakatu on the country's North Island on Wednesday, but aviation officials later said it may have been shot from spinning farm machinery. No one was injured, and authorities did not identify the resident whose home was struck. "It looks like it's probably a brake lining or brake shoe from a small plane," Snr. Sgt. Ross Smith said after checking the house. Aviation authorities later tracked down a pilot whose aircraft they thought might be responsible and found nothing missing from the plane when checked at a nearby airport, Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Bill Sommer said.

A "very experienced" aeronautical engineer studied the object and decided it was not part of an airplane, Sommer told The Associated Press. He also said it didn't seem like space junk. The object was about 11 centimeters (4.4 inches) long, 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) wide, weighed about one kilogram (2.2 pounds) and carried no standard airplane part number, he said. It looked like cast iron and had a shiny, curved surface on top, he said. "We don't know what it's from," Sommer said. "So it's a bit mysterious." "Far be it for us to speculate ... but it may have come off some agricultural equipment that was spinning at pretty high speed and a piece shot off it," Sommer said. The small Whakatu settlement is surrounded by farmland. Constable Ben Howat said police were investigating the object and where it came from.)
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it crashed through the roof, as small as it was?

[nykym]

1. The Truth

is out there!

[sakabatou]

2. With enough velocity and mass

A small object can be very damaging.

[Warpy]

4. Right, but it doesn't seem likely

to have been spun off at ground level. Simple terminal velocity wouldn't have been enough to get it through the roof, although it probably would have caused damage to the roof.

[sakabatou]

5. Well, after some scientific tests

I'm sure we'll have an answer

[gilpo]

9. Terminal velocity is a factor of the drag coefficient of the object

which is unknowable from the description. It could conceivably have a terminal velocity in the 200 mph range, which at 2.2 lbs would punch through most roofs.

[salvorhardin]

3. F= m * a

Force is equal to mass times acceleration. Even a 2.2 pound object falling from a few tens of feet can do a lot of damage.

[Orrex]

6. Spare us your hocus-pocus

If there's not a paranormal answer, then there's no answer at all!

:tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat::tinfoilhat:

[gilpo]

11. p=mv

[ProfessorGAC]

16. That's pq=mv

An economic tautology.
The Professor

[liberaldem4ever]

7. Interesting...Thanks for posting

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Bumper jack from Elvis' space limo?

[bushmeister0]

10. Could it be from the the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

in Picatinny, NJ, where the errant artillary shell killed a cat the other day? I hear they deal in experimental ordinance.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/12/artillery.cat.ap/index.html

God knows what they're cookng up over there.

[SidDithers]

12. Could be...

but it would be a helluva shot to go from New Jersey to New Zealand.

Sid

[bushmeister0]

13. They were aiming at Tehran!

[Uncle Joe]

14. I wonder if they build trebuchets down there?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7405218&mesg_id=7405245

[L. Coyote]

15. Recently, a missle blew up a satellite. That would have sent debris flying in space, perhaps,

and a piece fell??

I saw a piece of space debris burn in in the last year, and suspect it is becoming more common.

[CreekDog]

17. there's a simple explanation

it's part of the fabmodulator of a spaceship. :think: