Incoming!!

[Mojocvh]

http://norskmeteornettverk.no/wordpress/?p=1399

"Today the Norwegian broadcasting corporation NRK will air the popular science programme Schrödingers katt which features the incredible story of the skydiver Anders Helstrup. In a jump above Østre Æra airstrip near Rena in Norway on 17th June 2012 the totally improbable happens: Just after he deploys his parachute about 1000 metres above ground level a dark rock from above zips past him. His two action cameras document the incident. How can a rock suddenly appear this far above the ground? There is nobody above him, neither an airplane nor other jumpers. No other possible explanations seem to remain but the improbable: a meteorite just fell a few metres away."

01:52... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfEdEIwhj6s#t=115

Now do the noggies do April the first??

[AA999]

It seems the frame rate of the camera picked up about 5 shots of the falling rock between entering and leaving the angle of view.
To me that seems way too slow for something falling from above the atmosphere that would most likely have entered the atmosphere at many km per second.

I would hazard a guess it was maybe picked up from the ground within the undercarriage of the plane that carried the jumpers, or even from another passing aircraft above them.

But obviously it doesn't rule out the possibility that it is a meteorite.

[MartG]

My first thought when I saw it was it was something that had been caught up in his 'chute when it was packed and fell out when it opened.

I don't know what the terminal velocity of a falling rock is at that altitude compared to the observed speed of that object - I guess someone will be along shortly with that information......

[Simpo Two]

AA999 said:

To me that seems way too slow for something falling from above the atmosphere that would most likely have entered the atmosphere at many km per second.

But there is also a thing called terminal velocity. I'd vote meteorite.

[Revisitph]

I'd not appreciated that meteorites have a "dark flight" stage. Presumably only those which are too big to burn up but too small to continue travelling at "white-hot" speed and so, like the shuttle they cool down sufficiently so that they don't glow in the lower part of the atmosphere. Still wouldn't care to catch it or pick it up when it had just landed. One other explanation - the gulls in our area have a mania for dropping stones on glass roofs (public buildings and conservatories) but I doubt that they'd do it from 1500m!

ETA - I note it was posted on Youtube on 3rd April. When was it broadcast? Not between 00.00 and 12.00hrs on the 1st perchance?

[Mojocvh]

When someone first calls that authorities about finding a meteorite the first question they ask is "is it hot?"

Yes, goodbye

No...hmm interesting..