How much energy comes from a meteor impact?
Large meteor impacts like the one in Arizona, or the one that formed the Panther Mountain feature, release more energy than an atomic bomb! The energy comes from the motion of the object, and can be figured out with a little math: Multiply the weight (actually, the mass) of the object by the speed squared (that means multiply by the speed, times itself), and divide by two. This is written, You can calculate the kinetic energy of any moving object, whether it is a meteor speeding toward the Earth or a soccer ball. If you use the mass in kilograms and speed in meters per second, the answer comes out in joules, the metric unit for energy. A watt, the metric unit for power, or rate of energy use, is simply one joule per second. Therefore, one joule of energy could run a 100-watt light bulb for 1/100 second. See if you can figure out: 1. A particular meteor has a mass of 1000 kilograms, or 1 ton. It is small enough to fit in the trunk of your car, if you could lift it. How much energy would
