LIMITED EDITION SIKHOTE-ALIN METEORITE 60yr ANNIVERSARY

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Sikhote-Alin Meteorite Sixty Year Anniversary 1947-2007 Coin / Medal Material : Zinc Alloy.Diameter : 50.65mm (Approx. 2") Weight : 53.4gm. Thickness: 4.55mm. This beautiful coin has a genuine piece of the famous Sikhote-Alin meteorite incused in the coin’s surface. Limited Edition of 300. Grab it before it is gone forever!!! On February 12th, 1947, near the Siberian Pacific coast one of the most interesting meteorite falls of the 20th century occured. It was clear winter weather, when at 10:38 local time an intense fireball, brighter than Sun, crossed the sky and broke apart with roaring thunder just before hitting the ground. Roughly 100 tons of meteoric material were shattered in ten-thousands of fragments over the Sikhote-Alin mountains north of Vladivostok. The biggest fragments crashed into the ground, causing craters of up to 26 meters in diameter. This event is one of the best-documented meteorite falls, but in the "West" for long time t was little or nothing known about it. Fortunally, this situation has changed the last years. The Orbit Because the fall occured in bright daylight it was observed by many eyewitnesses from the cities of Eastern Siberia. By the evaluation of this data Fesenkov could compute the orbit of the original body which caused the meteorite shower. The probable former orbit of the Sikhote-Alin meteoroide is similar to the orbits of many small bodies of the solar system. It is ellipse-shaped and has its point of biggest distance from Sun in the asteroid belt. This makes its origin of the belt reliable - possibly it was born from the collision of asteroids. During its 1,132 day orbit round the Sun the meteoroid was for just two days inside the Earth's orbit. The above diagram shows the situation one month before the collision; the point of the Spring Equinoxe is to the left. On January 6, 1944 the meteoroid reached its perihelion for the last time (at least as an independent celestial body). The distance from Sun was 147.02 million kilometers. Note the difference of the virtual size of the sun compared to the point of aphelion (below). The farthest point from Sun was reached by the Sikhote-Alin meteoroide the last time at August 6, 1945. The distance from Sun now was 468.68 million kilometers. At this position, an observer would have seen a panorama of the inner solar system. For clearness the orbits of the planets have been plotted. Earth is marked blue, Mars is marked red to give a better overview. While Earth was visible disklike already since the beginning of 1947, at February 1st the earth-and-moon system formed a celestial panorama above the meteoroid. Less than 2 weeks remained until crash. This picture of February 11, 1947, 6 hours before impact, nicely shows the meteoroid's approach from northern of the ecliptic. To the right (in the picture at the lower right edge) the ice cap of the Earth and the polar ocean. For in February it's Winter on the northern hemisp, they are in the shadow. More left is Canada in daylight. Eastern Siberia straight ahead: roughly two hours before the crash t were visible a number of details on Earth's surface. Between the clouds t is the sibirian peninsula of Kamtchatka. The light blue line is earth's atmosp A few minutes before the fall on February 12, 00:38 universal time (10:38 local time) a visitor on the meteoroide had to make off speedy. The picture shows in the right half the dark stripe of the wooded Sikhote-Alin mountains. In reality, it was covered by snow in February 1947. In the ocean t is the island of Sachalin and, closer to the horizon, part of Japan. Few seconds before impact the meteoroid reaches the outermost border of earth's atmosp at a heigth of 100 km. By air friction it is immediately heated up until white-hot. For some of the inhabitants of the planet below it now becomes visible as a bright fireball in the sky. The Fall read more

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