The cause of the explosion in Bone Bay, South Sulawesi Indonesia on October 8 has been identifeid as that of a 10 meter diameter asteroid. It hit the earth at a velocity of 20.3 km per second or 73,080 km per hour releasing enormous amount of energy that had caused the explosion.
The tremor that followed was also detected by the infrasound alarm system at the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CNTBTO) about 10,000 kilometers from the explosion site.
According to researchers at the University of Western Ontario, Elizabeth Silber and Peter Brown, the strength of the explosion is equivalent to 50 kilotonnes of TNT (trinitrotoluena) bombs, or about two to three times the strength of the atomic bombs used during the Second World War.
The impact caught astronomers around the world by surprise as the presense of the asteriod was not detected until the impact took place.
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