15.2 Energy Conversion and Conservation

On October 9, 1992, people from Kentucky to New York reported seeing a bright streak of white light shooting across the night sky. Most observers, having seen “shooting stars” before, expected this one to quickly burn out and disappear. However, that did not happen. The shooting star, or meteor, continued streaking across the sky. After a few seconds, pieces of the meteor broke off, creating a series of smaller streaks of light. Eventually, the streaks disappeared from view. Although the event was interesting, most witnesses probably soon forgot about it.

However, the meteor was not soon forgotten by the owners of a red automobile in Peekskill, New York. Unfortunately for them, a large chunk of the meteor made it through Earth's atmosphere and struck their parked car. The car was badly damaged, as shown in Figure 9. Luckily, no one was in the car at the time, and so no one was hurt.

As the Peekskill meteor traveled through the atmosphere, some of its kinetic energy was converted into light and heat. The light made the meteor visible in the sky. The heat caused a large portion of the meteor to vaporize in the atmosphere. Upon impact, much of the meteor's remaining kinetic energy went into smashing the metal body of the car.

Figure 9 A meteor crashed into the rear of this car, causing considerable damage.

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