What happened in the state of Denmark?
At the beginning of our century in Siberia there was a huge explosion, which is attributed to the impact of a large meteorite. Something similar may have taken place over Greenland in early December. But where the observed flash of light really came from will probably not be clarified until next summer, when the Greenland winter recedes. But the discussions and speculations are already heating up. On December 9, 1997, the dark Greenlandic morning was illuminated for a few seconds as bright as day. This is not only testified to by the statements of the crews of three trawlers, but also by the recordings of a video camera monitoring a parking lot in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. They show a bright light coming from a moving source. Scientists from the Niels Bohr Institute and the Tycho Brahe Planetarium suspect that this was a meteor of enormous proportions. The location of the impact was roughly determined on the basis of the video tape, it is about 50 kilometers north-east of Narsarsuaq Airport in the Greenland ice.
But the appearance is not without controversy. Although seismic stations in Norway recorded tremors at the time, and signals were also recorded in Germany and Finland, the stations in Greenland itself (at Sonder Stromfjord and Danmarkshaven) did not observe anything. In order to clarify this contradiction, further seismic data from Iceland and Canada will be evaluated.
There is also disagreement regarding some satellite imagery from the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. These show a cloud in the suspected impact area that could have come from the explosion of the meteor in the earth's atmosphere. However, according to critics, the cloud was also visible before and after the event, so it is not related to the luminous phenomenon.
The solution to the riddle will probably not come until next year. The possible impact occurred on land, but a search in the ice is difficult. In addition, the sun sets very early in winter and the weather is bad. Since December 9, 30-100 cm of snow has already fallen in the region. In the summer, the remains of the meteorite will be covered by a three meter thick layer of snow. - Not an easy task for the scientists involved in the search.
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