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A novel way to celebrate the onset of New Year: Wetumpka, Alabama dropped an asteroid at midnight.
The "Asteroid Drop" commemorated the greatest natural disaster of Alabama history. Wetumpka sits on the rim of a large crater. Scientists say it's evidence of a meteor strike some 83 million years ago.
[...]
Of course, the citizens of Wetumpka have known about the crater since the discovery of the site in the late 1970's. But this was the first time the city came out to celebrate this particular part of it's history.
And what better place to do it than on the edge of the crater -- downtown Wetumpka.?
"A number of years ago, I was driving by here and thought, 'This street goes across. This street makes a T. The courthouse sits on a square like Times Square. Put a ball at the top and we'll have New Year's Eve.' So that's how it got started," Devenney said.
"Some Boy Scouts are going to flip the lights on the ground and light the ball. A couple of flares will go off on the ground. If everything goes well, it will look like real," explained co-organizer Donald Carey.
Saturday night's meteor impact was much more family-friendly than the first. Scientists estimate the energy released from the original impact was 175,000 times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
The "Asteroid Drop" commemorated the greatest natural disaster of Alabama history. Wetumpka sits on the rim of a large crater. Scientists say it's evidence of a meteor strike some 83 million years ago.
[...]
Of course, the citizens of Wetumpka have known about the crater since the discovery of the site in the late 1970's. But this was the first time the city came out to celebrate this particular part of it's history.
And what better place to do it than on the edge of the crater -- downtown Wetumpka.?
"A number of years ago, I was driving by here and thought, 'This street goes across. This street makes a T. The courthouse sits on a square like Times Square. Put a ball at the top and we'll have New Year's Eve.' So that's how it got started," Devenney said.
"Some Boy Scouts are going to flip the lights on the ground and light the ball. A couple of flares will go off on the ground. If everything goes well, it will look like real," explained co-organizer Donald Carey.
Saturday night's meteor impact was much more family-friendly than the first. Scientists estimate the energy released from the original impact was 175,000 times more powerful than a nuclear bomb.
