EEVblog #846 - Solar Panel Micrometeorite Impact!

[Fungus]

I still think it was a cricket ball that after impact went over the ridge. The shape of the dent on the under side of the panel is caused by the glass deflection on impact, fingers of glass deflected downwards.

Dave: Get a cricket ball and throw it as hard as you can at that panel. Shut these people up once and for all.

Even better: Find a good cricket player to throw it for you, or shoot it from a cannon.

(Also a golf ball....)

[pickle9000]

Can we vote? I wanna cannon.

[Brumby]

... or shoot it from a cannon.

Just limit the velocity to 300 km/h.   

[Fungus]

Time to confess:

It was actually me that broke the panel, trying to send a Fluke 27 into orbit (from Spain!)

If it only made it to Australia I think I need to up the launch current a bit.

[Stonent]

Do kids have BB or pellet air guns in Australia ?

Absolutely not, they are classed as a firearm, same applies to slingshots, etc

Can't trust your citizens with many things... 

[G7PSK]

They have guns in Australia just as they do any where else in the world including the UK which has some of the strictest in the world. I am in the UK and I have guns which are legally held. Spent round can go for miles and even in some cases be lethal. There was a case here in the 70's where a shot gun pellet went over a mile through an open window and hit someone in the eye and entered the brain, and it was not bear shot just plain old bird shot, so it is not impossible for that to be a stray bullet.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_Australia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_policy_in_the_United_Kingdom

Despite what this says you can still get hand guns for special purposes such as putting down wounded deer if you are a stalker and black powder guns are not banned at all.

[Brumby]

Yes, there are guns in Australia - but the culture here is anything BUT.

The chances of meeting someone in the street who actually owns any sort of firearm is extremely, ridiculously low.  If the average person were to encounter someone with a rifle, the conversation would not be about whether it was a Winchester or a Browning, whether it had a customized stock, what sort of ammunition they're using or checking out the scope.  It would be something like "Nice gun".


Urban Australia does not embrace the gun.

[Nerull]

I don't know why people keep saying "micrometeorite" - A little rock that would fit between the pins of a dip package did not do that. The worst it would do is irritate your foot if it fell in your shoe.

[mtdoc]

I don't know why people keep saying "micrometeorite" - A little rock that would fit between the pins of a dip package did not do that. The worst it would do is irritate your foot if it fell in your shoe.

Ha Ha !- exactly.   And a meteorite big enough to do this damage is exceptionally improbable (but not impossible) - which is why another explanation is more likely IMO. I doubt we'll ever know for sure though.

[ornea]

Mantis Shrimp sucked up on a storm and rained down on the panel.  Annoyed it unleashed the awesome power of the claw ...

Has a target arrow fired skyward been considered. 

It doesnt have the debris that Dave identified and I dont think it could cause the deep depression seen but may cause the dimple shown on the back side of the panel.

 

[coppice]

Mantis Shrimp sucked up on a storm and rained down on the panel.  Annoyed it unleashed the awesome power of the claw ...

Yummy! 

Despite what they say about mantis shrimp being able to punch through glass tanks, I have never see a restaurant use thick glass to contain them.

[Fungus]

I don't know why people keep saying "micrometeorite" - A little rock that would fit between the pins of a dip package did not do that. The worst it would do is irritate your foot if it fell in your shoe.

Ha Ha !- exactly.   And a meteorite big enough to do this damage is exceptionally improbable (but not impossible)

As Tim Minchin likes to point out: People who say things are 'impossible' based on probability alone are seriously underestimating the number of things that happen every second.

What's the chances that a one-in-a-trillion event just happened to hit Dave's house?

Well... it's only one-in-a-trillion if you believe that Dave planned it that way.

If you assume Dave didn't plan it then it's just one more 'random' event in a massive universe where 10^{SMALLINT} things happen every second.

The test for 'meteorite' would be to check the iron/nickel content of the black bits in the hole.

The test for "cricket ball" would be to propel a cricket ball at the other half of the panel and see if it resembles the impact (people would still argue about angles and velocities though, so...)

[coppice]

I wonder how many little repair jobs Australian roofers get each year, replacing one mysteriously broken roof tile? 

[nctnico]

I wonder how many little repair jobs Australian roofers get each year, replacing one mysteriously broken roof tile? 

I had a broken roof tile once. Over here it is usually attributed to frost/heat damage but it could have been a meteorite as well. The  ceramic/concrete tiles commonly used in the NL last for at least a century and breakage is extremely rare.

[iXod]

Anyone with a mass spectrometer?

I'm after one (or similar) for another thing I want analysed. Been unable to find access to one so far.

Ask Mike of MikesElectricStuff channel. I'm sure he probably has one in his garage...

Or Applied Science channel's Ben Krasnow. He'd be up for the challenge for sure...