Meteorite Strikes Russia

[BG45]

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/15/breaking_huge_meteor_explodes_over_russia.html

 

[UPDATE: When I wrote the headline for this article, I thought
there was evidence the meteor had broken up in a single event while
still high up in the atmosphere, so I used the word "explode". I don't
want to mislead people; there may not have been any explosion at all. To
be clear, the "explosion" heard in so many videos below is almost
certianly from the shock wave of the meteoroid, and not from it
exploding or hitting the ground.]

 

Apparently, at about 09:30 local time, a very big meteor burned up over Chelyabinsk, a city in Russia just east of the Ural mountains, and about 1500 kilometers east of Moscow. The fireball was incredibly bright, rivaling the Sun! There was a pretty big sonic boom from the fireball, which set off car alarms and shattered windows. I’m seeing some reports of many people injured (by shattered glass blown out by the shock wave). I’m also seeing reports that some pieces have fallen to the ground, but again as I write this those are unconfirmed.

Note: This is almost certainly unrelated to the asteroid 2012 DA14 that will pass on Friday. See below for details.

[Let me be clear: This is breaking news, and reports are coming

in so fast I can’t keep up. I’ll update this post as I can, but treat
everything here as tentative until I can get more information! Note also
lots of hoaxes are turning up, like a video of a flaming crater that's
actually a flaming pit in Turlmenistan that's been burning for decades
(called "The Door to Hell"). Be cautious and be skeptical.]

Dozens of videos are popping up on YouTube, and some are incredible. This one from a car’s dashboard camera shows the meteor coming through the atmosphere.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4ZxXYscmgRg[/media]

 

(I've snipped several other videos)

 

y heart was pounding watching
those. I have to admit, at first I was thinking this was an elaborate
hoax, but the reports are coming in from everywhere. The videos show it
at many different angles.

There are jaw-dropping photos posted here. [UPDATE: Stunning photos of the trail left by the meteor are posted at Chelyabinsk.ru.]

I’m trying to piece together what happened from the videos. First of
all, I do not think this is related in any way to the asteroid 2102
DA14! For one thing, this occurred about 16 hours before DA14 passes. At
8 kilometers per second that’s nearly half a million kilometers away
from DA14. That puts it on a totally different orbit.

For another, from the lighting, time of day, and videos showing the rising Sun, it looks like this was moving mostly east-to-west. I may be off, but that’s how it looks. DA14 is approaching Earth from the south, so any fragment of that rock would also appear to move south-to-north.

So again, I think this is unrelated to 2012 DA14. But wow, what a huge coincidence!

 

I don’t know how big the meteoroid (the solid part) of this was. The information is too scattered; we’d need the position of the people who took the videos to triangulate and see how far up the debris trail is, for example. I’ll note that people were taking video of the trail for some time before the explosion is heard, which is consistent with it being the shock wave from the passage of the meteoroid through our atmosphere high above the ground. I know a lot of folks will think that’s the sound from the explosion due to impact, but it’s more likely to be the sonic boom from something big moving at multiple times the speed of sound through the air.

 

As far as impact goes, the most likely scenario is that this broke up many kilometers above the ground, and may rain down chunks. Many large meteors do this, with meteorites (the pieces that fall to the ground) found downrange. Once the fall is found, we’ll be able to get a better idea of how big this thing was, and of course what it was made of (rock, metal, a mix of both). I’m trying to track down reliable reports of actual impacts.

The train (the term used for a meteor trail) is interesting indeed. It appears to split, so I’m guessing the main mass split there. That’s not surprising; it’s happened with previous falls (like Sikhote-Alin). That means they could have disintegrated at different times, so there may be multiple places where pieces could fall.

 

For now, that’s all I have. I’ll update this post as I hear more.
 

 

The Russians are working to stamp out rumors they managed to shoot it down, stating no nation has the technology to stop an in atmosphere strike like this one. 

[4588686]

Obviously God is punishing the Russians for leaving the Roman Church.  

[BG45]

One friend said he hoped the zinc factory that lost a roof and a lot of its brickwork has good insurance.  I told him if a lot of smaller things are "Acts of God" and not covered, being smited from the Heavens probably falls under it as well.

[r2Dtoo]

Cool videos.

[the171]

In Mother Russia....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a meteorite strikes and injures many people.

[Papist]

I got to get me one of those webcams for my dashboard.

[Nihil Obstat]

I got to get me one of those webcams for my dashboard.

Yeah, after seeing all the videos of attempted insurance fraud and crazy car crashes in Russia, it seems like a fairly reasonably investment considering how much it could help out if worst came to worst.

[Winchester]

Can't wait to hear what Pat Roberston's theory is.

[fides' Jack]

Wow - that's just a cool video.  :|

[BG45]

The video is cool, I agree with all of you, if a bit terrifying...it came from a different elliptical we don't normally watch.  And consider Robertson said 9/11 was due to homosexuals, pagans, and feminists...I can't even imagine what a smiting from the Heavens warrants.

[Tony]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrryQ1eGlB4

[Gabriela]

The weird thing is that people walking outdoors don't seem to even notice at all that there's a giant fireball flying through the sky...

[Era Might]

I was reading an article about how dashboard cameras are all the rage in Russia, that's why this guy was riding around with a camera...I guess people want to have documentation during accidents.

[GeorgiiMichael]

The sedevacantists were right, we didn't do a good enough job consecrating Soviet Russia to Mary and now God is smiting them.

 

That video is really cool.

[Ice_nine]

did no one actually die from this? That's pretty amazing considering the power a flying space rock can have.