Meteor impact in Russia

[On_Sabbatical 11]

Well ,i would like to say that NASA failed on detecting this too ... shows how weak we are right now :P

[slatts 1978]

No one ever said they could see them all ;)

[raptor90 1]

"If you see the flash, it's already too late"©

After this I'd like to see all the MChS senior officials to be thrown to prison. No alarm, no any preparations, nothing. If we will be attacked with missiles (that meteor looked much like it), nothing will be done.

You mean some atomic bombs or other human-made fireworks like this ?

Pfff...

65 millions years ago was good "boom" effect though.

It was asteroid "just" 10 km wide...

Edited February 15, 2013 by raptor90

[sudayev 27]

The Aftermath - according to health department of Chelyabinsk

- 3000 buildings were damages by shock wave. Estimated property damage worth of 1 billion rubel (~33 million $)

- 1142 people wounded, incl. 258 children. Most of injuries are related with shards of broken glass.

- 48 is hospitalized, incl 13 children. Two people are heavily wounded.

Photo & video materials.

http://bigpicture.ru/?p=373859

http://englishrussia.com/2013/02/14/breaking-tremendous-flash-in-the-skies-now/

[Flash Thunder 10]

yes this asteroid was too small to be detected.

Its a shame it had to hurt people other than that a spectacular show.

Just demonstrates the forces of nature.

[jblackrupert 14]

In Soviet Russia, Space visits you!

[vilas 473]

poor people i feel sorry in such cases always, nature is dangerous and i hope people who were wounded will be okay in some time

[onlyrazor 11]

poor people i feel sorry in such cases always, nature is dangerous and i hope people who were wounded will be okay in some time

Broken glass is a piece of hell in most large explosion-type events. Just look at how many people were blinded or something such at Halifax in 1917. Kind of like a very big fragmentation grenade, when you think about it.

[vilas 473]

i hope they all get healthy soon, i wish them health and peace and some rest cause it had to be big stress when you sit in your home and suddenly something pushes your window on your head, i hope such meteorite will never reach anyone of us, cause it is traumatic to be woken up at morning by such thing, someone could get stroke (heart attack) for sure

[sudayev 27]

Some more info...

Keep visiting the wiki site, for fresh facts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Russian_meteor_event

Infographics

http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/html/Years/2013/February/images/Meteor5.png

[Nicholas 5]

To those of you blaming the various government agencies and space agencies for not notifying the public of this meteor, read this information about NASA's NEO program.

What Is The Purpose Of The Near-Earth Object Program?

The purpose of the Near-Earth Object Program is to coordinate NASA-sponsored efforts to detect, track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that could approach the Earth. The NEO Program will focus on the goal of locating at least 90 percent of the estimated 1,000 asteroids and comets that approach the Earth and are larger than 1 kilometer (about 2/3-mile) in diameter, by the end of the next decade. In addition to managing the detection and cataloging of Near-Earth objects, the NEO Program office will be responsible for facilitating communications between the astronomical community and the public should any potentially hazardous objects be discovered.

NASA NEO FAQ

This meteor that we seen over Russia was far too small to be detected, but large enough to cause considerable damage had it not been broken up in the atmosphere. This meteor is also completely different from the asteroid that you've all been hearing about in the news.

Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid Flyby

February 15, 2013

Update: February 15, 2013 7pm PST

New information provided by a worldwide network of sensors has allowed scientists to refine their estimates for the size of the object that entered that atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia, at 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15).

The estimated size of the object, prior to entering Earth's atmosphere, has been revised upward from 49 feet (15 meters) to 55 feet (17 meters), and its estimated mass has increased from 7,000 to 10,000 tons. Also, the estimate for energy released during the event has increased by 30 kilotons to nearly 500 kilotons of energy released. These new estimates were generated using new data that had been collected by five additional infrasound stations located around the world - the first recording of the event being in Alaska, over 6,500 kilometers away from Chelyabinsk. The infrasound data indicates that the event, from atmospheric entry to the meteor's airborne disintegration took 32.5 seconds. The calculations using the infrasound data were performed by Peter Brown at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones."

The trajectory of the Russia meteor was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, which hours later made its flyby of Earth, making it a completely unrelated object. The Russia meteor is the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Preliminary information indicates that a meteor in Chelyabinsk, Russia, is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14, which is flying by Earth safely today.

The Russia meteor is the largest reported since 1908, when a meteor hit Tunguska, Siberia. The meteor entered the atmosphere at about 40,000 mph (18 kilometers per second). The impact time was 7:20:26 p.m. PST, or 10:20:26 p.m. EST on Feb. 14 (3:20:26 UTC on Feb. 15), and the energy released by the impact was in the hundreds of kilotons.

Based on the duration of the event, it was a very shallow entry. It was larger than the meteor over Indonesia on Oct. 8, 2009. Measurements are still coming in, and a more precise measure of the energy may be available later. The size of the object before hitting the atmosphere was about 49 feet (15 meters) and had a mass of about 7,000 tons.

The meteor, which was about one-third the diameter of asteroid 2012 DA14, was brighter than the sun. Its trail was visible for about 30 seconds, so it was a grazing impact through the atmosphere.

It is important to note that this estimate is preliminary, and may be revised as more data is obtained.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html

NASA Press Release

Edited February 16, 2013 by Nicholas

[instagoat 133]

Maybe this´ll wake politicians up to the fact that space investments are necessary, and that if we want to avert fully blown extinction events we need an orbital guard force.

The common enemy is nature, and without a space force capable of meeting such threats, another dinosaur-killing-type of event is just a matter of time. Space is not a happy flashy sparkling blanket draped over the sky at night. It´s actually part of our lives, and if people and politics continue to keep ignoring that we will run into problems.

Why was this object not spotted in advance? Why was there no news prior to its impact? Because apart from the NEOC, there are no organized efforts to spot and contain these objects.

Humans. Shit always needs to happen before something is done about it.

[[frl]myke 14]

@InstaGoat

from what i've read, the trajectory of this meteorite was coming from the sun, that's why it couldn't be detected prior to impact. Scientists all over the world do indeed search, track and predict asteroids that could cause a E.L.E. but i'm sure you agree, space is damn big to survey. After all, 2012 DA was in the focus for a long time by scientists and predicted calculations of trajectory were quite accurate.

It's like always: there is no 100% security possible.

[fraczek 4]

AFAIK, even the proposed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope would increase detection of Chelyabinsk sized meteorites to only 50% (and IIUC, that is only those not coming from the sun side, such as this one had been) according to some astronomers. And that is probably with only very small time window of warning. Good luck shooting such object down with current tech (incoming speed is usually in the range of 15-20 km/second, even biggest rockets accelerate to escape velocity,±10km/s, far out from Earth's atmosphere near LEO). Of course, with all due respect to the injured there (pretty unlucky it had to strike an area plagued by past man-made disasters so much), if such event makes the politicians invest more in space programmes, that would be at least some good out of it.

[maturin 12]

Well, whatever, right?

The damage Chelyabinsk-sized meteors can do is frankly nil compared to other disasters, such as earthquakes, which can't be prevented or predicted. They should focus on early detection and deflection of the real killers.

[jakerod 254]

Well, whatever, right?

The damage Chelyabinsk-sized meteors can do is frankly nil compared to other disasters, such as earthquakes, which can't be prevented or predicted. They should focus on early detection and deflection of the real killers.

I can't imagine those people would've enjoyed it more if it failed to break apart and hit a city or road or something.

[maturin 12]

Isn't it's disintegration a result of its size, though? And since the blast wave was the real killer, isn't an airburst worse anyways (just like with artillery).

[[frl]myke 14]

Don't take me too serious since my knowledge bases only on some articles i have read but as far as i think to know, the probability of desintegration upon entry is based on the meteor material. A meteor which consist mainly of rock id more likely to break apart than a iron meteor.

Also an airburst spreads wider, true, but the power isn't by far comparable with a full impact. The damage area would probably be much smaller but by far more deadlier. There were by far over thousand injured but only a handful with serious injuries. A direct impact, if happened in a habited area, would have caused deaths.

[maturin 12]

Right, and this was a very dense meteor, so Chelyabinsk-sized objects shouldn't ever be much worse than this one. Although I imagine the angle of approach makes a huge difference too, just like with tank armor.

Of course getting hit by the rock is worse, but this is the first time in recorded history a once-a-year asteroid has hit a populated area. We ONLY experienced damage because of the airburst, which distributed the hurt over hundreds of square miles, full of empty space able to absorb a smaller, localized impact. The Earth is a big place, and for the smaller guys, probability is a shield in itself.

Just to to reiterate my point, a 16m wimp caused all this damage. Time to start looking for its big brothers.

[jakerod 254]

Yeah I guess you would have to be pretty damn unlucky to get hit by something that size. I hadn't realized how small of a meteor it was. Although that roof did collapse so a direct impact in a city might still cause a lot of damage due to structural instability.

[becubed 24]

For a bit of fun.

http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/

[mrcash2009 0]

Another great Charlie Brooker observation of the meteor news coverage (and cock ups), very funny - skips direct to the segment: HERE :o

[yvettePine 10]

On Friday, February 15, a meteor exploded over Russia, sending fiery meteorites into seven crowded cities. The worst hit was the city of Chelyabinsk. The Russian Academy of Sciences estimates that the original meteor weighed around 10 tons and was traveling at about 33,000 mph when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. I found this news from here.

Edited April 24, 2013 by yvettePine

[slatts 1978]

^ Spam?

[NeMeSiS 11]

Maybe an attempt to get enough posts to PM? :p

Or maybe news travels slow in Chicago.