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Subscribe to RSSA massive meteor hit the Earth's atmosphere, creating a giant shock wave that injured more than 1,000 people. On the same day, an asteroid half the size of a football field came within 17,200 miles from Earth. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
A meteor flared through the skies over Russia's Chelyabinsk region early Friday, triggering an atomic bomb-sized shock wave that injured more than a thousand people, blew out windows and caused some Russians to fear the end of the world.
NASA said it was the largest reported fireball since the Tunguska event in 1908 — an asteroid explosion that flattened millions of trees over 820 square miles of remote Siberian forest.
Friday's event was witnessed by throngs of Russians in Chelyabinsk, a city of 1.1 million in western Siberia. Multiple amateur videos posted online showed the meteor’s flaring arc stretching hundreds of miles across the sky. Other videos from the scene captured the sound of a loud boom, followed by a cacophony of car alarms. One video showed the hurried evacuation of an office building in Chelyabinsk.
“There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people’s houses to check if they were OK,” Chelyabinsk resident Sergey Hametov told The Associated Press. “We saw a big burst of light then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound.”
Another resident described the meteorite's flash.
"I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend," Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name, told Reuters. "Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shock wave that smashed windows."
The impact involved a 50-foot-wide (15-meter-wide), 7,000-ton asteroid that zoomed in from space at a velocity of 40,000 mph (18 kilometers per second), NASA officials said. They said the shock of atmospheric entry blasted the rock apart at a height of 12 to 15 miles (20 to 25 kilometers), releasing the energy equivalent of 300 to 500 kilotons of TNT. That's more than 10 times the energy released by the atom bombs that exploded over Japan at the end of World War II. In fact, NASA said its estimates were based on readings from infrasound sensors that were set up by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization to detect nuclear blasts.
The fireball hit just hours before a 150-foot-wide asteroid, known as 2012 DA14, came within 17,200 miles of Earth during an unusually close but harmless flyby. NASA officials said there was no connection between the two events. "It's simply a coincidence," said Paul Chodas, an asteroid researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NASA said the flash momentarily shone brighter than the sun — an assessment that was echoed by eyewitnesses in Chelyabinsk.
"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it was day," Viktor Prokofiev told Reuters. "I felt like I was blinded by headlights.”
No fatalities were reported, but Russia's Interior Ministry said about 1,100 people sought medical care after the shock wave. About 50 were hospitalized. Most of the injured were cut by glass from windows that were shattered by the blast's shock wave. More than 200 children at Chelyabinsk schools were said to be among the injured.
Chelyabinsk resident Marat Lobkovsky's experience was typical: "I went to see what that flash in the sky was about," he told AP. "And then the window glass shattered, bouncing back on me. My beard was cut open, but not deep. They patched me up, it’s OK now."
Another city resident, Valya Kazakov, said the brilliant flare and loud explosion caused older women in his neighborhood to fear that the world was ending.
City officials told AP that 3,000 buildings in the Chelyabinsk region were damaged, including a zinc factory warehouse that lost its roof and part of a wall because of the shock wave's battering. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said as many as 10,000 police were mobilized to aid in the recovery and remove debris.
There were no significant disturbances to public utilities or communications, Vladimir Stepanov of the Emergency Situation Ministry told Itar-Tass. "No serious consequences have been so far recorded," Stepanov said. "There has been no disruption in the rail and air transport work."
A search was conducted to find any fragments that survived when the space rock blew itself apart. A photo provided by the Chelyabinsk regional police department showed a 20-foot-wide (6-meter-wide) hole in the ice covering a lake near the town of Chebakul where some of the fragments reportedly fell.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium, speaks to NBC's Lester Holt about the meteor and asteroid that approached Earth on Friday.
The shallow angle at which the meteor crossed the sky over Chelyabinsk contributed to the amount of damage, according to Margaret Campbell-Brown, an astronomer and physicist at the University of Western Ontario. “It’s like a sonic boom,” Campbell-Brown said of the shock wave. “A sonic boom from a plane can shatter windows, but this sonic boom was much stronger than a plane."
It was a once-in-a-decade event, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told TODAY on Friday. He explained that the meteor impact was the physics equivalent of hitting a brick wall. “When you hit a brick wall, you basically explode, and that’s what happened here, and it exploded in midair,” Tyson said.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the incident showed the need for the world's nations to develop a system to intercept objects falling from space. "At the moment, neither we nor the Americans have such technologies" to shoot down meteors or asteroids, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Coincidentally, experts from NASA and other agencies were at a U.N. space conference in Vienna on Friday to discuss strategies for developing an asteroid early warning system.
Yekaterina Pustynnikova / Chelyabinsk.ru via AP
A huge meteor flared through the skies over Russia's Chelyabinsk region, triggering a powerful shock wave that injured nearly a thousand people, blew out windows and reportedly caused the roof of a factory to collapse.
More about cosmic impacts:
- Meteor blast sparks conspiracy theories in Russia
- Internet users watch asteroid fly by and fade out
- Asteroid's close shave ranks among top hits and misses
- Meteorite from California fireball reveals its secrets
This report includes information from The Associated Press and Reuters.
The videos just keep streaming in from Chelyabinsk. You'll find lots of great clips and stills on this Live Journal page and this WBVF wrap-up. Thanks to my Twitter pals for passing them along.
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
This story was originally published on Fri Feb 15, 2013 5:05 AM EST
Leave a Comment:
Woo!
How many people are running out to find samples, I wonder? Not that I would want to. Dangerous stuff?
That wasn't any meteor. It was the mother ship.
Has anyone heard anything about Indonesia? The main body of DA14 was due to cross over them at DA14's closest point with earth. Russia's brush with DA14 was scary. I hope that all will recover.
Hummmmmm ....... Why & Why & Why?
Why does this area have so many "strikes" as compared other areas of the world?
Why the timing.... when when 2012 DA14 was so close on a "close Encounter" pass?
Why the double contrails ... two pieces?
Poor Russia... first in 1908, and now today. It's like they're the target for cosmic target practice
Holy great balls of fire, Batman!
@ KingPut,
Well there wasn't a threat to us here in the United States. Just in Russia. But they are some other country across the sea, and not us. So I guess they don't count as a threat to "us" or something. Besides, this was just a little meteor shower. Not the asteroid 2012 DA14 itself. If that were to hit it would be catastrophic. And no, I don't think we have a contingency plan for that besides, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!" Or at least something to that effect.
Now that's something you don't see everyday.
Very true. But "I'm" not in the danger zone, so maybe NASA thought it didn't apply to "us." Either that or they just plain f**ked up, which is quite likely. That's all I was saying.
I just don't think NASA foresaw this. They had their eye on the big rock. Not the little chunks around it.
Also how is this not the top story?!
you just keep thinking that
I suspect it was a piece of 2012 DA14 which broke off previously, and was floating in space nearby. The gravity of 2012 DA14 is so low that this could very easily happen. Something to keep in mind in the future. - RC
How the F can you say "It's unlikely that there's any connection between the fireball and the encounter asteroid, known as 2012 DA14."?! Did you do a quick spectral analysis of their compositions and compare them within 6-sigma? Is there no evidence of gravity pulling apart celestial objects as they pass by a large body (hint, Shoemaker-Levy 9)? I'm not saying it "did" or even "probably", but do to proximity, I just don't think you can justify saying "it is unlikely". Remember when elementary schools told children they were "stupid" for saying that South America looks like it fits next to Africa? Some times obvious is, well, obvious.
I'd like the translation of UQUAT!, UQUAT! A few choice words come to mind.
no connection, really? does anyone honestly believe that a rock in space floats around, intact, not surrounded by smaller pieces of rock, just because we can't see them? and when was this earth-grazing asteroid discovered?
there'll be more stories like this...
Holy s^%%. Is this related to today's asteroid that is supposed to miss us? If not, hell of a coincidence.
Wow, that's pretty intense. I have an amateur telescope. Looking at the moon, its easy to realize that there are lots of impacts from space. I always think of what the first astronomers like Galileo thought hundreds of years ago when they first got a good look of what was really out in space.
Now I understand more how something so small could be so devastating. The pressure wave alone could cause so much damage versus it actually impacting the earth. If something does hit us the whole world will be affected and especially the area of impact...Holy Smoking Meteorites Batman.
There is possibly a connection. I don't know if it can be proven or not. Either way, this was a bigger than average meteor strike. Not a disaster, but certainly a reminder that there is stuff up there than can come down.
Must be due to Al Gore's infamous "climate change"...LOL!
Looks like Obama better start pushing "meteorid control"...far more deadly than guns.
Imagine the damage if that meteor actually hit a city, instead of exploding miles above the surface of the Earth... a very close shave!
The shock wave was... well, shocking! If I ever see something like this, I'll be telling everyone within earshot to get away from the windows and cover their ears.
With any luck, this might get through to the governments of Earth that we need to invest more in space.
Note, this did not even hit the ground. The sonic booms and air-bursts did the damage.
The next one might be big enough or dense enough to take out a city or cause a major tsunami.
Sure it was a 'meteorite' - probably a missile sent astray from N Korea
2012 DA 14...."say hello to my little friend".
That could have hurt....just ask the dinosaurs.
"Preliminary indications are that it was a meteorite [shower]." Aren't there people whose jobs are to monitor this kind of stuff? Nobody saw it coming?
In 1811, before the great earthquakes of the New Madrid fault system, there were reported fireballs like this one. I spoke to a geologist who said that such events were unrelated, since meteors do not cause this kind of shaking, but who knew? If the earthquake of 1811 was ready to go, then a good shake from a close flyby could have triggered it. (That was the biggest series of earthquakes ever to hit the U.S., and they occurred on the Mississippi a little below the join of the Ohio river, and changed the map of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri.)
Wouldn't a meteor "shower" indicate that there is more than 1? Where is the rest? This was a hell of a big rock for a casual meteor shower.
@KING PUTT,
Most of your posts were either very funny or helpful and I gave them a thumbs up.
"NASA forgot to mention this one. But we have nothing to fear from the other one." & "NASA missed. I hope they did a better job planning the big one's path."
Do you have any idea how hard it is to spot a 150 foot meteorite in space? Much less the MUCH smaller ones that MAY have been hiding in 2012 DA14s shadow. Why don't you contact "Michael (Astronomy.FM)" our friendly Newsvine Member/Astronomer and ask him as this is what he does.
Logic, I think you just qualified to be a CNN News Reader:
CNN anchor suggests meteor hurtling toward Earth could be a result of global warming
In answer to many questions above, Neil DeGrasse Tyson is reporting that these two meteors are not related - it is indeed a cosmic coincidence.
And yes, 2FAST, this one was far to small to see, even by radar.
This is all Bushs fault!!
LOL great Classic movie..
Also lets not forget this one.. Let me think if i can figure up how ot promote it, you guess it..
Last night my neighborhood was outside watching the comet go by.. Today it seems a lot more quite outside. Looks like one heck of a party.. Everyone took their clothes off and must have ran away.. I dunno I was asleep down in my steel enforced Basement. I missed all the fun it seems :D
What movie....
Usually in instances like this, it is several days before the GOOD videos start to get uploaded, filtered, etc.
I'm looking forward to some that haven't been transferred from people's phones, etc.
These fragments are worth their weight in gold. I can guarantee you there are hundreds of Russians scurrying across the snow covered fields looking for fragments of this. This would be like opening a briefcase of cash from 3 stories up over Times Square.
Comments like this proves how lacking in education the below average American is. :)
No; once the rock has warmed up (it's COLD in outer space) it's safe to handle - BUT contamination from your hands can hurt the meteorite's scientific value.
Failed Iranian missile attack.
( @ Y @ )
Any Americans hurt there? if so, my money is on a drone strike. A lot of the military like to earn medals and with the new one authorized, that could be enough motivation.
It is absolutely NOT part of DA14; the Chelyabinsk meteor came from pretty much the opposite direction of DA14.
@ProFreedom-5130956,
"Sure it was a 'meteorite' - probably a missile sent astray from N Korea"
You are close.................North Korea's new satellite actually has Tractor Beams and Kim is taking control of all the meteorites that come close to Earth. He was probably aiming for Washington D.C................OOPS "He missed us by this ________— much" :)
There are more people working at your local McDonald's restaurant than there are professional astronomers WORLDWIDE looking for these kinds of space rocks.
2012 DA14 - the asteroid that is whizzing just over our heads later today - was found by serious amateur astronomers (as are MOST of these kinds of rocks!)
The world's #1 comet and asteroid hunter - Australian astronomer Robert McNaught - lost all his funding a month ago because the Aussie government believes that "there is no need for the Australian people to fund this kind of research".
Thank God that so many serious amateur astronomers spend $10's of thousands of their own money, and spend night after night looking for these dark little rocks. But as much as I dearly appreciate their contribution to science, it is sad indeed that we can not get funding for this real (and potentially extremely dangerous) problem.
My guess is that Russian astronomers will not find it a bit easier to get funding for this research. It's about time that SOMEONE made a real survey to find these damn things!
Wow? Lots of dumb people commenting about @!$%# they know nothing of.
Earthquakes from an asteroid pass? Um no.
" Aren't there people whose jobs are to monitor this kind of stuff?" Um no, never have been. Most of these "Earth killers" are found by armatures.
That could have hurt....just ask the dinosaurs. - Um no, that was a tiny, tiny piece of the one that got the dinosaurs. It would have caused a local event At best. 150 ft vs 6 miles big difference.
there'll be more stories like this... Of course there will, but I'll be surprised if ther are any more this week, actually month and year too.
Okay....I'll be under my desk the rest of the day in case anybody needs me.
Thanks for the shout-out 2FAST! To be clear, tho, I work on detecting exoplanets, not on asteroid detection. Still, I'm a "fan" of the research and know several folks (pro & serious amateur) who do work in that area.
Well what are authorities supposed to say? "A large rock is probably going to hit your city." The mass panic would cause way more deaths than the strike. I suspect many knew about this rock just didn't want to upset people.
It's fine to say "Hey, there's a big rock, but don't worry it isn't going to hit us." Quite another to say "Heads up folks this one's incoming."
Somehow I don't think we'll actually get any warning if we're going to get hit as today's event seems to show.
Cosmic coincidence? Why is the media's disconnect between this meteorite & asteroid 2012DA14 being told? Perhaps to avoid mass hysteria. Who is to say there will not be another incident like this today? After all this asteroid passing today will be only 17,000 miles from the Earth. I am just curious to see where our world leaders & government will be out & about today or will they be hunkered down in their bunkers? Just a thought!
Not a word from NASA on why it wasnt detected and then reported, they know exactly what happens when a chunk of rock that big comes into our atmosphere yet they didnt tell any body to stay inside or stay underground. (to my knowledge)
And im just wondering, as the fella said above me, isnt that (a lot larger than this one) meteorite supposed to "nearly miss" us today at some time?
Maybe this one is just a precursor to what is coming?
But then again, why would they let us know?
How do we know that this was a meteor?
Marmaduke, I know the movie, just can't remember the title. But the radiation or whatever from the comet caused everyone exposed to it to turn into zombies, basically. And there was a long scene where the main characters were hanging out in an empty mall...... is that the one you're thinking of?
I'm with DingleB under the desk.. well, wait not the same desk, its not like that. I'll find my own.
yesterday at 530am over phoenix was the most amazing "shooting star"...I thought it was going to cause an explosion, it was so bright all the way across the sky....pretty cool. and far more significant than any other shooting star I have ever seen...
Just goes to show one never knows. Enjoy every day as if it were your last!
@Michael (Astronomy.FM),
Wow........... I just mention your name and POOF you POP in out of thin air. You must be part of the Q Continuam or something! - LOL :) Nice to see you again.
"Thank God that so many serious amateur astronomers spend $10's of thousands of their own money, and spend night after night looking for these dark little rocks. But as much as I dearly appreciate their contribution to science, it is sad indeed that we can not get funding for this real (and potentially extremely dangerous) problem."
Very well said and I couldn't agree with you more (Sadly - sigh )
I just want to take a moment and say "Thanks" to all of the Astronomers and to NASA for all that you do.
Michael are there any organizations (legetimate) that "We The People" can contribute to in order to help? Does The Planetary Society help with any funding?
Regards,
Brandon
The bigger one scheduled to pass by today is about 150 feet in diameter. This metorite might have been between 5-10 feet across...too small to detect until it is about to hit. It was going over 33,000 miles per hour.
that was beautiful, totally awesome. now i see why 2000 years ago people thought there was a god.
LOL
Is there confirmation that this smaller object came from a different direction than that of the big one? If not it is almost certainly a fragment of the big one. There could be others.
Michael (Astronomy FM), is this causing excitement in the astronomy community? I imagine it is. Hec I'm excited and I'm just an interested observer.
No doubt a preview of how life will end or be radically transformed on this planet some day. It's happened in the past and it will happen again as we saw with this one.
could it be possible for the incoming meteor to have a "magnetic" pull on surrounding smaller meteorites? Was this "little guy" headed toward the larger meteor? Could it be magnetic or do I watch too much tv?
this is exciting, its new to me (other than in text books)
You never know when your number is up. All the more reason to believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior.
Im not sure whats more frightening.. This reminder of the cosmic crap shoot that has continuously taken place since the dawn of time, or the incredible lack of understanding amongst so many people as indicated by some of the posts here. Remember THIS line from Armageddon?:
President: We didn't see this thing coming?
Dan (Billy Bob Thornton: Well, our object collision budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky"
Oh cummon Armageddon & Deep Impact were just movies... That couldn't happen for real right?". Guess Again!!!!!!! This was just a very subtle reminder of what could potentially happen. Even so, governments are not interested in "what might occur" & therefore dont take this subject too seriously. All is not lost however... There are now at least 2 private companies that are founded for the express purpose of mining asteroids for PROFIT ( Those evil soul-of-a merchant Capitalists!!) Hence, one can be assured that they will develop a much greater capability to detect near-earth objects than exists currently.
Michael (Astronomy.FM)- Wow man you have an amazing job!!! I know that its tedium X 1000 most of the while, but its just a matter of time before you guys find the Golden Egg!
Um no. If it hit, the force would be the equivalent to about 3.5 megatons. It would air burst at around 28,000 feet and very little if anything would reach the ground. In comparison Tunguska was estimated to be in the 3-20 megaton range. Far from catastrophic though it would cause major damage to a small city if it burst directly overhead.
Thick contrail of smoke, a blinding flash of light, I imagine some were thinking "Holy $#!+, they're nuking us!" Seriously, it had to cross SOMEBODY'S mind - maybe it was SkyNet (LOL)!
streeter....oh my gawd...thanks so much for the morning chuckle!!
This is my worse nightmare. 300 billion people in the world and if a rock falls from space it will land on ME, I just know it.
They now say this meteor weighed about 10 tons and was traveling at 33,000 miles per hour (presumably it wasn't texting while driving)!
DA 14 is as large as an olympic swimming pool and will come as close as 17,200 miles of the surface, much closer than some of our satellites! The experts say this meteor bears no relation to DA 14, just a 'cosmic coincidence'!
Amazing, I hope the experts are right about this stuff! Cosmically 17,000 miles is nothing... and doesn't leave much room for error!
We need all governments working on this problem. People think that this is a joke, take a good look at that video and you will see our future. That was a small space rock, let's not wait until the bigger one hits. We are less than a grain of sand floating in space, if our race is to survive, we need to move into space where we can at least get out of the way. Currently, we are just going around in circle, with no way to maneuver, for now work on defense. Right now, it is a war, not against humans, but against space rocks. The rocks are wining. All governments need to wake up now; they should have waken long ago.
I hope this will prompt governments to take near earth asteroids more seriously and spend a lot more money on the issue.
This one was only 2-3 meters wide, 9-10 tons. Currently we're only looking for objects about 30 meters and larger. To date only 1300 of the 30 meter size have been discovered, but it is estimated that there are 100,000 more. A 30 meter rock would devastate a major city if it exploded over or impacted it.
The meteor was just trying to keep our space programs in check thats all...
Did anyone think to call Bruce Willis and his team,?
Hide under a desk? I found it a good excuse to take the day off (though I was going to anyway).
OK, now everyone write your congressman, and tell them to fund the search for near earth objects at a much, much higher level.
Why is the article labeled "Meteor Screams Across Sky..". What exactly was it screaming?
YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nah, he's busy killing bad guys and yippie-kai-yay-ing right now.
wow are there some crazy posts:
how do we know it was a meteor? because it was moving ballistically at 50 km a second... that's greater than orbital velocity meaning it came from space.... it super heated and exploded from the rapid temp rise
why didn't we see this coming? because there isn't enough funding to search the entire sky and in this case, it was only about 1/2 the size of a house... so seeing/ tracking it more than a day or two away is difficult... most of the 'kill all the dinos' rocks have been detected... these ones between harmless and Earth devastating are hard to find...
it's possible that one day, one hits with hours or no warning and kills us all.... but those happen millions of years apart on average so don't sweat it
@Marmaduke49
- Night of the Comet
That's difficult to believe. I am not disagreeing, but I would like to add that I would feel more comfortable with the idea if Dr Tyson had been a bit more explicit and said "The big one and the little one were following completely different trajectories."
@ Marmaduke49: The movie you're quoting was called "Night of the Comet" from 1984.
What do I win?
This a a consequence of the man made global warming. We are attracting comets and meteorites, like never before. The government must stop by any means any cause of global warming , even if we have to kill all the cows, large producers of CO2.
Crap. Somebody beat me to it. Hey! No fair using the force, especially the dark side! (Freaking Sith!) Where's Obi-Wan when you need him?
Too bad it was a little larger, a little faster and landed right on top of Iran. Would have been a great favor to all of us. (Of course, wouldn't want it to be so large it would destroy the human race...just enough for Iran...ok large enough for Iran, Syria, Pakastan and Egypt.)
@ dbk227ADND:
What was it screaming? How about this:
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!! THERE'S A REALLY FREAKING BIG S.O.B. RIGHT BEHIND ME!!!
Anyone else notice Dr. Tyson said "This is so many hours before the next astroid will HIT" .. um what? it's going to hit? Not that it matters if it was going to or not.
It does suck knowing even if we knew a huge planet killer was coming to wipe out the earth.. there's nothing we could really do about it at this stage in our civalization.
"Well, our object collision budget's a million dollars. That allows us to track about 3% of the sky, and beg'n your pardon sir, but it's a big-ass sky."
joe....AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA....omg.....thank you for the huge laugh!!!
Being an out there "walking in space" kinda dog, I take naturally to astronomy and the universe in general. Things of this nature intrigue me. ( I have a small collection of meteorites from around the world, and my own back yard. ((My fav)) )
Anyway, I really don't worry too much over them, though there really is a true danger. Just a matter of time. With all that can kill us off, to worry on each and every aspect of our mortality only causes stress that shortens our time with a higher probability that all of the world ending disasters combined.
oldhamletman :
"it's possible that one day, one hits with hours or no warning and kills us all.... but those happen millions of years apart on average so don't sweat it"
Smiles, the last devastating hit was 65 million yrs ago.....just pointing that out. Hehehe
Each moment could be your last. That's just life. With birth comes a death sentience.(sp)
Don't Worry, Live, Love and Be Happy >:o):
Much Love n Happy Sky Watching,
Da Pup
>:o): PuRrrRrrRrrrrRrrrr
Man, that one in Russia was intense!
If this big one would hit earth the only upside is that all our problems would be over- ALL of them.
And these are the same folks that are telling me all about climate change...... makes me want to trust them even............ LESS
Astronomers are telling you about climate change?
@ sparklystar: How about this:
"HOLY $H!T, HOLY $H!T !! What the F*** IS that?? ... O M G... IT'S A PLANET!! WHAT DO I DO NOW!!?? AAAAAAAHHHHHHhhhhh!!!!"
Joe... :)
Are they sure it was a meteorite? Maybe it was another Carnival cruise ship having problems.
I'm sure this MUST BE Obama's fault too right?
Isn't isn't it just possible that this meteor and the shooting star that roadslesstraveled saw in Phoenix, are smaller meteors that got caught up in old 2012 DA14's gravity well and then were sucked in by the earth's gravity?
I know someone else said half the world separates DA14, but gravity's a fearsome thing. When I fell out of trees as a kid it hurt.
(catching up....)
The Planetary Society (http://www.planetary.org/) is the BEST place to contribute to this kind of research! It was in fact a grant from the Planetary Society which helped the amateur astronomers at La Sagra Observatorio discover Asteroid 2012 DA14 (flying overhead in just over an hour from now....). NOTE: I am a member of the Planetary Society, but have never held a position with the organization, nor have I ever received any funding from them.
The Planetary Society has a LIVE WEBCAST of 2012 DA 14 today starting at 2:15pm Eastern / 11:15am Pacific / 1900 GMT; NASA's live webcast starts at 2pm Eastern
+100 Internets! Great quote!
I worry about that a LOT. What if this had crossed over Israel, or Pakistan, or India, or N. Korea? Could this type of natural disaster be mistaken for an attack, and start a war? (I'm afraid that it could...)
David Levy (remember Comet Shoemaker/Levy 9?) once told me that prior to his comet slamming into Jupiter (leaving a dozen Earth-sized scars) that he was laughed out of Congressional meetings. After he had Hubble pictures of the impacts under his arm they would at least listen. Do something about it? No - but at least not laugh the laugh of the ignorant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlSQAZEp3PA
They are/were on completely different trajectories. The Chelyabinsk Meteorite came from the northeast and headed to the southwest; it came from "above" the Earth (roughly from the direction of Earth's North Pole).
Asteroid 2012 DA14 is coming in from the southwest and crossing Earth's orbital plane to the northeast, passing (from our perspective) through the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) on its way out.
The two rocks are on almost exactly opposite orbits. It is freaky weird to have two such similar and rare events (the two asteroids) happen on the same day, but there is no connection at all that we can discern.
As TFNJ points out, climate is studied by climate scientists, and astronomy is studied by astronomers. Steve, it's like you are saying "because I don't trust climate scientists, my cardiologist must be lying about me having a heart attack."
(Good luck with that heart attack recovery, BTW...)
Cheers! ~Michael (Astronomy.FM★Radio)
About as much fun as a box of rocks.
;-)
Roadlesstraveled-
Reading further I saw you and I are on the same wavelength. Or we do watch to many movies. :)
Michael, that video just made me spill my drink. I had the YYAAAAHOOO turned up really loud. I'll be laughing the rest of the day, thank you.
"Lot of trucks on the road tonight, Must be a convoy or something."
"Yeah PigPen this 'eres the Rubber Duck & Ima 'bout 2 put the hammer down."
;-)
(Keep 'em coming, King.)
Wow! Could you imagine seeing something like that? Amazing, but I would be like Al Roker at the White House Easter Egg shindig! Not good!
"O K GOD. I forgive you."
Can.....not.....breathe.....
"And no, I don't think we have a contingency plan for that besides, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!" Or at least something to that effect."
Ok, I can breathe now.....
I'll B the 1 wearing the t-shirt that says: "If U C me running.....try 2 keep up!"
;-)
Hey Tony, Chris.
redvirginia-
You didn't happen to catch CNN's Deb Feyerick when she asked Bill Nye the very same questions this past Saturday and agree with her? I hope?
"You must be part of the Q Continuam or something!"
I wanna B a Q. :-(
"Bill Nye"
BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL!
Hello U
"that was beautiful, totally awesome. now i see why 2000 years ago people thought there was a god."
(snicker) Sheeple.
Someday ... it will be longer than we like ... entrepreneurs will greet these events as high-profit mining opportunities. Until then, I'm glad no one (or planet) appears seriously injured and it's got people thinking about the cosmos in general, discussing science, and asking the question if we are devoting the appropriate resources to astronomical observation.
Michael-
You'd think Congress would of learned from history when Hugh Hammond Bennett, during the Dust Bowl years was speaking before Congress about the need for soil conservation, when the dust from it hit DC.
They said something along the lines, "Oh, it's that bad?!" But why should they listen to more knowledgeable people?
Michael-
Oops, sorry I just finally found your post where you said the Russian meteor was not part of DA14. Reading your credentials above, I'll take your knowledge over my ignorance.
Serves me right for tabbing between articles and email.
redvirgiana-
I meant I hope not.
Michael... Nice work. --- Consider 2012 DA14 as a little exercise. Its flyby pretty much pined down two weeks ago. If it had been predicted to impact the atmosphere over lets say Chicago, would there be enough confidence in the predicted "blast" region to have evacuated to a safe distance? The explosion over Siberia today is probably a blessing in disguise. As Russia scrambles to recover the pieces they should get a pretty good picture of size, velocity, overpressure, blast radius and other effects to extrapolate the potential damage of today's larger space rock.
not to mention the emergency alert of people being resurrected the other day.
Always good to see Michael (Astronomy.FM) holding forth on the "sanity check" side of this kind of thing.
Michael, some Q&A, if you don't mind. Any chance folks in North America can catch a glimpse of this thing tonight? You mentioned Ursa Minor, the tail of which is the North Star, right? My kids and I love to see what's just above our house at night.
Also, Q&A. From a probability standpoint, are most earth-crossers nearer to the plane of the the solar system, or are they pretty evenly distributed across the sky?
Bruce Willis aside, sure doesn't seem like the best time to have NASA change its mission to being a "cultural outreach organization" right now. Sounds more like the State Department's turf. Is the whole Orion "Exploration Class" set of vehicles useful for a ROBUST deep space capability to deal with these things?
Just askin'...
A quote from George Eliot
A human life, I think, should be well rooted in some spot of a native land, where it may get the love of tender kinship for the face of the earth, for the labors men go forth to, for the sounds and accents that haunt it, for whatever will give that early home a familiar unmistakable difference against the future widening of knowledge.
The best introduction to astronomy is to think of the nightly heavens as a little lot of stars belonging to one’s own homestead.
[From the opening of Ted Turner’s cinematic production of “Gods and Generals” 2002]
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html You can see the DA14 Asteroid from the Gingin observatory in Australia. (this is a recording, they had it live feed earlier)
Wow, What a great day for Science Buffs, Scientists, and a good day for people to realize that we need to do more, call your congress person! Not such a good day for some folks in Siberia though.. no deaths at least, sucks so many where injured.
If this had happened 30+ years ago we wouldn't even know this happened.
Unfortunately many still think there is a god and they have no problem killing you in his name.
Tony : Hide under the desk is exactly the response to expect from the government that tells you to defend yourself from guntotting bad guys with school scissors. And Swan which god the annointed one in DC who pushes to kill the future of America at 3,500 a day and more if he could.
I was just wondering. Astronomers had been predicting for some time now a huge meteor that was supposed to come within 17,000 miles of earth today (Friday, 15 Feb). Was that the same meteor that cause this problem in Russia today or was it something else? Was there any relationship? I don't think this article said. Does anyone know?
That is why during the height of the "Cold War" (1945-1990) the Nuclear Warheads were designed as "Air Bursts", not ground bursts, for maximum effect (including punching a hole in the upper atmosphere, maximum range of EMP/EMR).
The overpressure and concussive force would kill you, if this were something bigger like DA14, just like when we find people that look like they are sleeping after just a 500 pound bomb, their internal organs turned to jello, their flexible elastic skin holds all that mush together.
Stop posting things you do not know about. The man made equavlent is a Nuclear Warhead of 3.5 Mega Tons (MT), usually Nuclear Weapons were made for Air Bursts for Maximum Effects. You want to see what a less effective ground burst of only 10 Kilo Tons (KT) would do;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCme_K6MYLY
How fast does a ICBM Nuclear Warhead reenter the Earth's Atmosphere (unlike the movies an actual ICBM warhead does go into space). Hint: The Space Shuttle reached speeds of Mach 12, before doing wing tipping to shed speed.
How big is a Nuclear Warhead from an ICBM, that is purposely made to have semi stealth capabilities to avoid radar detection of an Anti Ballistic Missile System.
That is not even funny, and it is, President Obama as Commander In Chief is ordering the 11% US Defense Budget Cuts; as this also includes the US Anti Ballastic Missile Systems previously funded as demanded by President Bush (43) against "the Iranian Missile Threat". The loss of US Defense Budget Funds also affects the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA, the same people that brought to you the funding for the Stanford Research Institute invention of the Computer Mouse, President Regan's negating of all the USSR Efforts with the "StarWars" Initative, the research into a viable Anti Ballistic Missile System that negated the USSR's Strategic (Nuclear) Missile Forces Superiority (numbers of ICBMs, IRBMs, Missiles (Launch Platforms)).
As previously negotiated away by US Policitians, as the ABM Treaty:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=sprint+spartan+abm&view=detail&mid=56E6E625637FCDD3C3AC56E6E625637FCDD3C3AC&first=0&FORM=NVPFVR
President Obama allowed the President Bush previously proposed Budget Cut of NASA. Pertaining to the NASA Space Shuttle, you do NOT get rid of something until you have an Operational replacement (the Space Shuttle was not just flying NASA Astronauts to the International Space Station, there were the "Classified" ST Missions and if you think the Russian Federation is going to allow the US to use their capabilities to do the "Classified" ST Mission, naive.).
What I find interesting is the effort we go through banning 100 watt light bulbs, can't buy Freon, and you criticize my pickup truck because the average temperature increased a miniscule amount in the last 50 years.
But it's not going to an endangered woodpecker that kills us off it is going to be an asteroid the size of Rhode Island plowing into the middle of Nebraska that we REALLY should be worrying about. But, oh well - what can we do.
But at least we saved the Delta Smelt.............
Hi Davey! (And thanks for the kind words above!)
It's a bugger to spot. Even when it was at its closest and brightest this afternoon it was too dim to see with the naked eye. You can find some tips on how to find it with binoculars or telescope on the Universe Today website:
http://www.universetoday.com/99865/asteroid-2012-da14-observing-prospects-and-how-to-see-it/
My friend Nick Howes, with his colleague Ernesto Guido, have posted some images on their observatory website (lower expectations before viewing - it's a small dark rock in a black sky):
http://remanzacco.blogspot.com/
I'm eagerly awaiting radar images from NASA, being taken tonight, and hopefully posted soon. I'll link to them when they're up.
Usually very near the "ecliptic" - the fancy word for the plane of the Earth's orbit (where all the other planets more or less also orbit). Comets, however, can come screaming in from any direction with very little warning, making them potentially more dangerous than Earth-crossing asteroids.
That comment by General Chuck Bolden was blown way out of proportion....
Yes, they will be, if the objective is to put people on an asteroid. However I like my robots; if the objective is to move an Earth-crossing asteroid to protect the home world, the best solution will almost certainly NOT involve Bruce Willis.
Cheers! ~Michael (Astronomy.FM★Radio)
NASA keeping an eye on the big ball and its little brother sneaks in. Never thought there would be a tag along.
F ing funny Wish i saw that
Ya thats the one. People who were completely exposed turned to Dust, those who were half exposed turned into zombies..
Night of the Comet.
Good Job :D
Movie geek award :D
myname123
I wouldnt say it was a waste. It was good back in its time and era. Atleast there was a person in it I knew from another movie. The one head guy scientist , also played in Clint east wood movies, Any Which Way You Can, Every WHich way but Loose, and even in Devils rejects near the beginning of movie.
Al Gore must be having a stroke today!
Mike,I can just imagine what would have happened if there were a jetliner within 20 miles of this @ 30,000 foot cruising altitude fully loaded ; the blast wave I am guessing would have torn the plane apart and literally knocked it out of the sky in midair..not too funny anymore would you say?
#1.148 Last!!!!
Last at what?
@TonyInDallas: I was amazed at the number of people replying to the first comment with no regard to the comment but for the sole purpose of getting their message seen.Have you ever seen a #56.149 post?etc... I replied "#1.148 Last!!!!" to poke fun at this occurrence.
OK, that's close to what I thought you were doing.
I have to say, though, that I don't like posting on page two and beyond, except occasionally. Probably a similar syndrome.
Holy F---, that sucker was fast...
This proves that if a meteor was headed to earth, the government will not tell its citizens. It's very doubtful that this meteor is unrelated to 2012 DA14, which is due to pass by the earth in hours.
Wonder what other rocks NASA hasn't told us about.
Another failure of the Obama administration no doubt.
Monkey, do you know how hard it is to see something of this size in the vastness of space? I truly doubt this was a conspiracy to hide the truth from the public, they probably just didn't see it. But I am sure if you surf on over to Fox Noise they will satisfy your conspiracy theory lust with some bull@!$%# about how this was all President Obama's fault.
Oh wait, you dont even have to head to Fox, their trolls came here to spew nonsense and blame President Obama. Thanks Clarence 24, you saved Monkey the effort of reaching for the remote.
This meteor was too small to see on radar, and it was moving fast...over 33,000 MPH.
The separation between shows that two events, the flyby and boom, are unrelated.
And Monkey...the government doesn't control the media...it's probably the other way around.
King Putt - I don't think it was overlooked.
a) It proves no such thing. "The" government (as if there is only one government) could not hide such information EVEN IF THEY WANTED TO. The sky is open to all, and there are thousands of astronomers worldwide who would surely blab about such a story.
b) It is very doubtful that Chelyabinsk Meteor has anything to do with DA14; it came from a completely different direction and has completely different orbital elements.
c) NASA tells everyone about all the rocks they know about, but know this - NASA isn't the party that finds most of these rocks! They have the assets to track them after them are found (such as the radar facility at Goldstone), but NASA spends almost no effort looking for these asteroids.
"Another failure of the Obama administration no doubt."
another stoopid political comment on a science story.
deprogrammer: Oh, come on. It's not conspiracy theory to say that one, sizeable meteor entering the atmosphere just hours before another much larger meteor is expected to fly by is more than coincidence. It's frankly more conspiracy to say it isn't related or to come out so strongly and quickly to confirm that it isn't related. Mathematically, what are the odds?
And I never said if they saw or didn't see this rock. I understand the technical issues. You're putting words in my mouth on that one.
I'm more bothered by the immediate response that NASA and others came out saying the two rocks are not related. It frankly smacks more of calming the populace as a larger meteor does a fly by.
And that would not even be conspiracy: that would be compassion.
+1 to Michael for the technical response. However, I differ with you on PR spin. I've worked in marketing and with government. I know the information that's held back and have seen the spin first hand and how influential it is; you might even say I've been a party to it.
I'm more bothered by the immediate response that NASA and others came out saying the two rocks are not related. It frankly smacks more of calming the populace as a larger meteor does a fly by.
And it's not conspiracy to say that if NASA ever did see a life ending rock, that they would choose to tell the public. They would not.
The response was not all that immediate, but these scientists and astronomers are smarter than you, by an exceptional amount, and can determine orbits fairly quickly. If you can't accept the truth that is your problem. And the second statement is just plain stupid, many others looking to the skies besides NASA.
You might want to have the fit of your tinfoil hat checked...it appears to be on a bit tight and keeping oxygen from getting to your brain cells.
Thomas, as much as i have heard those first two words in your post when referring to this object, I think they should name it accordingly HFtwf02152012
Rex-1306908: Yep. I'm a total idiot. Should believe everything the government tells me as fact. They never lie. They never "spin" facts into fancy. Never cause rational people do disbelieve them as their track record is always perfect.
And based on that, as according to at least some in government:
bla, bla, bla.
Everything is fine. Just fine.
Drone strike
How do they know the two are not related to each other? Are they coming from different directions? What are the odds that two meteorites would fly by at near the same time? What is even more telling is the damage done without impact. We've been telling people for years about the damage a large body (planet X) would have on earth if it passed close by. The 1908 blast that leveled parts of Siberia was not a meteor. That much is a fact. There is absolutely no debris left by a meteor. It was the electrical discharge of a Telsa Experiment that was supposed to be collected by another device designed by Tesla. Someone got into his invention and redirected it sending it to Siberia instead of the Worlds Fair. Sabotaging his experiment and scaring off investors.
Look up planet X, Nibiru, or Alexander Solzhenitsyn for more information on the coming passing of the large planet and its entourage of meteors.
How do they know? - yes, it came from a completely different direction. And you don't have to have debris left from a meteor, asteroid, or comet. Depends entirely on the composition. They aren't all just big rocks or iron nuggets, you know.
As for the rest - wow. Just wow. Don't even know where to start...
Clarence24,
How the hell is it the Obama Administration fault? im not defending them but this is becoming bullsh*t what does NASA have anything to do with the PRESIDENT
Some of you can take your tin foil hats off now, its passed, but then it may have friends unseen yet
This proves no such thing. The meteor was 15 meters across, too small to get NASA's attention since that agency (and others worldwide) are focused on meteors that could be life-ending events.
NASA has told us some huge whoppers, Ask them why they wont let us see parts of the sky with Hubble, or why when large Solar Flares happen the SOHO satellite is turned off or pointed in a different direction. To this date no NASA official has ever explained how our manned spacecraft managed to get beyond the Van Allen Radiation Belts, especially when you consider the Russians stopped trying after frying to death 3 of their cosmonauts. How about answering why when the Space Shuttle flew too high they had to reduce their altitude because the astronauts were complaining of seeing radiation with their eyes closed. It is a well known fact that the radiation counts of the Van Allen Belts would require a spacecraft with 2 foot thick walls of lead for humans to survive. None of our spacecraft have ever had thicknesses beyond 1/4 inch in metals. Tell Nasa to rerelease the information they gathered in the 60s that measured the radiation levels in Van Allen Belts. They wont do that and you know why they wont. Nasa has been a deep dark hole where our money is sent and never returns. Period.
Tesla did do that, i think he was trying to "turn" off gravity. making a place where people could float around.
LiberalsRCommies...
I too am disappointed that the shuttle program has ended and have never quite understood the reasoning behind its retirement.
It is earths magnetic field that protects us from the particles ejected from the Sun at high velocities. They find their way to the polar regions via the magnetic field to produce the Northern Lights. They are one of the reasons why life flourishes on earth. Planets that have a weak magnetic field are Venus, and Mars and perhaps Mercury and the moon. For some reason these planets are also devoid of significant water. I believe there is a connection but have never found any literature supporting or disproving my theory that the solar winds are converted to water over the polar regions and are partially responsible for our huge oceans.
It should also be noted that the International Space Station orbits at about 300 miles which is inside earth's magnetic field. (As an aside, you should check out the Jackie Evancho video of her singing "Walking in the Air" while views of the Northern Lights are dancing below the space station,... it is easily found under her name.)
The Apollo astronauts had no such protection from solar radiation. The skin of the Lunar Landers were not much thicker than tinfoil and I'm pretty sure the Astronauts got a healthy dose of radiation on their ventures forty years ago but was not enough to significantly diminish their lives.
Radiation on a Mars trip on the other hand must be carefully considered, not to mention several years of weightlessness that will also do number on ones body. The bottom line of all this is that I don't think you have to worry about NASA or Obama or Commie plots to spoil our desire to "boldly go where no man has gone before," natural phenomenon sets its own boundaries.
Sincerely, your friendly CPL. (commie pinko liberal)
Videos with the shockwave audible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0cRHsApzt8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_mpGYSBSA (it is at around 0:26 due to the speed of sound being slow)
Shock and Awedible
I'd rather have this next meteor hit us dead-square on than read another one of (KING PUTTS) annoying posts. Jeez that dude gets on my nerves!!
Paging Mulder and Scully!
They better get there before Ratboy gets there.
I find it hard to believe no association exists between the meteorites and the asteroid. Within hours, both pass/intersect Earth. I think it is highly likely that what hit our planet was either part of the asteroid, broken off, or a smaller object being captured by the larger asteroid.
This is why mankind needs to drop the bs pretense and work together to protect us all from a catastrophe that does not care about the Electoral College.
Battle for LA, except in Russia, coordinates was a bit off.
Holy cow! Better check for aliens!
Bah! S'not Aliens. Just a North Korean missle. Good thing they're just "testing."
I liked the Russian Solaris too, as well as the George Clooney one: the whole world is sentient.
The Blob gave me nightmares for years......
"The Blob gave me nightmares for years......"
LOL, really? I was like a big wad of slow moving snot, my grandmother could outrun the blob, and she's dead.
You were? So sorry to hear that.
Body Snatchers freaked me out for years. I still look for a pod under my wife's side of the bed.
"He yelled 'Greetings!' and melted my lug wrench!"
@ TFNJ - Gads that was another one. Thanks for reminding me.... ;)
@ deprogrammer - you have to remember when The Blob first came out people weren't used to such things. Besides the blob could move pretty quick especially when it grew so big. What it did to it's first victim was considered pretty gruesome back then. The remake wasn't all that good IMO,
The Blob oozed its way into the theater vent, trapping all the rebellious teenagers inside. Terrifying.
Dont forget "Day of the Triffids".... Another Classic (well ok it was British, but still a good movie)!!
As a kid, Day of the Triffids was my favorite movie. That and THEM, the giant ants. Couldn't get enough of watching them.
What about the worst film of ALL time .... Attack of the Killer Tomatoes ? I am not kidding !
These were made at a time when they took any animal or vegetable, and made it gigantic for Sci-Fi Horror. I used to love them, no matter how rediculous. Anyone remember the giant crab that used telepathy to lure its victims in with thoughts? I forget the name of the movie.
"Trail of the Screaming Forehead"!!!!
Add one more to the list....Invaders from Mars.....
"Thankskilling" A must see
No Killer Tomatoes was good all most as good as Killer
Tomatoes two, three and four.
They're heeeerrrrreee.
People of Earth, Greetings. I mean you no harm. However, it is important to note that most of you will not survive the next 24 hours. Those that do survive will be experimented on. It's nothing personal it's just business. So just to recap. I mean you no harm and you all will die. Galaxar out.
Ooh, experimented on! Can I get an anal probe???
Yeah, go see your doctor, it's called a colonoscopy. Doesn't hurt a bit.
I hate Dr Jellyfinger
Cool stuff ...
I wonder how many anti-particles were created in that blast? I am sure quite a few Higgs Bosons were ...
It would have been both awesome and scary to watch. That one video make it look like it was going to land right on the photographer then it bloomed and what was left flew on past. I wonder if he crapped his pants?
Wow '08 and now. Twice in Siberia...who says lightening never strikes twice. Actually Siberia is so large, it is not a surprise.
Looking back on unexplained events, I believe ones these size had screamed in and landed or exploded above the oceans many times over the 20th century, but no one ever noticed or pinned down the culprit
I witnessed something very similar about 4 or so years ago. I live in Fl. and was walking my dog somewhere around 2:30- 3:30 am. As I walked back toward the house just before I got to the carport, all of a sudden it got very bright as if someone was shining one of those 10,000,000 candlepower spot lights on me. As I turned around the bright light faded and I noticed a large bunch of orange sparks up in the eastern sky much like the leftovers of aerial fireworks only much bigger. There was no boom, but if I had been looking in that direction at the time, the flash was so bright, my eyes would have been hurt to some degree. That's how bright it was. I never heard or read anything about it in the news, but it sure as heck happened. Is that maybe the '08 event you mentioned?
Sounds like you lived through the rare event called a Space Shuttle launch.
Glen Siberia is a dang large place. What do you think made that big hole in the ground out west?
Good morning, people of Earth -- This is your (long overdue) wake-up call from the Universe above...
Exactly; now carry on with your technological advancements with ways to kill each other.
Give thanks it wasn't bigger.
So awesome- and the asteroid story today kind of creepy!
In my defense when I first made this comment the title did not say 400 were injured- that part is not awesome-!
hmmm. Do we know this for sure?
That she's "pretty lady"? yes, you can see it right there.
But not quite as creepy as a Republican congressman in an airport bathroom.
TFNJ falls into the problem of our society today. Yes that is a pretty girl but you do not have any proof that pretty girl is the one posting not a magazine picture. You are told many things none of which you check out for yourself. You believe all kinds of dumb things without proof from a media that couldn't find Houston with a road map. You think the food in the grocery store comes from the backroom or something. And then if things happen you come up with 50 silly conspiracies each more insane than the last. I on the other hand find actually reading the law tells me more than the idiot politicians but then I will have to wait untill the sh*t hits your fan before you believe it. As reality begins setting in here in fantasyland I will enjoy watching you say but, but, the annointed one said all would be free and we could have everything and we could stick the bill to the rich guys and and....
Lonereb relax my friend, it's really me, in fact people who know me here know I change my avatar all the time-and have for years. But I appreciate the compliments. I think one day I'll use a photo with no make up so you can all say- good god what the hell happened to you?!!! ;) The photo was taken in January- a month ago. In the next one I'll hold up a current newspaper for the conspiracy theorists.
My avatar is my picture as well. (I'm the one on the left.)
As I sit here laughing, all I can think of is "wow I didn't think that one sentence warranted all that".. LOL
And besides, while yes indeed pretty, my post was just a joke as if I mis-understood Captain Slapahoe above. So relax yourself.
Michael, you are sporting a very chiseled look.
Really? I thought Michael looked a bit stoned.
Thanks for the great article. Most informative one I have read thus far.
Dang that was loud! Was spectacular to see, but I hope everyone's ok!
Sheesh that's awful :(
When the article first came out it didn't say so many people were hurt, but after judging from the blast and shattered glass I hoped no one got killed.
May everyone make a speedy recovery.
More than likely just a piece of space junk falling back to Earth. Like an old satellite.
We track that kind of thing and expect it. Any space junk big enough to explode on reentry is something we know about.
Yeah, Pontiac made those things pretty tough, back in the day! LOL!!
No way falling space junk can move that fast, and go at this angle. Most of the facts reported here are simple and quite evident in retrospect.
I believe that the "Sattelite" was a Plymouth product.
that's a plymouth satellite. also, chelyabinsk was the center of the soviet nuclear program.
Not to worry, just the North Koreans saying hello.
i sure hope so !! korea has been out of line for decades..
stomp on them russia...
Maybe it was Iran's monkey? He might have lost control.
We'll ain't u Americans glad that u did not elect McClain or one of those War Hawks Republitarts because if this had happened in USA, these War Mongers would have sent missles into Russia or China or N Korea or possible all three
King Putt Russia can't as you sayf**k anyone. Their population has fallen to half what it was and they are trying to pay people to have babies to save their economy. But the people are in the habit of not having babies and it isn't working. www.demographicbomb.com the real danger
Evening...Just as well the Russians did not think they were under attack...otherwise we might be all cactus....
I thought the Russian people handled this extremely well. Can you imagine the huge traffic pile-ups here; or Americans trampled to death while leaving the buildings?
Forty years ago, this might have started a nuclear war. Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed. However, wouldn't it be nice if one of these meteors would become meteorites on places like . . . oh say . . . North Korea's or Iran's nuclear facilities? That would be a win/win. (Sorry, just me thinking out loud. Is it too late to divert the 2012 DA14 meteor? Just wondering.)
Nevertheless, I hope the injured Russian people recover well and quickly. The article said it was mostly broken glass that caused the injuries, and that's very probable. We don't hear sonic booms like we did when we were kids (for those of us from the Stoneage), so I would imagine that it would be very scary to those who didn't know what it was.
". Thankfully, cooler heads have prevailed. However, wouldn't it be nice if one of these meteors would become meteorites on places like . . . oh say . . . North Korea's or Iran's nuclear facilities? That would be a win/win."
Win win for who? Certainly not the people that live there. People are people don't blame them and wish them harm for what their government does.
Reality is that falling space debris, meteors, etc have different trajectory profiles than missles. The Russian Government knew once it was detected that this wasnt any kind of Earthly attack.
is Russia somehow more magnetic than the rest of the world. They seem to get hit with a lot of stuff fall from the sky? (note: this was a joke for all you conspiracy folks)
Probably, no place on this planet had a bigger meteorite Strike that in the USA, if u don't believe me take a look at the GRAND CANYON!!!
The Grand Canyon was carved from moving water hence The Colorado River for millions of years. Not from Meteorite showers smart one!!
Uh,,, the Grand Canyon was not caused by a meteor.
The Grand Canyon was carved by the Colorado River. There is a national park somewhere out there that was a meteor but it is just a big round depression. For the uninformed Americans on here it was in a movie about a space man who took the form of a farmer from Wisconsin and his car to get there.
Hey, I pinpointed where I wanted one (or two) to hit. I didn't go after a whole population, I just would prefer that nuclear weapons' manufacturing facilities were destroyed. Sorry if that offends anyone. I'm sure there would be some warning so people could get out. We know how important it is to these governments to save their citizens.
NASA --here. Sorry about missing those on our radar, our bad, you couldn't have done anything anyway,lol, got to get back to the telescopes, can't talk now.
NICE. I love the way the russians keep driving towards the fireball..dur..turn around it could have been a nuke!
Radioactive? No.
It's clearly a part of the asteroid fly-by. No one doubts this. The denials from the government are a coverup engineered by the Obama administration.
No one "doubts" that because people who have looked at the data know it isn't true.
A coverup from Obama? Why would he bother?
Edit: Tch, it was collapsed by the time my post went up. Oh well.
Back on your meds, Cla'ance, you foil hat loon.
Another dumb victim of the American education system. Nuke causes EMP effect. Nobody would be driving becase the electrical system in any car turned on at the time would be fried.
@lonereb:
Not really, I'm willing to bet that there would quite a few older/outdated cars that still used the old distributor cap and not really anything else, this is Russia. Those cars would be just fine in the event of an EMP from a nuke.
Mitchell
Hey.....you guys who collapsed my comments. Do you know anything about parody and sarcasm? Can you imagine that my outrageous comments were directed at the wild conspiracy theories of the fanatical right wing Obama bashers?
Geeze! Even the reasonable people on here are not the brightest apples on the tree. There are a lot of collapsed comments on this non-controversial little piece. What are you people afraid of reading?
One should note the number of dashboard videos that caught this event. There were a few reports noting that phenomena and I believe that it has something to do with auto-insurance rules in that part of Russia. In any event all that documentation is good for pining down trajectory, size and speed of this object. Hope all the injuries were minor.
As to Clarence24 and collapsed comments... The problem lies with Newsvine's bad web design... no down arrow. If somebody says something asinine, the nuclear option of the exclamation point is the go to choice and in particular controversial topics collapse wars are inevitable. My repeated request to Newsvine to fix this has fallen on deaf ears.
The new Newsvine has some functionality, but it's still a pain in the asinine to work with.
I have yet to post a discussion on the New vine
I'm in a few discussions, but science is scarce over there.
If you find something, let me know.
ok. I joined a few groups to see, but not much activity.
I created a Nation (their new thing) called the UNNATION, since I really don't like the concept. However, someone pointed out it looked like Urination, which I wish I had thought of.
Urination, as in people who ate typically pissed off? That's for me!
I found it. But was it easy to find? Hell to the no. I went to my page, then searched all Nations and typed UNNATION. I got no results. Then I thought maybe it is withing another Nation, so had to go to your page and see what Nations you have. If you had not said you started that, how would I have known? Too cumbersome. That's why I haven't used it much. I typically read NBC news, and click on the comment section to add my genius comments. I don't usually go to Newsvine.com and start there. I just want the news.
There are a lot of articles out there about how bad it is and asking how the new Vine is going. It's not pretty.
END OF THE WORLD! AND IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT......the moon was once an earth......soon asteroids will inhabbit earth(asteroids are getting nearer to earth now). I mean most planets have 2 moons right? so this will be another moon to the nearest planet or maybe? spark a new planet and then that planet will have two moons somehow?
and plus the moons axis and the way it rotates is waaay off because of asteroid abuse.....This will happed to earth......the end is neear
Sleep it off.
when you talk about astrophysics do you also incorporate how a golf ball would act on artificial turf as it passes through an uneven course of windmills and flapping clown mouths?
Please tell me more about gravitational fields and the moon. Ha ha!
Sorry Putt, the moon gets hit less than the earth (smaller target). . .it's just that the scars don't heal on the moon. As an astrophysicist, you're a pretty good miniature golf course.
It always helps to validate a persons point when they end their thought with "Somehow".
Moving far too fast and in the wrong direction to be captured by the earth.
if the situation is simular to armagedon the govments are keeping a good lid on the situation
The gubmint always has something to do with it... ya no, we elected them darn gubmints.
I am sure that if the situation WERE similar to Armagedon, the amatuer astronomers who keep track of these things - cause NASA doesn't - would be letting people know. Since these amatuers are all over the world, in virtually every nation, it would be impossible to keep the information secret. When a dentist finds DA14, he is free to tell his patients what he finds. If that dentist found Armagedon out there, he'd have told a LOT of folk.
The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Oops, it already fell
best video I've seen of it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-0iwBEswE&feature=share
yep seen that. I had to link it to facebook. It was an awesome sight to see it is just too bad people got hurt at least there were not any deaths reported.
What are the odds that this happens just hours before a larger asteroid is about to buzz the planet? Astronomical odds I would think. Did some country shoot at the asteroid and break it up causing a piece to come a little too close?
@LP This was just a small tag-a-long traveling with DA14. There are probably 1000's more, but most are small and will burn up before hitting the ground. Although photographs indicate that a building may have been struck. The main asteroid has already past earth, but activity could continue for a time.
The Universe is very large and rare events happen all the time. Looking at a small section of the cosmos, one could see 100 stars explode every night.
THAT's the right question to ask. And no, they didn't. The two are not related. Freaky coincidence, tho!
Nah...but continue to be paranoid if it comforts you.
Just out of curiosity, could this one have originally been part of DA14 but kind of spiraled in so it just looked like it came from another direction?
Well, the odds of two objects colliding in the infinite vastness of space, with zillions of miles of nothing between relatively miniscule bits of rock, are astronomical in the first place. That's the origin of the term, you know. It still happens all the time, because the universe is just that big.
At that velocity? Nah. Had to have been a direct shot.
Got insurance for that?
@AL----- Yes, but meteors strikes are only covered on Mondays. That's in the fine print.
Heck insurance. Do you know how much a meteor rock brings in? More than diamonds. I'm sure that the Russians are outside hunting for pieces.
@Elizabeth--- If the russians are like all men, they're always looking for a piece. LOL.
everyone makes fun of events that happen but this is serious one day something very big will happen and and then will see whos crying for help its gona happen even nasa cant predict events like this no one knows domsday prepers may no something
I'm in "Good Hands".
Only available through FEMA
Not really, no.
Although if you're paranoid and scared enough that you panic at every conceivable fright and take precautions against every possible threat, then you'll probably be right about something eventually.
Of course, you will have still wasted a lot of time and energy on all the things that never went wrong, but at least you'll have been prepared for the one that did! And then you'll FINALLY get to say "I told you so!" I'm sure it's totally worth it.
Glad I'm wearing my hard hat and safety shoes
In Soviet Russia the meteor pieces hunted for you.
I hate Bing!!! Never can find sh*t with it, I would like to know where they find these people at that likes it so much.
I'm with you on that one. It's like Google but with all the actual practicality and usefulness sucked out.
I have found that Bing maps is better that Google by far. I have always use Google for years until now
Bing's better...case closed.
I took the Bing Challenge and they gave me a $25 gift card. So Ilike Bing.
I'm happy there are no "Its a sign of the end times!" posts on here
Its a sign alright, that there are massive rocks in space! lol
Here ya go... WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIIIIIIE!!!