Huge Meteor Blazes Across Sky Over Russia; Sonic Boom Shatters Windows

[Rick]

Huge Meteor Blazes Across Sky Over Russia; Sonic Boom Shatters Windows

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.

More on the Bad Astronomy blog, including several videos...

[Rick]

Meteor shower in central Russia 'injures at least 250'

At least 250 people have been injured after a meteor shower over central Russia blew out windows, interior ministry sources say.

Brightly burning rocks could be seen for hundreds of kilometres as they crashed into the Ural region.

Chelyabinsk residents reported shaking ground and car alarms being set off.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21468116

(I suspect some of the reporting's a little more sensational than objective...)

[mickw]

The videos are amazing, the dash-cam drivers seem surprisingly calm - not even F#*#* Me or whatever that is in Russian.

The twin trails looked a bit odd, a bit like shuttle SRBs

[Mike]

There have been some pretty impressive fireball videos about this.

However, have you seen some of the ridiculous reports that the Russian military shot it down?

"According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers."

[Mike]

This video is the best for the shockwave/shattering glass/car alarms all over the city:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b7mLUIDGqmw

[Tony G]

Lets just hope they have those calulations right for 2012 DA14, and I hope that the DA14 part isn't the postcode that it will hit, as that will be pretty close.

Tony G

[JohnP]

Some amazing footage on sky news http://news.sky.com/ especially the video caught by the bloke driving his car...... amazing..

[Mike]

This site has a good collection of videos.

http://say26.com/meteorite-in-russia-all-videos-in-one-place

[Fay]

Mick I think there could be a few expletives uttered in those clips!


Tony that is soooooo funny!!!!!!!!!

[JonH]

Surely i'm not the only one who is thinking 2012 DA14 and whats going on in Russia must have something to do with each other?....

[Mike]

They can't possibly be related. With the speed at which the Earth and DA14 are moving plus the difference in time these fireballs were seen to DA14's flyby of Earth later today mean these fragments were half a million km ahead of DA14. This object is nowhere near DA14 and looking at the direction it headed in and it's longitude it is on a completely different orbit. It is purely a coincidence.

[JonH]

Got to be honest Mike I didn't look into it all that much.
Quite the coincidence though!

[Rick]

Russia Meteor Not Linked to Asteroid Flyby

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.

More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-061

[Rick]

Additional Details on the Large Fireball Event over Russia on Feb. 15, 2013

The large fireball (technically, a "superbolide") observed on the morning of February 15, 2013 in the skies near Chelyabinsk, Russia, was caused by a relatively small asteroid approximately 17 to 20 meters in size, entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed and a shallow angle. In doing so it released a tremendous amount of energy, fragmented at high altitude, and produced a shower of pieces of various sizes that fell to the ground as meteorites. The fireball was observed not only by video cameras and low frequency infrasound detectors, but also by U.S. Government sensors. As a result, the details of the impact have become clearer. There is no connection between the Russian fireball event and the close approach of asteroid 2012 DA14, which occurred just over 16 hours later.

More: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fireball_130301.html

[Tony G]

Well I know what I believed happened.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/01/some-think-this-video-shows-a-ufo-came-to-shoot-down-the-russian-meteor-heres-why/



Tony G

[mickw]

The Russians did claim, shortly after the news broke, that they used a missile to shoot it down 

[Rick]

Seems the TV networks are catching up; tonight (Sunday 3rd March) C4 is showing a programme about the event at 8pm, and BBC2 one about meteors in general at 9pm...

[Rick]

Waves generated by Russian meteor recorded in U.S.

A network of seismographic stations recorded spectacular signals from the blast waves of the meteor that landed near Chelyabinsk, Russia, as the waves crossed the United States.

The National Science Foundation- (NSF) supported stations are used to study earthquakes and the Earth's deep interior.

While thousands of earthquakes around the globe are recorded by seismometers in these stations—part of the permanent Global Seismographic Network (GSN) and EarthScope's temporary Transportable Array (TA)—signals from large meteor impacts are far less common.

More: http://www.rdmag.com/news/2013/03/waves-generated-russian-meteor-recorded-us

[Rick]

Southampton scientist investigates Russian meteor

On the morning of Friday 15 February, an asteroid estimated to be the size of a five-storey building entered the atmosphere over the Urals region of Russia and disintegrated. It generated a blastwave that blew out windows and damaged buildings in the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring more than 1000 people. Just a few hours later, the world witnessed the 40 metre asteroid 2012 DA14 pass between the Earth and the ring of geostationary satellites; the closest approach of an object this size for a century.

Dr Lewis explained the significance of the event: "This is the first time that we've seen injuries resulting from a collision between the Earth and an asteroid. I think that what surprised most people was the scale of the damage from a relatively small object and the fact that we didn't have any warning."

More: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/features/hugh_lewis_russian_meteor.shtml

[Mike]

Good grief. It is very obviously just a diffraction pattern from the brightness of the meteor. Sheesh 

[Rick]

Russian Chelyabinsk meteorite pieces go under microscope

A team from the Ural Federal University was able to analyse some of the dozens of samples as soon as they were found.

But the technique they used allowed them to assess the rock's chemical make-up at the microscopic level even as they snapped pictures of the fragments.

This will provide extra information on the space rock's formation and journey.

The fragments represent just a small portion of the remains of the 17m-diameter body that struck the Earth's atmosphere in a spectacular trail of light over the city of Chelyabinsk.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23284371

[Rick]

Has the Chelyabinsk Meteor Parent Asteroid Been Found?

In February 2013, Russians near the city of Chelyabinsk got a huge surprise in the early morning: A chunk of asteroid 17 meters (50+ feet) across came screaming into the atmosphere over their heads, leaving a trail of smoke kilometers long, and exploding with the force of a half-million tons of TNT.

Now commonly known as the Chelyabinsk meteor, it was the biggest impact we've seen since the famed Tunguska event of 1908. It showered down small bits of rock over a pretty big area (the rock itself coming in is called a meteoroid, the glowing phase of its travel through our air is the meteor, and the solid chunks that hit the ground are the meteorites).

More

[Rick]

Around the World in Four Days: NASA Tracks Chelyabinsk Meteor Plume

Atmospheric physicist Nick Gorkavyi missed witnessing an event of the century last winter when a meteor exploded over his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia. From Greenbelt, Md., however, NASA's Gorkavyi and colleagues witnessed a never-before-seen view of the atmospheric aftermath of the explosion.

Shortly after dawn on Feb. 15, 2013, the meteor, or bolide, measuring 59 feet (18 meters)  across and weighing 11,000 metric tons, screamed into Earth's atmosphere at 41,600 mph (18.6 kilometers per second). Burning from the friction with Earth's thin air, the space rock exploded 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometers) above Chelyabinsk.

More: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/around-the-world-in-4-days-nasa-tracks-chelyabinsk-meteor-plume/

[Rick]

Meteorite pulled from Russian lake

Divers working at a Russian lake have recovered a half-tonne chunk of the space rock that exploded over Chelyabinsk earlier this year.

The object plunged into Lake Chebarkul in central Russia on 15 February, leaving a 6m-wide hole in the ice.

Scientists say that it is the largest fragment of the meteorite yet found.

More than 1,000 people were injured when a 17m, 10,000-tonne space rock burned up over Central Russia, breaking windows and rocking buildings.

More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24550941

[Rick]

Chelyabinsk Asteroid and Meteorite

So what actually exploded in the Chelyabinsk's sky? In mid February of this year, many astronomers were excited about asteroid 2012 DA14, predicted to pass closer to the Earth than even many man-made satellites. However, scientists now know that the object that exploded over Chelyabinsk was a small asteroid that wasn't in any way connected to 2012 DA14.

More: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/2013/10/chelyabinsk-asteroid-and-meteorite.html

[Rick]

First study of Russian meteorite

The meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013 was "a wake-up call," according to a University of California, Davis, scientist who participated in analyzing the event.

Based on viewing angles from videos of the fireball, the team calculated that the meteoroid entered Earth's atmosphere at just over 19 kilometers per second, slightly faster than had previously been reported.

"Our meteoroid entry modeling showed that the impact was caused by a 20-meter sized single chunk of rock that efficiently fragmented at 30 km altitude," Popova said. (A meteoroid is the original object; a meteor is the "shooting star" in the sky; and a meteorite is the object that reaches the ground.)

The meteor's brightness peaked at an altitude of 29.7 km (18.5 miles) as the object exploded. For nearby observers it briefly appeared brighter than the sun and caused some severe sunburns.

More: http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10764