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Big meteor hits Ural mountains in Russia

Feb 15, 2013#1

fade

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

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.

Feb 15, 2013#2

Gusto

Apart from the hurt people, this is kinda cool. There are videos on YouTube that are pretty sweet.

Feb 15, 2013#3

Dave

Wonder if it's related to the one that's supposed to miss us narrowly today. Like a "cluster" of sorts, with only the bigger one being detected ahead of time.

Feb 15, 2013#4

fade

Dave said:
Wonder if it's related to the one that's supposed to miss us narrowly today. Like a "cluster" of sorts, with only the bigger one being detected ahead of time.

From Plait's article:

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

Feb 15, 2013#5

Dave

Well, that's an assumption. It really depends on from where these asteroids originated. Were they a part of a long-ago astrological event? Seems a little too coincidental that these two large objects would be traveling in the same basic (again, astrologically speaking) trajectory.

Of course, Plait is much more educated than myself when it comes to this (dude worked on the Hubble!), but there's just no way to know what if any relation the two objects have without some sort of analysis of the individual compositions.

Feb 15, 2013#6

Dave

Apparently this hit a zinc plant!

Feb 15, 2013#7

sixpackshaker

/geographic ignorance - Why does Russia get hit so often?

Feb 15, 2013#8

Dave

sixpackshaker said:
/geographic ignorance - Why does Russia get hit so often?

Bad luck and size of the country.

Feb 15, 2013#9

BananaHands

Quick! Somebody get Bruce Willis!

Feb 15, 2013#10

Dave

BananaHands said:
Quick! Somebody get Bruce Willis!

He's busy promoting a terrible movie.

Feb 15, 2013#11

Gusto

BananaHands said:
Quick! Somebody get Bruce Willis!

Armageddon 2: Armageddon Some More

:awesome:

Feb 15, 2013#12

Hylian

Too bad Minus wasn't there to help

http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus37.html

Feb 15, 2013#13

drawn_inward

fade said:
From Plait's article:

Also, I think that this one came in East to West, and the other one is coming North to South. At least, I think that's what I read this morning.

Cool videos - I would have pooped in my pants if I was there.

Feb 15, 2013#14

Dave

Just listened to a different thing from JPL and they say it's entirely possible the two objects came from the same event. So there!

Feb 15, 2013#15

CynicismKills

Dave said:
Just listened to a different thing from JPL and they say it's entirely possible the two objects came from the same event. So there!

Nope, they're not related. Too much time in-between them, for one thing.

Feb 15, 2013#16

Dave

CynicismKills said:
Nope, they're not related. Too much time in-between them, for one thing.

So you're saying the dude from JPL was talking out his ass?

Feb 15, 2013#17

North_Ranger

Gusto said:
Apart from the hurt people, this is kinda cool. There are videos on YouTube that are pretty sweet.

Links, please?

Feb 15, 2013#18

sixpackshaker

youtube.com

Feb 15, 2013#19

Dave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=4ZxXYscmgRg[DOUBLEPOST=1360963972][/DOUBLEPOST][DOUBLEPOST=1360963998][/DOUBLEPOST]

Feb 15, 2013#20

Yoshimickster

So...how long do you think before zombies show up?

Feb 15, 2013#21

Tress

Yoshimickster said:
So...how long do you think before zombies show up?

Everyone who looked at the meteor would have turned to sand by now if that was going to happen.* So we're going to be fine.

*Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference

Feb 15, 2013#22

PatrThom

Tress said:
Everyone who looked at the meteor would have turned to sand by now if that was going to happen.* So we're going to be fine.

*Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference

Everyone who wasn't making out in the projection booth, that is.

I admit, I was going to add that movie to the B-movie thread.
--Patrick

Feb 16, 2013#23

AshburnerX

My favorite thing about all of this is that there are now Russian Truthers who claim it wasn't a meteor but rather a missile from the US. They think we're trying to start the cold war all over again.

Feb 16, 2013#24

Krisken

Yeah, cause that was so much fun the first 50 years.

Feb 16, 2013#25

HCGLNS

Feb 16, 2013#26

AshburnerX

Krisken said:
Yeah, cause that was so much fun the first 50 years.

Laugh if you will, but Russian soldiers were the first on the scene. Whether this was to check for missile debris or to steal the meteorite for a general sell, they sure as hell mobilized fast.

Feb 16, 2013#27

North_Ranger

AshburnerX said:
Laugh if you will, but Russian soldiers were the first on the scene. Whether this was to check for missile debris or to steal the meteorite for a general sell, they sure as hell mobilized fast.

How is that surprising? I mean, if the same happened in the United States, you could be damn sure that the army would be there first.

Heck, even in Finland the army would be there first.

Feb 16, 2013#28

TommiR

North_Ranger said:
How is that surprising? I mean, if the same happened in the United States, you could be damn sure that the army would be there first.

Heck, even in Finland the army would be there first.

Yeah, pretty much. If the scale of an emergency is big enough to overwhelm local resources, then the military is the only place where large amounts of manpower can be mobilised on short notice.

Aren't the National Guard also prominently deployed in the US when there is some natural disaster where extra manpower is needed for the relief effort?

Feb 16, 2013#29

AshburnerX

I think the difference here is that the Russian army has already secreted off whatever landed, where as the meteorite would belong to the owner of the property it landed on anywhere else. I doubt it's a conspiracy, but it certainly feels like a Red Army General decided he'd make a quick buck.

Feb 16, 2013#30

Jay

Feb 18, 2013#31

fade

More from Plait:

Not only that, but another known human trait is to be more aware of an event once one happens. Buy a car, and suddenly you see that model everywhere on the road. Same thing here: We had two big asteroid stories, so people were thinking about it. Then a bright fireball was reported over the San Francisco Bay area, and people freaked. But really, bright meteors like that happen all the time. It’s rare that a week or two goes by that I don’t hear about one someplace, and the web is filled with videos of them.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...teors_why_are_we_suddenly_seeing_so_many.html

I did some digging on my own, and the statistics are difficult to compute, but something like 10000-20000 meteors larger than a football (either definition) hit the earth annually, and literally tons of smaller ones hit each day.

Feb 18, 2013#32

Covar

sixpackshaker said:
/geographic ignorance - Why does Russia get hit so often?

Russia's fucking huge!

Feb 18, 2013#33

GasBandit

In Soviet Russia, SPACE launches into YOU!

Feb 18, 2013#34

sixpackshaker

I guess everyone forgets that I was a Geography Teacher for 7 years.

Feb 18, 2013#35

PatrThom

There's some pretty impressive stuff out there from people who are trying to use photogrammetry of things like the motion of cast shadows to try and pinpoint the path of travel in 3D space.

--Patrick

Feb 18, 2013#36

bhamv3

AshburnerX said:
My favorite thing about all of this is that there are now Russian Truthers who claim it wasn't a meteor but rather a missile from the US. They think we're trying to start the cold war all over again.

So, the US hits them with a meteor, wiping out a city, and that gives them an excuse to go to war?

I think I saw a movie with this plot once.

Feb 24, 2013#37

figmentPez

Feb 24, 2013#38

Tress

Like a boss.

Mar 1, 2013#39

Frank

In Soviet Russia, fucks don't give a single you.

Nov 11, 2013#40

PatrThom

Aaand we have an update:
http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-chelyabinsk-meteorite-01526.html

--Patrick

Nov 11, 2013#41

Dave

PatrThom said:
Aaand we have an update:
http://www.sci-news.com/space/science-chelyabinsk-meteorite-01526.html

--Patrick

Bullshit. The universe is only about 6,000 years old.

:ninja:

Nov 11, 2013#42

blotsfan

Someone needs to tell those Europeans that a comma is not the same as a decimal point.

Nov 11, 2013#43

Ravenpoe

blotsfan said:
Someone needs to tell those Europeans that a comma is not the same as a decimal point.

They appear to be using it as a comma and not as a decimal. 4,452 million years old is the same as 4.452 billion years old.

Nov 11, 2013#44

blotsfan

Ah. I missed that part about the solar system, and figured 4 billion years was too much to be reasonable. Guess not.

Nov 11, 2013#45

Dave

blotsfan said:
Ah. I missed that part about the solar system, and figured 4 billion years was too much to be reasonable. Guess not.

Remember, our whole universe was in a hot, dense state but nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started...

Nov 11, 2013#46

Ravenpoe

I would assume (though perhaps not correctly, I'm not an expert) that most of the meteorites that strike the earth would be about as old as the solar system, being debris left over from the initial nebula. Given the vast distance between other star systems, it seems far more likely that they'd be from our neighborhood.

Nov 17, 2013#47

CrimsonSoul

Dave said:
Remember, our whole universe was in a hot, dense state but nearly 14 billion years ago expansion started...

That's like inflation right? :rimshot:

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