Meteore hits Russian City.

[Sleipnir]

Apparently this thing was about 10 tones. THAT's HUGE !!!! Some reports of about 500 injured, some say over 700 injured.

It was actually an meteor air burst not a meteor impact.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Sleipnir

[Bonam]

Reports say it was actually 7,000 tonnes:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/15/russia-meteorite.html?cmp=rss

[Moonlight Graham]

Pretty crazy. Most people injured by broken glass as they rushed to stare at the scene in the sky from their buildings etc.

If I were there I would have thought it was a missile or a plane. Apparently it exploded in the sky before it was able to hit the ground in one piece, which caused the large boom.

[Bonam]

[bush_cheney2004]

[Guest Derek L]

Good thing Canada’s withdrawal from BMD didn’t end that program….

http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/4983/20130215/missile-defense-system-test-milestone-space-tracking.htm

Edited February 16, 2013 by Derek L

[Bonam]

[DogOnPorch]

Good thing Canada’s withdrawal from BMD didn’t end that program….

http://www.sciencewo...ce-tracking.htm

With a known space rock, it would be better to hit it with a continuous laser beam or send a mission to it to increase or reduce albedo on one side in order to produce this effect on a large scale.

Edited February 16, 2013 by DogOnPorch

[GostHacked]

I was surprised that the shock wave was so strong. Blew the roof off of a zinc factory.

Not very surprising at all. Mid 80s two CF-18 pilots blew through the sound barrier at low altitude about 20kms south of Sudbury ON. Windows downtown blew out.

[GostHacked]

Reports say it was actually 7,000 tonnes:

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...te.html?cmp=rss

7000 tonnes would make everyone on this planet have a very very bad day.

[GostHacked]

[DogOnPorch]

Not very surprising at all. Mid 80s two CF-18 pilots blew through the sound barrier at low altitude about 20kms south of Sudbury ON. Windows downtown blew out.

Blowing a few windows out is a few magnitudes less than ripping the roof off of a factory. Do you recall the MythBusters episode where they used sound waves to knock over various obstacles? It took a LOT to move a brick.

[DogOnPorch]

7000 tonnes would make everyone on this planet have a very very bad day.

That's apparently the weight as estimated.

[Guest]

30 Hiroshimas according to NASA.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9874662/Russian-meteor-hit-with-force-of-30-Hiroshima-bombs.html

[DogOnPorch]

Agreed. 500kt seems about right.

[sharkman]

The US space program has to be greatly reduced with the way Obama sacked NASA. I wonder what their capacity is these days to detect meteors such as the Russian event?

[DogOnPorch]

The US space program has to be greatly reduced with the way Obama sacked NASA. I wonder what their capacity is these days to detect meteors such as the Russian event?

Generally, all areas will suffer. Including Earth watching abilities. Less birds in the sky doing science. But, it's amateurs who often find these NEOs...by accident, naturally. But, the chance of us seeing that Russian rock ahead of time was slim to nil. It was probably very low albedo and way beyond magnitude 18. Plus all eyes were on the bigger rock making a pass. A fairly large meteor came in over San Francisco some hours later...looks like it skipped back out into space. Didn't see that baby, either....oooops.

[eyeball]

How's that space program coming along you ask? Well, not too good I'd say given how the natural resource window through which our species might shoehorn itself into space was co-opted by the 1% for their own purposes.

I think we probably only get one chance at this shoehorning business. Might as well keep partying like there's no tomorrow I guess.

[Guest Derek L]

With a known space rock, it would be better to hit it with a continuous laser beam or send a mission to it to increase or reduce albedo on one side in order to produce this effect on a large scale.

But Star Wars is bad no?

http://youtu.be/dq6ZsF6bzOA

[bush_cheney2004]

The US space program has to be greatly reduced with the way Obama sacked NASA. I wonder what their capacity is these days to detect meteors such as the Russian event?

NASA has defined projects that track space debris and orbiting objects, as does the US DoD, mostly to avoid collision risk for manned and unmanned assets. It is not responsible for tracking all possible objects over all air space for the planet, nor could it ever do so. Meteors are naturally occurring objects / events that just go with the territory.

http://www.nasa.gov/...tal_debris.html

Edited February 17, 2013 by bush_cheney2004

[WWWTT]

Just for the record.

Tunguska is only theorized to be a meteor.

There is no evidence of any meteor frogments!

The evidence points more to a nuclear blast covering a massive 500,000 acres and no impact crater!

WWWTT

[GostHacked]

Just for the record.

Tunguska is only theorized to be a meteor.

There is no evidence of any meteor frogments!

The evidence points more to a nuclear blast covering a massive 500,000 acres and no impact crater!

WWWTT

So a nuclear bomb decades before the first nuclear bomb was tested?

[DogOnPorch]

So a nuclear bomb decades before the first nuclear bomb was tested?

This was 99% a comet that broke up violently in our atmosphere. Lake Cheko is thought to be the sight of the impact of what was left.

[sharkman]

Just for the record.

Tunguska is only theorized to be a meteor.

There is no evidence of any meteor frogments!

The evidence points more to a nuclear blast covering a massive 500,000 acres and no impact crater!

WWWTT

The best conspiracy theories are the ones that sound believable.

[DogOnPorch]

The best conspiracy theories are the ones that sound believable.

Indeed...we see big comets zooming by all the time...one is due by soon, in fact...but it is obviously a hydrogen bomb 40+ years before humans actually made one.