Russia meteor was biggest in a century, shook the ground like an earthquake

By Scott Sutherland | Geekquinox – 5 hours ago

The meteor contrail over Chelyabinsk, Russia Friday morningAccording to officials with NASA and the US Geologic Survey (USGS) the meteorite that flashed across the sky over Chelyabinsk, RussiaFriday morning is not only the biggest meteor the Earth has directly encountered in over 100 years, but the shockwave from when it exploded shook the ground like an earthquake.

The last time something like this happened was nearly 105 years ago, in June of 1908, when a 40 m object (either a meteor or a comet)exploded over the Tunguska region of eastern Russia. The shockwave from that event leveled trees over 2,000 square kilometres and apparently registered as a magnitude 5.0 earthquake to seismic instruments across Eurasia.

Scientists are still working on the exact details, but the object that exploded over Chelyabinsk was abolide — a meteor that explodes into extremely bright fireball. Estimates put it at roughly 17 meters long, with a mass of about 10,000 metric tons. It entered the atmosphere travelling at 15-20 km/s (54,000-72,000 km/h), leaving a vapour trail hundreds of kilometres long and exploding somewhere between 30-50 kilometres above the ground, with a force equal to a 500 kt nuclear bomb.

[ Related: Asteroid-targeting system could vaporize dangerous space rocks ]

The shockwave from the explosion took between one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half minutes to reach the ground, and when it did, it shattered thousands of windows in communities around the region, as well as causing several building fronts to buckle from the stress and it apparently collapsed the roof of a zinc factory. To seismographs around the world, it registered as the equivalent of a magnitude 2.7 earthquake.

Last reported, over 1,100 people were injured, either by flying broken glass or meteorite fragments, and nearly 3,000 buildings — including 34 healthcare institutions and 361 schools — were damaged. Last count, the damage estimate was 1 billion rubles, equal to more than 33 million dollars.

Initially classified as just a meteor, the object was then called a meteorite when evidence was discovered of fragments reaching the ground. One particular fragment smashed through the ice covering Lake Chebarkul, about 80 km west of Chelyabinsk.

There has been some question about whether or not this asteroid was connected with asteroid 2012 DA14, which made an extremely close pass by the Earth on Friday afternoon. However, whereas some asteroids and meteoroids flying around in space aren't alone as they do so, these two encounters were entirely coincidental. There's a very cool graphic at The Telegraph that illustrates it.

Trajectories of Russian meteor (above) and asteroid 2012 DA14 (below)The reason that astronomers can be so certain of this is due to the trajectories of the two objects. The meteor that streaked across the sky above Chelyabinsk today traveled from northeast to southwest. Asteroid 2012 DA14 swung by the Earth traveling from south to north. If the two objects were somehow related, their paths would have been more parallel to each other.

Another question being asked is why, if we knew asteroid 2012 DA14's path so exactly, and we know the positions and paths of other objects out in space so well, how did this meteor over Russia catch us off-guard?

The sad truth is that we have no idea exactly how many meteoroids and asteroids there are flying around out in space, and the smaller an object is, the harder it is to see it. With this object over Russia only being 17 metres wide, it is extremely difficult to see objects of that size unless they are made of an extremely reflective material, and rocks floating around in space are notorious for being made of dark materials.

[ More Geekquinox: Russian meteor causes sonic booms, rains down debris ]

As I learned from Phil Plait (@badastronomer) today, there are two satellite missions in the works to help with this problem though.

One is the Sentinel Mission, being developed by the B612 Foundation. This satellite will orbit around the Sun at roughly the same distance as the planet Venus scanning out towards Earth's orbit with infrared instruments to spy asteroids and meteoroids.

This will complement the NASA WISE mission (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), which has been in operation since 2009, and has already provided data that suggests there are between 3,200 and 6,200 potentially-hazardous asteroids (PHAs) whizzing around out there.

One thing seems clear from the events of the past day, though. The issue of near-Earth asteroids and their danger to us is not something we can ignore. We can only hope that the U.S. Congress can follow through on their plans to schedule a hearing on the issue of potentially-hazardous asteroids, and that this hearing will actually see some real results — like increased funding to NASA, and to organizations like the B612 Foundation, so that we can better protect ourselves in the future.

(Images courtesy: Getty/Andrey Orlov, Chebarkul/EUMETSAT/NASA JPL)

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Primary school teacher of the Lyceum N37 Chelyabinsk Julia Karbysheva rescued 44 students from the consequences of the explosion of the meteorite over the city on Friday, and she was in the hospital with cuts, the agency "Interfax-Ural" main city hospital doctor N9 Oleg Denisov.According O.Denisova, teacher, who on that day was on the substitution of the two fourth grade, saw the children during the intense light flashes rushed to the window."She gave a command of fourth hide under their desks, and she rushed to open the interior doors. They were glass, because the school was located in a former kindergarten" - shared details of the incident O.Denisov.A few minutes after the flash was followed by a massive explosion, the shock wave shattered glass and debris rained down on the woman. The teacher did not get lost, he ordered the children to get dressed quickly and evacuated them to the street."None of the students did not get a single scratch. Teacher was admitted to the hospital with cuts the tendons of his left hand and left thigh. Yu.Karbysheva currently being treated in hospital N9", - said the head physician.According to him, only in a hospital sought medical treatment 112 Chelyabinsk, 16 of them, including 11 children, have been hospitalized. As of the morning of February 16, the health facility were five adults and two children. Basically all incised wounds of face and hands.Read more: http://www.interfax.by/news/world/125377

Neither Russia nor the United States can not afford to shoot down the "objects of alien origin" need international initiative - Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin15.02.13 / 09:44 © comments

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the relevance of association of the leading countries of the world in order to prevent an invasion of Earth alien bodies."I have already spoken of the need of some international initiatives relating to the development of prevention and preventing dangerous approach to Earth objects extraterrestrial origin," - said Rogozin, "Interfax" on Friday in connection with the last of the Chelyabinsk region meteor shower.As the Vice-Prime Minister, what happened today in the Urals, reaffirms the importance of addressing the issue.Currently, neither Russia nor the United States have the capacity to bring down such objects, said Rogozin.As the Deputy Prime Minister, missile defense is, "but they affect ballistic targets - go near the Earth for good path." And here, he said, it is in fact a direct hit "shell" of the cosmos. "This kind of technology (to shoot down while approaching meteorites and asteroids) or the Americans or we do not have at the moment," - said Rogozin."Here we have to think," - he said.Rogozin said that the first time he spoke in detail about this, when he served as the permanent representative of Russia to NATO. "The response was skepticism:" this can not be, because it can never be ", was some criticism, many laughed," - said Deputy Prime Minister.Meanwhile, Rogozin said, the idea of ​​this kind of protection is not refused."Russia and other major countries have a system of monitoring, control of outer space, but most of it is focused on tracking dangerous approach of spacecraft and space debris", - said Rogozin, adding that today's events are a strong argument in the dispute with the skeptics who did not believe that this can happen."It is better not to wait for the new emergency, and do these kind of problems before," - said the representative of the government. According to him, of course, significant international cooperative efforts for developing appropriate technologies. "In any case, the theme is very technological, goals, facing the major world powers, to entities interested in the cosmos, it is quite rational and understandable," - said Deputy Prime Minister.According to him, the solution of this problem makes us work together, "rather than engage in a heap of military stuff in space, aimed at easing as soon as the safety of our planet."What happened this morning over the Chelyabinsk region, "just make kosnomyslyaschih bureaucrats space to think about more serious problems to look for cosmic horizon," Rogozin believes

Read on: http://www.interfax.by/news/world/125317

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Quote:
Primary school teacher of the Lyceum N37 Chelyabinsk Julia Karbysheva rescued 44 students from the consequences of the explosion of the meteorite over the city on Friday, and she was in the hospital with cuts, the agency "Interfax-Ural" main city hospital doctor N9 Oleg Denisov.According O.Denisova, teacher, who on that day was on the substitution of the two fourth grade, saw the children during the intense light flashes rushed to the window."She gave a command of fourth hide under their desks, and she rushed to open the interior doors. They were glass, because the school was located in a former kindergarten" - shared details of the incident O.Denisov.A few minutes after the flash was followed by a massive explosion, the shock wave shattered glass and debris rained down on the woman. The teacher did not get lost, he ordered the children to get dressed quickly and evacuated them to the street."None of the students did not get a single scratch. Teacher was admitted to the hospital with cuts the tendons of his left hand and left thigh. Yu.Karbysheva currently being treated in hospital N9", - said the head physician.According to him, only in a hospital sought medical treatment 112 Chelyabinsk, 16 of them, including 11 children, have been hospitalized. As of the morning of February 16, the health facility were five adults and two children. Basically all incised wounds of face and hands.Read more: http://www.interfax.by/news/world/125377