Meteor strike in Russia causes sonic boom and hundreds injured

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









A meteor crashing in Russia's Ural mountains has injured at least 950 people, as the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.

Most of those hurt, in the Chelyabinsk region where the meteor fell, suffered cuts and bruises but at least 46 remain in hospital.

A fireball streaked through the clear morning sky, followed by loud bangs.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

A large meteor fragment landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in Chelyabinsk region.

The meteor's dramatic passing was witnessed in Yekaterinburg, 200km (125 miles) to the north, and in Kazakhstan, to the south.

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“
Start Quote
A huge line of smoke, like you get from a plane but many times bigger”
End Quote
Sergei Serskov

Chelyabinsk resident


"It was quite extraordinary," Chelyabinsk resident Polina Zolotarevskaya told BBC News. "We saw a very bright light and then there was a kind of a track, white and yellow in the sky."

"The explosion was so strong that some windows in our building and in the buildings that are across the road and in the city in general, the windows broke."

Officials say a large meteor partially burned up in the lower atmosphere, resulting in fragments falling earthwards.

Thousands of rescue workers have been dispatched to the area to provide help to the injured, the emergencies ministry said.

The Chelyabinsk region, about 1,500km (930 miles) east of Moscow, is home to many factories, a nuclear power plant and the Mayak atomic waste storage and treatment centre.

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Asteroids, meteors and meteorites

Asteroids are small bodies that orbit the Sun as the Earth does
Larger asteroids are called planetoids or minor planets, smaller ones often called meteoroids
Once any of these enters our planet's atmosphere, it becomes a meteor
Many meteors break into pieces or burn up entirely as they speed through the atmosphere
Once meteors or fragments actually impact the surface, they become meteorites
Q&A: Asteroid impacts
Can we know about every rock?

One Russian politician said the event was not a meteor shower but a US weapons test, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, was quoted as saying: "Meteors are falling. Those are not meteors, it is Americans testing their new weapon."

'Blinding'

Chelyabinsk's health department said 985 people had sought medical treatment, including 204 children, Interfax reported. Two people in the town of Kopeysk were in a serious condition, it added.

The governor of Chelyabinsk region, Mikhail Yurevich, was quoted elsewhere as saying 950 people had been hurt, two seriously.

Mr Putin promised "immediate" aid for people affected, saying kindergartens and schools had been damaged, and work disrupted at industrial enterprises.

Many children were at lessons when the meteor fell at around 09:20 (03:20 GMT).

Video posted online showed frightened, screaming youngsters at one Chelyabinsk school, where corridors were littered with broken glass.

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Footage shows an icy lake near Chebarkul, where police say part of the meteor landed
Chelyabinsk resident Sergei Serskov told BBC News the city had felt like a "war zone" for 20 to 30 minutes.

"I was in the office when suddenly I saw a really bright flash in the window in front of me," he said.

"Then I smelt fumes. I looked out the window and saw a huge line of smoke, like you get from a plane but many times bigger."

"A few minutes later the window suddenly came open and there was a huge explosion, followed by lots of little explosions."

In Yekaterinburg, 36-year-old resident Viktor Prokofiev was driving to work when he witnessed the event

Yeah there are dozens of videos out there right now. Crazy.

oggy420 wrote:

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

lol that is the Derweze, not from the meteor

damn half ass russian media!

oggy420 wrote:

damn half ass russian media!

I thought I read that no one was "seriously hurt". Then later I hear something like 500 hurt? I guess just minor injuries?

strange timing considering there is another one that is supposed to come really close to earth today, might have already. It's not supposed to hit but they were saying you can only see it from parts of Russia...

A 150ft-long asteroid has skimmed harmlessly past the Earth - closer than any other near-miss on record.

http://news.sky.com/story/1052399/asteroid-skims-past-earth-at-up-to-18641mph

We're so defenseless against objects from space, at any moment we could be wiped out.

lol, sonic boom

A 150foot long object would be relatively harmless unless it struck directly in the vicinity of people. By the time it hit the surface the atmosphere and air friction/heat would have greatly diminished the mass of the object. Unless it impacted within a mile or three of people it's unlikely that it would have much effect other than a really loud noise and a shimmy shimmy shake.

This is crazy .. but pretty cool at the same time

Did NASA or any of the other space organizations know this meteor was going to strike earth ? Or were they too pre-occupied with the asteroid ?

im sure they knew but didnt have enough time to gather an oil drilling team, and even then, it's too small to nuke. So, they just let it hit and didnt say anything to avoid a panic. It's really not a big deal outside of "wow, a meteor hit us".

Ali* wrote:

Did NASA or any of the other space organizations know this meteor was going to strike earth ? Or were they too pre-occupied with the asteroid ?

Neil deGrasse Tyson ‏@neiltyson
The actual #StateOfTheUnion: Office-building-sized asteroid buzz-cuts Earth this Friday. NASA has no capacity to deflect them

Ali* wrote:

Did NASA or any of the other space organizations know this meteor was going to strike earth ? Or were they too pre-occupied with the asteroid ?

This is what I gathered no they did not: NASA is able to track larger size (in terms of area) asteroids a lot better than they can a smaller size one .. which makes sense .. Objects enter our atmosphere all the time .. But I believe they are saying that this meteor was made up of majority of iron which made it very large in terms of mass .. Combine that with the speed it was traveling at caused that huge sonic boom .. I think only tiny shrapnels might have actually landed

Pretty cool stuff

NASA is gone. Thanks Obama.

are you telling me we dont have a giant fucking laser somewhere to blast shit from space???
guess we'll eventually go the way of the dinosaur

this makes the arrival of comet ison all the more intriguing. Supposed to be as bright as the full moon in late November of this year. Could possibly effect satelites.

oggy420 wrote:

this makes the arrival of comet ison all the more intriguing. Supposed to be as bright as the full moon in late November of this year. Could possibly effect satelites.

a guy I work with was talking about that he said it would be like dawn or dusk at night time and it was going on for weeks. That kind of thing might not seem to crazy but it hws a lot of impacts in nature.

In Russia you dont shoot for the stars
the stars shoot for you.

Farmer1906 wrote:

NASA is gone. Thanks Obama.

what the fuck did NASA do the last time a comet came?

Ali* wrote:

Did NASA or any of the other space organizations know this meteor was going to strike earth ? Or were they too pre-occupied with the asteroid ?

ahaha

Hey Jimmy whats that other thing coming at us
Not now damn it Im looking at the asteroid