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Meteor shower in Chelyabinsk, Central Russia


AderynCoch

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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

A meteor(s) has exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk. There's been damage to buildings, though I'm not sure if it's directly from the impact or from the shockwaves. I hope no-one's dead or injured.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

I hope no-one's dead or injured.

It seems not:

100 injured by meteorite falls in Russian Urals

Russian ministry says fragments of meteorite hit Earth and fell in sparsely populated areas of Chelyabinsk region; reports claim more than 100 injured

A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring around 100 people, including many hurt by broken glass. Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the Emergency Ministry said in a statement. Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 102 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions.

Kolsenikov also said about 600 square meters (6000 square feet) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed. Witnesses recanted hearing loud explosions which led to panic among residents in the lightly-populated region. A meteor streaked across the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring around 100 people.

"The meteorite disintegrated over the Urals, burning in the lower part of the atmosphere fragments of the meteorite hit the Earth and fell in sparsely populated areas of the Chelyabinsk region," the local branch of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said in a statement. Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said 102 people had called for medical assistance following the incident, mostly for treatment of injuries from glass broken by the explosions. Kolsenikov also said about 600 square meters (6,000 square feet) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed, adding that the shock wave blew out the windows "of the upper floors of buildings."

Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear skies. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, told The Associated Press that there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite.

Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time (0320 GMT), leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash. The shock wave blew out the windows of the office of Itar-Tass in the center of Chelyabinsk, the agency said, also reporting a wall collapsing at a plant in Chelyabinsk leading to three or four minor injuries. The administration of the city of Chelyabinsk, quoted by Interfax, for its part, reported many wounded, but failed to give accurate figures.

"At 11 am (0500 GMT), we had many calls reporting injuries, cuts and bruises", local authorities told Interfax.The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations is said to have mobilized 20,000 men and three aircraft to inspect the territories and urged people not to panic. "There was no evacuation of the population, the level of radioactivity was well within the standard. We urge you not to panic," the local branch of the Ministry said on its website.

The phenomenon has also been observed in Kazakhstan. The meteor shower came hours before the close encounter with 50m-wide asteroid 2012 DA14, which will pass just 34,000 kilometers from Earth tomorrow. The asteroid would leave a crater up to one kilometer wide if it hit Earth

http://www.ynetnews....4345317,00.html

http://youtu.be/rTRrBGSzrJw

http://youtu.be/s8sGLbbyy-A

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Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

In the first clip (second post) you can hear windows breaking from the boom shockwave

Presumably this shockwave caused the roof collapse rather than actual falling material.

It wouldn't be surprising if the whole thing exploded in the atmosphere effectively a small version of Tunguska.

Edited by 4wd
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Posted
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia

In the first clip (second post) you can hear windows breaking from the boom shockwave

That's insane.

Here's another perspective:

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_mpGYSBSA&feature=player_embedded

Scary stuff.

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Posted
  • Location: Belfast. 97m asl (Divis Mountain)
  • Location: Belfast. 97m asl (Divis Mountain)

RT reporting Over 500 people injured some critical and damage in 6 cities. Crazy stuff.

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Posted
  • Location: Knowle, Solihull - 400ft (122m) ASL
  • Location: Knowle, Solihull - 400ft (122m) ASL

This seems far more serious than first reported - now the lead story on many news websites.

Strange, I was reading about Tunguska this morning as it was linked to an article on the BBC site re the asteroid passing near to us overnight.

Bish

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Posted
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......
  • Weather Preferences: Hot & Sunny, Cold & Snowy
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......

Astronomers say it looks to be unrelated to tonights fly by (different orbit) but maybe it's all part of some past violent breakup of a much larger body throwing out fragments into different orbits?

This was obviously far smaller than tonights object but will there be more of a similar size to come as we pass through the debris field?

It would be cool to see a 'daylight' fireball though. I've seen a few nightime incidents and heard one 'sonic boom' from one that exploded not far above ground but nothing close to those images!

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Posted
  • Location: Near Beverley, East Yorks. (5 metres a.s.l.)
  • Weather Preferences: Something good in all four seasons
  • Location: Near Beverley, East Yorks. (5 metres a.s.l.)

Exciting and scary news !

(Incidentally I shall have a go at spotting tonight's asteroid)

B.

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Posted
  • Location: Near Romford Essex.
  • Location: Near Romford Essex.

It's frightening to think what could have happened if this exploded over a densely populated area such as New York City.

Or London..............

Mobile phones and power knocked out, must have been a strong EMP too.

Edited by Coast
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Like a mini-Tunguska, amazing.

Haven't there be several of these over the past few months (although not this big), we had one here in Wales the other month that reported to have set car alarms off, there was another and one over Scotland the other week. Coincidence or related? I don't remember hearing of so many meteors exploding in the atmosphere in a fairly short period of time before.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

Reports are mixed and confused (as expected given the area). There is also already the inevitable chatter of it being a weapon of some type.

A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 400 people, many of them hurt by broken glass. At least three people were reported hospitalized in serious condition. "There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region. "We saw a big burst of light then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

Another Chelyabinsk resident, Valya Kazakov, said some elderly women in his neighborhood started crying out that the world was ending. Some meteorites — fragments of the meteor — fell in a reservoir outside the town of Cherbakul, the regional governor's office said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. It was not immediately clear if any people were struck by fragments.

Meteors typically cause sizeable sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are traveling much faster than the speed of sound. Injuries on the scale reported Friday, however, are extraordinarily rare. Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said more than 400 people had sought medical treatment after the blasts, including three in serious condition. Many of the injuries were from glass broken by the explosions. Kolesnikov also said about 600 square meters (6000 square feet) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed. There was no immediate clarification of whether the collapse was caused by meteorites or by a shock wave from one of the explosions.

Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear skies. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, told The Associated Press that there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteor. Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time (0320 GMT), leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

Donald Yeomans, manager of U.S. Near Earth Object Program in California, said he thought the event was probably "an exploding fireball event." "If the reports of ground damage can be verified, it might suggest an object whose original size was several meters in extent before entering the atmosphere, fragmenting and exploding due to the unequal pressure on the leading side vs. the trailing side (it pancaked and exploded)," Yeoman said in an email to The Associated Press. "It is far too early to provide estimates of the energy released or provide a reliable estimate of the original size," Yeomans added.

Russian news reports noted that the meteor hit less than a day before the asteroid 2012 DA14 is to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid -- about 17,150 miles (28,000 kilometers). But the European Space Agency, in a post on its Twitter account, said its experts had determined there was no connection. Small pieces of space debris — usually parts of comets or asteroids — that are on a collision course with the Earth are called meteoroids. When meteoroids enter the Earth's atmosphere they are called meteors. Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, but if they survive the frictional heating and strike the surface of the Earth they are called meteorites.

The dramatic events prompted an array of reactions from prominent Russian political figures. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at an economic forum in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, said the meteor could be a symbol for the forum, showing that "not only the economy is vulnerable, but the whole planet." Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nationalist leader noted for vehement statements, said "It's not meteors falling, it's the test of a new weapon by the Americans," the RIA Novosti news agency reported

http://abcnews.go.co...-urals-18508752

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Posted
  • Location: Whaley Bridge - Peak District
  • Location: Whaley Bridge - Peak District

Doing some calculations..30 km/sec = 67,108mph = Mach 87

Modern impacts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event#Modern_impacts

One of the best-known recorded impacts in modern times was the Tunguska event, which occurred in Siberia, Russia, in 1908. This incident involved an explosion that was probably caused by the airburst of an asteroid or comet 5 to 10 km (3.1 to 6.2 mi) above the Earth's surface, felling an estimated 80 million trees over 2,150 km2 (830 sq mi).

The first known modern strike to a human was on the April 28, 1927 in Aba, Japan, to the head of the five-year-old daughter of Mrs. Kuriyama; a bean-sized stone was found resting on her headband and now resides in a museum, called the Aba stone. The girl recovered several days later.

The first known modern case of a human injured by a space rock occurred on November 30, 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama. There a 4 kg (8.8 lb) stone chondrite crashed through a roof and hit Ann Hodges in her living room after it bounced off her radio. She was badly bruised. Several persons have since claimed to have been struck by 'meteorites' but no verifiable meteorites have resulted.

In 1913 a ship was reported to have been struck and damaged by a meteorite while sailing between Sydney and South America.

On September 15, 2007, a chondritic meteor crashed near the village of Carancas in southeastern Peru near Lake Titicaca, leaving a water-filled hole and spewing gases across the surrounding area. Many residents became ill, apparently from the noxious gases shortly after the impact.

In the dark morning hours of January 18, 2000, a fireball exploded over the city of Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon at an altitude of about 26 km (16 mi), lighting up the night like day. The meteor that produced the fireball was estimated to be about 4.6 m (15 ft) in diameter and with a weight of 180 tonnes. This blast was also featured on The Science Channel series Killer Asteroids, with several witness reports from residents in Atlin, British Columbia.

A meteor was observed striking Reisadalen in Nordreisa municipality in Troms County, Norway, on June 7, 2006. Although initial witness reports stated that the resultant fireball was equivalent to the Hiroshima nuclear explosion, scientific analysis places the force of the blast at anywhere from 100-500 tonnes TNT equivalent – around 3% of Hiroshima's yield.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

Posted Image

Posted Image

MOSCOW — A meteor that scientists estimate weighed 10 tons streaked at supersonic speed over Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday, setting off blasts that injured some 500 people and frightened countless more.

The Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement that the meteor over the Chelyabinsk region entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of at least 54,000 kph and shattered about 30-50 kilometres above ground. The fall caused explosions that broke glass over a wide area. The Emergency Ministry says more than 500 people sought treatment after the blasts and that 34 of them were hospitalized.

The agency also cited military spokesman Yarslavl Roshupkin as saying that a six-metre-wide crater was found in the same area which could be the result of fragments striking the ground. Meteors typically cause sizeable sonic booms when they enter the atmosphere because they are traveling much faster than the speed of sound. Injuries on the scale reported Friday, however, are extraordinarily rare.

Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said that about 600 square metres of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed. There was no immediate clarification of whether the collapse was caused by meteorites or by a shock wave from one of the explosions. Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear skies. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, told The Associated Press that there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteor.

http://news.national...6-metre-crater/

Edited by Coast
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Posted
  • Location: Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, Thunderstorms, Warm summer evenings
  • Location: Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland

Vapour trail caught by Meteosat 10 this morning http://www.flickr.com/photos/eumetsat/8474853633/

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Oddly enough was reading up about the Chicxulub impact 65 million years ago the other day, imagine if this hit today:

~7 miles in diamater, about the size of the Isle of Wight

Weight around 1 trillion trons

Hits Earth at ~50,000 MPH, about 25 times the speed of a rifle bullet

Energy from the explosion is 100 teratons - over 1 billion hiroshima bombs or 10,000s times more energy than the worlds entire nuclear weapon arsenal

Tsunamis hundreds of feet high

Earthquake magnitude 11.4 is generated - tens of thousands times more powerful than any earthquake humans have recorded

A crater the size of Wales (typical) or larger generated almost instanteously

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Posted
  • Location: West Cumbria, Egremont 58m (190.3ft) ASL
  • Weather Preferences: Cold/snow winter, Warm/hot summer, Thunderstorms, Severe Gales
  • Location: West Cumbria, Egremont 58m (190.3ft) ASL

Seriously incredible stuff, i would love to experience something like this, and yesterday i was reading about the 2012 da14 asteroid which is meant to miss earth by 17,000 miles today, you'd think that the meteor shower is related to the asteroid.

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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

Ha. Just flicked Russia Today on.

They're interviewing dear old Mr Corbyn.

Oh dear! What does he know about it?

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