A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 950 people, many of them hurt by broken glass.
“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.
The Russian Academy of Sciences has estimated that the meteorite
weighed about 10 tons and entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of
at least 33,000 mph, shattering about 18-32 miles above ground. 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.
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 950 people, including 82 children, had sought medical treatment after the blasts, and at least three had been hospitalized 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.
Meteor's sonic boom at 35 secs
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| An image from the SEVIRI instrument aboard our Meteosat-10 geostationary satellite. The vapour trail left by the meteor that was seen near Chelyabinsk in Russia on 15th February 2013 is visible in the centre of the image.This image uses data from the High Resolution Visible (HRV) channel of SEVIRI that can produce images with both high spatial and temporal resolution. Image EUMETSAT 2013 |
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.
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) - MORE BELOW. 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.
Q+A
What's the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?
Meteors are pieces of space rock, usually from larger comets or asteroids, which enter the Earth's atmosphere. Many are burned up by the heat of the atmosphere, but those that survive and strike the Earth are called meteorites. They often hit the ground at tremendous speed — up to 30,000 kilometers an hour (18,642 mph) according to the European Space Agency. That releases a huge amount of force.
How common are meteorite strikes?
Experts say smaller strikes happen five to 10 times a year. Large impacts such as the one Friday in Russia are rarer but still occur about every five years, according to Addi Bischoff, a mineralogist at the University of Muenster in Germany. Most of these strikes happen in uninhabited areas where they don't cause injuries to humans.
What caused the damage in Russia?
Alan Harris, a senior scientist at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin, said most of the damage would have been caused by the explosion of the meteor as it broke up in the atmosphere. The explosion caused a shockwave that sent windows and loose objects flying through the air in a radius of several kilometers. By the time the remaining fragments hit the ground they would have been too small to cause significant damage far from the site of impact, he said.
Is there any link to the asteroid fly-by taking place later Friday?
No, it's just cosmic coincidence, according to European Space Agency spokesman Bernhard Von Weyhe, who says Asteroid 2012DA14 is unrelated to the meteorite strike in Russia.
When was the last comparable meteorite strike?
In 2008, astronomers spotted a meteor heading toward Earth about 20 hours before it entered the atmosphere. It exploded over the vast African nation of Sudan, causing no known injuries. The largest known meteorite strike in recent times was the "Tunguska event" that hit Russia in 1908. Even that strike, which was far bigger than the one that happened over Russia on Friday, didn't injure anyone. Scientists believe that an even larger meteorite strike may have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. According to that theory, the impact would have thrown up vast amounts of dust that blanketed the sky for decades and altered the climate on Earth.
What can scientists learn from Friday's strike?
Bischoff says scientists and treasure hunters are probably already racing to find pieces of the meteorite. Some meteorites can be very valuable, selling for up to €500 ($670) per gram depending on their exact composition. Because meteors have remained largely unchanged for billions of years — unlike rocks on Earth that have been affected by erosion and volcanic outbreaks — scientists will study the fragments to learn more about the origins of matter. Harris, of the German Aerospace Center, says some meteorites are also believed to carry organic material and may have influenced the development of life on Earth.
What would happen if a meteorite hit a major city?
Scientists hope never to find out, but they're still trying to prepare for such an event. Von Weyhe, the European Space Agency spokesman, says experts from Europe, the United States and Russia are already discussing how to spot potential threats sooner and avert them. But don't expect a Hollywood style mission to fly a nuclear bomb into space and blow up the asteroid. "It's a global challenge and we need to find a solution together," he said. "But one thing's for sure, the Bruce Willis "Armageddon" method won't work."
Meanwhile, Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to the Earth this evening (February 15, 2013), so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites.
NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office is predicting there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with the Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.
Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate that it is only about 45 meters (150 feet) across, just under half the length of a soccer pitch.
The last time a space rock of that size impacted earth was on June 30, 1908 when a large meteoroid or comet fragment exploded at an altitude of 5–10 kilometres (3–6 mi) above Tunguska, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is the largest impact event on or near Earth in recorded history, estimated about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The Tunguska explosion knocked an estimated 80 million trees down over an area covering 2,150 square kilometres (830 sq mi). It is estimated that the shock wave from the blast would have measured 5.0 on the Richter scale.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Friday at about 7:24PM GMT (2:24 p.m. EST or 11:24 a.m. PST), when it will be at a distance of about 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles) above the Earth's surface. This is so close that the asteroid will actually pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, which is located about 35,800 kilometers (22,200 miles) above the equator, but still well above the vast majority of satellites, including the International Space Station. At its closest, the asteroid will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the Moon. The asteroid will fly by our planet quite rapidly, at a speed of about 7.8 kilometers/second (17,400 miles/hour) in a south-to-north direction with respect to the Earth.
Even though 2012 DA14 is coming remarkably close, it will still only appear as a point of light in the biggest of optical telescopes because of its small size. It will brighten only to magnitude 7.5, too faint to be seen with the naked eye but easily visible in a good set of binoculars or a small telescope. The best viewing location for the closest approach will be Indonesia, from which the asteroid will be seen to move at a rate of almost 1 degree per minute against the star background. Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia are also well situated to see the asteroid around its closest approach.
2012 DA14 has not been in NASA's catalogs for very long -- it was discovered in February 2012 by astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey program in southern Spain and reported to the Minor Planet Center. The asteroid had just made a fairly distant passage by the Earth, about 7 times farther than the distance to the Moon when it was first detected by the Spanish group. Since 2012 DA14's orbital period around the Sun has been about 368 days, which is very similar to the Earth's, the asteroid made a series of annual close approaches, this year's being the closest. But this encounter will shorten 2012 DA14's orbital period to about 317 days, changing its orbital class from Apollo to Aten, and its future close approaches will follow a different pattern. The close approach this year is the closest the asteroid will come for at least 3 decades.
This passage of 2012 DA14 by the Earth is a record close approach for a known object of this size. A few other known asteroids have flown by the Earth even closer, but those asteroids were smaller. On average, we expect an object of this size to get this close to the Earth about once every 40 years. An actual Earth collision by an object of this size would be expected much less frequently, about once every 1200 years on average.
The diagram below shows the south-to-north trajectory of 2012 DA14 passing safely above the Earth's surface but well within the ring of geosynchronous satellites.
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| Click to enlarge. |
Astronomy Ireland is hosting a special Asteroid Watch to point some extremely powerful telescopes to the sky to observe the space rock as it passes. This event is free and is ideal for people of all ages and experience. It will take place at 8pm on Friday at the Astronomy Ireland Telescope Shop in Swords, Co Dublin.
"Being able to see an asteroid pass so close to our home planet is probably a once in a lifetime experience, and one that we don't intend to miss!" said David Moore, editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine. "We will have some of the most powerful telescopes in Ireland pointing at the space rock so that people can come along and see it for themselves!"
For further information on asteroid 2012 DA14 and the Asteroid Watch, please visit www.astronomy.ie or call (01) 890 11 11
The extremely close flyby of Earth of a 150-foot asteroid on Friday (Feb. 15) has cast a spotlight on the danger of asteroid impacts to our planet, a threat that an upcoming NASA mission aims to investigate.
Set to launch in 2016, OSIRIS-REx is an unmanned mission to collect samples of the potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid 1999 RQ36, which is nearly 1,500 feet (457 meters) wide, and return them to Earth. Not only will this effort collect samples of the space rock, but it will also gather the best measurements to date of the small forces that act on asteroids and make them tricky to track.
There are more than 1,300 space rocks that NASA classifies as "potentially hazardous asteroids." These objects measure at least 150 yards (about 140 meters) across and have orbital paths that bring them close to Earth's orbit.
"Being able to see an asteroid pass so close to our home planet is probably a once in a lifetime experience, and one that we don't intend to miss!" said David Moore, editor of Astronomy Ireland magazine. "We will have some of the most powerful telescopes in Ireland pointing at the space rock so that people can come along and see it for themselves!"
For further information on asteroid 2012 DA14 and the Asteroid Watch, please visit www.astronomy.ie or call (01) 890 11 11
The extremely close flyby of Earth of a 150-foot asteroid on Friday (Feb. 15) has cast a spotlight on the danger of asteroid impacts to our planet, a threat that an upcoming NASA mission aims to investigate.
Set to launch in 2016, OSIRIS-REx is an unmanned mission to collect samples of the potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid 1999 RQ36, which is nearly 1,500 feet (457 meters) wide, and return them to Earth. Not only will this effort collect samples of the space rock, but it will also gather the best measurements to date of the small forces that act on asteroids and make them tricky to track.
There are more than 1,300 space rocks that NASA classifies as "potentially hazardous asteroids." These objects measure at least 150 yards (about 140 meters) across and have orbital paths that bring them close to Earth's orbit.
"Asteroids move at an average of 12 to 15 kilometers per second (about 27,000 to 33,000 miles per hour) relative to Earth, so fast that they carry enormous energy by virtue of their velocity," OSIRIS-REx mission deputy principal investigator Edward Beshore of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement. "Anything over a few hundred yards across that appears to be on a collision course with Earth is very worrisome."
