A very big meteor just exploded over Russia

missesdash · Feb 14, 2013

And holy crap at all the videos of it!

Buzzfeed has a few:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/meteorite-crash-reported-in-russia

You can hear it in this one and the chaos that ensues: http://youtu.be/XIAm5hq8WWc

And in this one, you can see the huge "the end is near" flash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-0iwBEswE&feature=youtu.be

You've got to watch, it's so cool.

MOSCOW (AP) — Fragments of at least one meteorite fell in the Chelyabinsk region some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, causing flashes in the morning sky and sharp explosions, Russian officials said Friday.

The office of the governor of the regrussihere were no immediate confirmed figures or specific reports on damage.

Reports conflicted on the event: A spokeswoman for Russia's 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.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/15/russia-meteorite/1921991/

Vincent · Feb 14, 2013

Here are some more (maybe already on the Buzzfeed post):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OccmX0PRJoU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=w6uOzFo2MQg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-0iwBEswE&feature=youtu.be

That's one loud sonic boom.

missesdash · Feb 14, 2013

Thanks! Totally wishing I spoke Russian right now.

ETA: somewhat dubious claim from RT

According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/

blacbird · Feb 14, 2013

Didn't "land", from what I read. Exploded in the atmosphere, at approximately 32,000 feet.

Such things do happen. And it has no connection with the asteroid due to pass Earth at 17,000 miles on Friday. Unrelated trajectories.

But big noises and shock waves strong enough to break windows do get people's attention, and rightly so.

caw

firedrake · Feb 14, 2013

blacbird said:
Didn't "land", from what I read. Exploded in the atmosphere, at approximately 32,000 feet.

Such things do happen. And it has no connection with the asteroid due to pass Earth at 17,000 miles on Friday. Unrelated trajectories.

But big noises and shock waves strong enough to break windows do get people's attention, and rightly so.

caw

Ha! You saved me the trouble of asking about whether the two were connected.

missesdash · Feb 14, 2013

Apologize in advance for any misinformation! It's been changing pretty rapidly.

But from Slate:

http://slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/15/breaking_huge_meteor_explodes_over_russia.html

I’m trying to piece together what happened from the videos. First of all, I do not think this is related in any way to the asteroid 2102 DA14! For one thing, this occurred about 16 hours before DA14 passes. At 8 kilometers per second that’s nearly half a million kilometers away from DA14. That puts it on a totally different orbit.

For another, from the lighting, time of day, and videos showing the rising Sun, it looks like this was moving mostly east-to-west. I may be off, but that’s how it looks. DA14 is approaching Earth from the south, so any fragment of that rock would also appear to move south-to-north.

Teinz · Feb 15, 2013

Damn, somebody call Bruce Willis.

In the third video Missesdash posted, you can see the fireball is brighter than the sun.

This is so awesome!

Not awesome that people got hurt, b.t.w.

cornflake · Feb 15, 2013

Geez, 400 people hurt? That's a crazy boom.

I know this is silly but I believe that's the same small city that's the site of a mysterious explosion (which turns out to be the detonation of a stolen nuke) in the beginning of that Clooney/Kidman thriller in which he's a special forces dude and she's a nuclear scientist (I know, but it's really not bad).

Also, Tunguska!

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 15, 2013

cornflake said:
Geez, 400 people hurt? That's a crazy boom.

I know this is silly but I believe that's the same small city that's the site of a mysterious explosion (which turns out to be the detonation of a stolen nuke) in the beginning of that Clooney/Kidman thriller in which he's a special forces dude and she's a nuclear scientist (I know, but it's really not bad).

Also, Tunguska!

That's the first thing I thought:

Holy Tunguska, it's 1908 all over again.

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 15, 2013

I've been looking at videos of the event.

I know it's not quite on topic, but how many Russians routinely video their road travel? So far everything i've seen has been from the windshield of a moving vehicle.

cornflake · Feb 15, 2013

Alessandra Kelley said:
I've been looking at videos of the event.

I know it's not quite on topic, but how many Russians routinely video their road travel? So far everything i've seen has been from the windshield of a moving vehicle.

All of them. You never know when something is going to happen.

Alessandra Kelley · Feb 15, 2013

Also, I am very much doubting that any interception of any kind actually hit that thing. I am willing to be awed if it did, but the physics are awfully unlikely.

firedrake · Feb 15, 2013

Alessandra Kelley said:
I've been looking at videos of the event.

I know it's not quite on topic, but how many Russians routinely video their road travel? So far everything i've seen has been from the windshield of a moving vehicle.

I was thinking the same thing. You'll find the answer here

Alpha Echo · Feb 15, 2013

Wow. How awesome. And I was thinking the same think as Alessandra. LOL I must start having my passenger video tape the sky every time I drive.

Plot Device · Feb 15, 2013

This reminds me of when I witnessed an awesome meteor shower about 10 years ago -- I think it was the Leoniids. One of those Leonids exploded as well --but not as spectacularly as this Russian meteor because the Leonids were tiny little pipsqueak meteors the size of Lay-Z-Boy armchairs, while this thing in Russian was probably the size of a UPS truck.

Anyway, I was on a small hill (with my boyfriend at the time, and in the company of several hundred other meteor watchers) at about midnight in November watching the meteors penetrating our atmosphere. And ONE of those meteors broke into several smaller pieces with a crackling, fizzling sort of a POP! of an explosion. I'll never forget that fizzling sound. And the thing was easily miles away from me, yet I still heard it!

This meteor in Russia seems to have likewise exploded and broken up into smaller pieces when it hit its critical point of re-entry temperature. The long trailing cloud seen in ALL the videos looks to me like a vapor trail of water which was originally ice inside of the meteor but then got boiled into steam from the high temps of re-entry. In fact, it was probably the raoid expansion of the steam which caused the thing to explode. Some of that vapor trail is likely mixed with smokey debris and dust, but I suspect a lot of it is mostly just water. And you can see the vapor trail branch off into two separate trails, due to the meteor breaking into two lesser chunks from the explosion.

Meanwhile it's silly for anyone to claim it was intercepted by military aircraft or missiles or anything. It just exploded is all.

Seraph · Feb 15, 2013

missesdash said:
And in this one, you can see the huge "the end is near" flash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-0iwBEswE&feature=youtu.be

Prob my fave cause the view of its appearance and streaking is so clear.

And as it said in Firedrake's link, yeah, Russian highways are basically a jungle where everybody has a dashcam for insurance and legal purposes. Some pretty ridiculous compilations on youtube of the things they've caught.

Manuel Royal · Feb 15, 2013

Plot Device said:
This meteor in Russia seems to have likewise exploded and broken up into smaller pieces when it hit its critical point of re-entry temperature.

Broke up, yes; probably no explosion.

Plot Device said:
The long trailing cloud seen in ALL the videos looks to me like a vapor trail of water which was originally ice inside of the meteor but then got boiled into steam from the high temps of re-entry.

No; I'd say that's atmospheric water vapor. Meteoroids (as opposed to comets) tend to be rock, metal, or a mixture of both, sometimes with some interesting heavier elements, but nothing as light as water.

Note: this splendid meteor is almost certainly totally unrelated to Asteroid 2012 DA14, which will be passing Earth today at only 17,000 miles out.

ETA: Let me correct myself; something was niggling at me about what I'd said. Asteroids do sometimes have some water ice on their surfaces (and some "asteroids" are defunct comet nuclei). But, that's unrelated to this meteor's spectacular contrails. (Which I guess are, really, mostly plain old smoke. Not sure. Interesting question; bound to come up in fiction.)

StormChord · Feb 15, 2013

Plot Device said:
This reminds me of when I witnessed an awesome meteor shower about 10 years ago -- I think it was the Leoniids. One of those Leonids exploded as well --but not as spectacularly as this Russian meteor because the Leonids were tiny little pipsqueak meteors the size of Lay-Z-Boy armchairs, while this thing in Russian was probably the size of a UPS truck.

Anyway, I was on a small hill (with my boyfriend at the time, and in the company of several hundred other meteor watchers) at about midnight in November watching the meteors penetrating our atmosphere. And ONE of those meteors broke into several smaller pieces with a crackling, fizzling sort of a POP! of an explosion. I'll never forget that fizzling sound. And the thing was easily miles away from me, yet I still heard it!

This meteor in Russia seems to have likewise exploded and broken up into smaller pieces when it hit its critical point of re-entry temperature. The long trailing cloud seen in ALL the videos looks to me like a vapor trail of water which was originally ice inside of the meteor but then got boiled into steam from the high temps of re-entry. In fact, it was probably the raoid expansion of the steam which caused the thing to explode. Some of that vapor trail is likely mixed with smokey debris and dust, but I suspect a lot of it is mostly just water. And you can see the vapor trail branch off into two separate trails, due to the meteor breaking into two lesser chunks from the explosion.

Meanwhile it's silly for anyone to claim it was intercepted by military aircraft or missiles or anything. It just exploded is all.

I don't think the steam buildup is accurate. Meteors are actually frigid when they enter the atmosphere, and the surface that melts is quickly wicked away by the winds. The meteor could not have built up enough heat to melt ice, let alone explode. If this were true, all meteors would explode rather than disintegrating. It's a fairly common misconception that meteors are hot on impact; the cold of space beats the warmth of friction simply by volume. Source is here: http://www.meteorites.com.au/odds&ends/myths.html

Plot Device · Feb 15, 2013

Okay. (But it did break into two pieces or more.

)

Sarpedon · Feb 15, 2013

Thank goodness for the SALT treaties. Could you imagine if this had happened back in the early eighties?

Gregg · Feb 15, 2013

Next comes the asteroid...luckily for us a near-miss:

"A 45-meter (150-foot) asteroid hurtled toward Earth's backyard, destined Friday to make the closest known flyby for a rock of its size.
The U.S. space agency NASA promised the asteroid would miss Earth by 17,150 miles (27,600 kms), avoiding catastrophe. But that's still closer than many communication and weather satellites. Scientists insisted those, too, would be spared."

http://www.wftv.com/news/ap/aerospace/asteroid-will-buzz-earth-miss-by-27600-kms/nWP8Q/

seun · Feb 15, 2013

Teinz said:
Not awesome that people got hurt, b.t.w.

True. I get the feeling that people have been injured has been overlooked online because the images and recordings are so stunning.

Alpha Echo · Feb 15, 2013

My husband is convinced this is how we'll all go out one day. He was freaking out about the meteor over Russia because it was that close and no one saw it coming. He says the scientists better get on it. This is not the first time my husband has shared this theory with me. I have to say I just laughed at him - not the 400 injured but my husband who had to call me at work to say, "I knew it. My theory is going to prove right. Just wait and see."

If the asteroid today were to hit, the "experts" say it would wipe out all of DC and its suburbs. That's us. I told DH at least we'd go quickly rather than from the aftereffects.

Ken · Feb 15, 2013

Attn: God

... you've displeased me, considerably.
(May stay home this Sunday in protest.)

Alpha Echo said:
I told DH at least we'd go quickly rather than from the aftereffects.

Not to worry. DH's have a way of protecting their womenfolk ;-)

Xelebes · Feb 15, 2013

Looks slightly larger than the Lloydminster Meteor (which I got to see!) There was some broken glass at Lloydminster but no injuries.

A very big meteor just exploded over Russia

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