The Sky Was Falling! (Just Pieces of it Though.)
It was like a scene out of a sci-fi/action movie: mass confusion as the earth shook, glass shattered, and people scrambled to take cover. But for the citizens of Chelyabinsk, Russia, this situation was a recent reality. On February 15th at 9:20 am, a meteor exploded over the city of one million, located approximately 950 miles east of Moscow.
The citizens of a Russian city experienced a dramatic meteor explosion recently.
NASA said that the meteor was roughly the size of a bus and was traveling around 33,000 mph. The explosion, which happened at an estimated 18-32 miles above the ground, created a shock-wave that shattered glass and caused considerable structural damage. More than 1,000 people sought medical attention for injuries, mostly from flying glass; no deaths were reported. According to NASA, the whole event happened in just 32.5 seconds.
Witnesses reported seeing a bright flash of light and hearing feeling the impact of the blast. There was, at first, widespread confusion, but news broadcasts quickly confirmed what was happening. Many Russians captured footage of the after-effects on car-mounted dash cameras. These devices which are popular in Russia are typically used to help resolve traffic accident disputes and to combat police corruption.
What Was That?
Space is filled with all kinds of debris, such as comets, asteroids, shooting stars, meteors. A comet is a large collection of space dust and ice, sort of like a dirty snowball, that follows an orbit. An asteroid is a collection of metal and rock that may also orbit around the sun.
Meteoroids, however, are chunks of either comets or asteroids. Some fall into an orbit, but others move through space sometimes colliding with another object. If they enter the earth’s atmosphere, they officially become meteors, and if the pieces strike the surface of the earth, they are called meteorites. The event in Russia was the explosion of a meteor that caused much of the damage, while meteorites are what will have littered the landscape.
Coincidentally, an asteroid, named DA14, passed relatively close to the earth (roughly 17,100 miles away) on the same day. DA14 was originally discovered by the Observatorio Astronomico de La Sraga in Granada, Spain on February 23, 2012. At this point, it poses no threat of colliding with Earth, although it might take out one of our satellites.
In addition NASA reports that they are currently monitoring 1379 potentially hazardous asteroids. However, the likelihood of one hitting the earth is, so far, very rare.
What Now?
Nearly 24,000 troops and emergency responders have been mobilized to help the central Russian city recover. Officials say that tending to the injured and replacing the 1,000,000 square feet of windows are their main focus. With current temperatures of 4 degrees below zero, the need to make immediate repairs is crucial. Local officials have estimated the damage at more than $33 million. Meteor hunters are also searching for any remains they can get their hands on, including a large chunk authorities believe landed in a lake. Many believe these remnants will be very valuable.