Meteorite in Russia

[NickyNyce]

Wow...this is pretty cool, and scary. While all eyes are on a meteorite that will miss earth by only 17,000 miles in the near future, nobody saw this coming.

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16969092-hundreds-injured-as-meteor-fireball-screams-across-the-sky-in-russia?lite

[selmiak]

if nobody saw it coming it must have been really small. And therefor it leaves quite a trail and goes out with a blast.
Maybe this is a conspiracy by the russian internet users where they just upload some 10 differente and manipulated videos to the tubes at nearly the same time

Or is it a sign? Is a new messiah born in russia?

[m0ds]

Love that video of it seemingly coming towards the dashcam (before the car turns), scary stuff! It's clear when one does penetrate people will casually keep doing what they're doing through to the point of obliteration... Shame about the injuries, and quite a co-incidence considering there's that NEO near pass later today. Still, in the past 5 or 6 years of following these things I think this is one of the first to actually cause damage. But perhaps explains some of the "booms" people hear over the USA and other places.

[selmiak]

image from above
looks so small for such a big blast.

[Mati256]

"We will survive the day. I promise." Thank you, Neil.

[miguel]

Great to watch on future Discovery Channel programs but really serious for the people where it landed. It's both fascinating and tragic.
It still brings more questions to me than answers. We all knew that meteorites do fall on earth, but how and why Russian authorities didn't release a warning to the population is very serious.
Do they have the technology to "follow" a meteorite that gets too close to earth?
Even if they do have it its simply too fast to actually act and warn people?
I read that the Russian Space Program is just a commercial project using old but reliable tech to launch satellites. But surely they have their own network of satellites, no?

[Atelier]

Well it's impossible atm to keep track of everything close to Earth, because there is a lot up there. As it was relatively small, locating it before it entered the Earth's atmosphere would be extremely lucky, and travelling at 67,000 mph there's no chance to disseminate any kind of warning.

[miguel]

Yeah, looks like it.
It's funny how I had this false feeling of being safe from those things. There's really nothing we can do about it.

[Crimson Wizard]

And russian humor...

Someone promised to get a star from the sky for his Valentine.

The Great Brick Wall has been constructed in Chelyabinsk in one day.

Meteorite crew preferred self-destruction to landing in Chelyabinsk.

Russian Post is going to be sued for delaying the package by 2 months.

[Anian]

"We will survive the day. I promise." Thank you, Neil.

In Neil we trust.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I was reading some NASA feedback about this and the basic story is that they spend so much time looking for long distance threats that the satellites aren't calibrated for smaller, fast-moving objects.  Apparently there's going to be an actual summit on meteor threats at some point and they're going to discuss a more comprehensive way of detecting asteroids/meteors/meteorites.

[selmiak]

already 2 weeks ago again... science is catching up though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qZ6oiaSm00

[Stupot]

Interesting.  Funny reading all the conspiracy theories in the comments section.

Also, for those in the UK, there is going to be a programme about this on Channel 4 this coming Sunday.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/meteor-strike-fireball-from-space

[NickyNyce]

That video still sends chills down my spine. That had to be amazing to witness in person.

They mentioned on a similar program (Fire In The Sky) a few days ago that a car sized asteroid descends roughly every 250 years on earth.

They also mention house sized asteroids too, but I forgot the time frame.

@selmiak -- I just hurt my brain and neck doing your excercise.

[selmiak]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgCLMI3fgn0

the 'need more coffee' reaction...

[m0ds]

Stu, did you notice 2 channels showed a documentary at the same time? I think I watched the BBC 2 one. Loved the fact he walked around a giant glass museum talking about people getting spliced by glass. But didn't see any of the C4 one. Also interesting that 2 new NEO's were registered a few days later, one at 0.4 lunar distances. And the BBC one speculated but didn't make entirely clear that if it had been a day later, the meteor would have happened over the UK!

Anyway. I wasn't alive for Tunguska but it's good to have seen an event that backs Tunguska up ten-fold. In fact, I won't be surprised if I see some town get obliterated during my lifetime. Nice knowing you, whoever THAT affects. (Probably me)

[NickyNyce]

Earth just had another near miss a couple of days ago that nobody saw coming.

Tick tock, tick tock, it's only a matter of time before earth gets hit by a rock.

http://news.yahoo.com/big-asteroid-zoom-earth-weekend-115835023.html

[Blaze]

That is actually quite scary stuff.

I know this kind of thing makes for great sci-fi films, but as you (and the article says), asteroids have wiped out the existence of certain life on Earth before... and you never know when it'll happen again!

Earth just had another near miss a couple of days ago that nobody saw coming.

Tick tock, tick tock, it's only a matter of time before earth gets hit by a rock.

http://news.yahoo.com/big-asteroid-zoom-earth-weekend-115835023.html

[miguel]

Those colossal ancient monuments built by old civilizations (like the pyramids) were designed to "direct" asteroids trajectory towards deserted places.
I know this because I love the wacky Ancient Aliens Theory!

And Russian technology sucks!