A series of powerful explosion about 900 miles east of Moscow that injured more than 100 people today might have been caused by a meteorite, Russian emergency officials say.
Witnesses said one meteorite crashed into a wall near a zinc factory in the Chelyabinsk region, disrupting the city's Internet and mobile service. The blast reportedly set off a shockwave that broke nearby windows and set off car alarms.
"It was definitely not a plane," emergency officials told Reuters. "We are gathering the bits of information and have no data on the casualties so far."
Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov told the Associated Press that 102 people had requested medical assistance for treatment of injuries mostly related to glass broken by the explosions.
Officials suspected the blast may have been caused by a meteor shower. One preliminary report had the blast occurring at an altitude of about 30,000 feet. Another report from a less-than-reliable source held that the meteorite was destroyed before impact, but there's little evidence of the that in videos that captured the images and audio of the event.
Source: CNET
I have gathered some of the videos that have been posted to Youtube and have embedded them here. Some of them are from Dashcams in cars and others are from people who started recording the contrail left by the small asteroid and then captured the powerful shockwave from either the explosion or sonic booms, and both in some cases.
Is this related to 2012 DA-214, the small asteroid that will pass very close to the earth today? I don't know. It would seem to me that they are part of the same debris field, but I'll leave that to the experts to determine. You can read more about how to watch the pass of 2012 DA-214 at Wired.
I hope that this incident will serve as a wake up call to be prepared for an even larger asteroid impact that could endanger the survival of our civilization.
Just over a hundred years ago, also in Russia, another small asteroid exploded above Siberia...with more devastating results. You can read more about that at Wikipedia.
News report from Russia Today
Sonic boom and windows broken
And lastly...the 17th episode of the Third Season of Stargate SG-1 "A Hundred Days" featured a "fire rain" of asteroids hitting a planet. You can see some of the CGI work that imagined how such a thing would look in the video below:
Just over a hundred years ago, also in Russia, another small asteroid exploded above Siberia...with more devastating results. You can read more about that at Wikipedia.
A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteorite shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones have stopped working.Source: Russia Today
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.
A bright flash was seen in the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions, Russia’s Republic of Bashkiria and in northern Kazakhstan.
Over 400 people sought medical attention as a result of the incident, according to the Russian Interior Ministry. No serious injuries have been reported, with most of the injuries caused by broken glass and minor concussions.
Lifenews tabloid said that at least one piece of the fallen object caused damage on the ground in Chelyabinsk. According to preliminary reports, it crashed into a wall near a zinc factory, disrupting the city's Internet and mobile service.
And lastly...the 17th episode of the Third Season of Stargate SG-1 "A Hundred Days" featured a "fire rain" of asteroids hitting a planet. You can see some of the CGI work that imagined how such a thing would look in the video below:
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