
Russian meteor largest in a century - ananyob
http://www.nature.com/news/russian-meteor-largest-in-a-century-1.12438
======
bane
Living in the country, there are lots of long boring drives where you mind
wanders and you grow up very familiar with what a "shooting star" looks like
streaking against the night sky.

One day, driving home I happened to look out at something I thought was a
plane and nearly drove off the road as I saw a meteroid falling silently
through the sky. There was absolutely no sound and it moved much slower than I
expected. After I regained control of my car and pulled it over to get out and
watch, I saw small pieces silently broke away and the light show continued
until it went over the horizon. It was totally unlike anything I'd ever seen
before or since. It's dreamlike and beautiful.

I waited a few minutes after it went below the horizon since the angle it went
on made me think it might have made it to the ground, but I never heard
anything. It was never in the news, and nobody talked about it afterwards, for
all I know I'm the only one who ever saw it. It was both terrifying and
amazing. I had no idea what I was looking at since it didn't look like any
picture of this phenomenon I'd ever seen.

One thing I'm sure of, is that I've never seen a video that ever does such a
spectacle justice. There's so many subtle details that get completely
obliterated on video.

Here's some video that do a pretty good job of showing what they look like.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWhrW7lpqZM>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyW0g1SIyxI>

The videos of the one in Russia are on an entirely different scale. The sonic
boom was tremendous, the amount of light being thrown off of that thing was
unbelievable. Extrapolating from what I saw and how I now know video changes
things, this must have been an unbelievable beautiful and terrifying sight.

~~~
GuiA
Wow, those videos (and your story) are mindblowing.

I wonder what must have gone through the minds of our ancestors when, hundreds
or thousands of years ago, they'd witness such events (let alone ones similar
to the Russian meteor). A lot of old creation myths etc. make a lot more sense
now :)

------
ChuckMcM
Nice coverage. I especially like the infrasound analysis. The estimate of
100kT explosion suggests this thing was an order of magnitude scarier in
person than it was on video, and it was pretty damn scary on video.

~~~
damoncali
So Fat Man and Little Boy were approx 15-20 kT. Is that apples to apples? If
so, holy crap.

~~~
DanBC
Ground Zero allows you to pick a place and a bomb and nuke an area.

Unfortunately it hops from 21 kT to 400 kT, but still.

(<http://www.carloslabs.com/projects/200712B/GroundZero.html>)

~~~
uvdiv
This is actually completely useless since these explosions are far closer to
the earth -- probably between 100 meters and 1 km altitude [1], vs. 10-30 km
estimates for this meteor. Also, it only shows thermal radiation effects,
which are insignificant here.

This is an appropriate calculator for meteors [2-3], including the effects of
the actual blast (overpressure), not just heat. The documentation says windows
are shattered at about 6,900 Pa (1 psi).

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions>

[2] <http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/>

[3] <http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth> (Flash)

~~~
cynwoody
Here's what it's like to be 10,000 feet below a 2kt nuke (1957).

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlE1BdOAfVc>

------
olh
Disregarding the 1000 tons meteor that blasted in the Amazon in 1930:
<http://star.arm.ac.uk/impact-hazard/Brazil.html>

~~~
uvdiv
This one was 7,000 tonnes (mass).

------
speeder
Now.we.know why we need meteor defense. If this rock ( that is.actually small
) ended hitting a 10 millions people city filled with glassy skyscrapers, what
would happen? How many people.dead or in hospitals?

~~~
erikpukinskis
No, meteor defense can get in line behind heart disease, automobiles, suicide,
gun violence, war, police, and all the other things astronomically (heh) more
likely to kill people, therefore more deserving of our attention.

~~~
jug6ernaut
Always love how people throw out "gun violence" as if "gun violence"(as if
there is such a thing) is so distinguishable that it should be focused on
above "violence".

~~~
miles
Indeed. The fact that guns save lives around the country on a regular basis is
almost completely ignored by the media:

Guns Save Lives
[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/guns_save_...](http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/guns_save_lives.html)

 _"If someone gets into your house, which would you rather have, a handgun or
a telephone? You can call the police if you want, and they'll get there, and
they'll take a picture of your dead body. But they can't get there in time to
save your life. The first line of defense is you."_

<http://gunssavelives.net/> has a huge collection of articles like these:

Son Uses Dad’s AR-15 To Defend Home [http://gunssavelives.net/self-
defense/video/son-uses-dads-ar...](http://gunssavelives.net/self-
defense/video/son-uses-dads-ar-15-to-defend-home/)

Armed Citizen in TX Stops Shooting Spree and Saves Cop
[http://gunssavelives.net/self-defense/armed-citizen-in-tx-
st...](http://gunssavelives.net/self-defense/armed-citizen-in-tx-stops-
shooting-spree-and-saves-cop-by-making-150-yard-shot-with-a-pistol/)

GA Woman Kills Would Be Rapist With .22 Pistol [http://gunssavelives.net/self-
defense/video/ga-woman-kills-w...](http://gunssavelives.net/self-
defense/video/ga-woman-kills-would-be-rapist/)

~~~
mootothemax
_"If someone gets into your house, which would you rather have, a handgun or a
telephone? You can call the police if you want, and they'll get there, and
they'll take a picture of your dead body. But they can't get there in time to
save your life. The first line of defense is you."_

I'm really curious about how this is meant to work in large cities, where
there are often lots of people living in a small amount of space, with very
flimsy walls between them and so on.

Surely firing a gun in such an environment is likely to cause yet more harm
(with bullets flying through windows/walls), even if you do manage to hit the
intruder?

~~~
SoftwareMaven
There are types of ammunition that deal better with this. Lower loads, softer
bullets, etc.

~~~
mootothemax
Genuine question: with such ammunition, is there a even a tiny chance it will
go through a plasterboard wall and kill my flatmate?

Would a taser be a safer-yet-effective option when living in such an
apartment?

~~~
SoftwareMaven
Here[1] is an example of said ammunition. The corrolary, of course, is that if
something won't go through an inch wall material (most of walls are hollow,
after all), penetrating inches of skin, fat, and muscle are also unlikely.
I've read of some people who put the first couple of rounds using the safety
slugs and then hollow-points for the rest, figuring if somebody isn't going to
stop with a couple, fairly large, relatively surface wounds, then they aren't
going to stop without something more serious and house mates are in danger in
that situation anyway.

Regardless, before I would ever keep a gun for personal protection[2], I would
make sure I have enough experience shooting it and hitting my target that my
likelihood of missing at short range is exceedingly low. Stress and all that
will impact your abilities, of course, but enough training can significantly
reduce that risk.

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaser_Safety_Slug>

2\. I love shooting and have a couple, small caliber rifles locked up in the
basement, but I don't currently own a gun for "personal protection".

------
pkfrank
It's pretty fortuitous that so many folks in Russia have dashboard cams. I've
got to think this is a meteor impact that has the most independent,
distributed points of view that were dutifully recorded.

~~~
cobrausn
Fortuitous for this, yes, but the reason why is somewhat unfortunate for
Russia.

[http://jalopnik.com/why-russians-are-obsessed-with-dash-
cams...](http://jalopnik.com/why-russians-are-obsessed-with-dash-cams-5918159)

EDIT: Just realized this was posted as a HN news item, probably from the
original source.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5227182>

------
nollidge
They keep saying "explosion" but was there actually one? There was a sonic
boom, and the rock disintegrated in the atmosphere, but I've not seen any
evidence that it exploded all at once.

EDIT: well, lots of news agencies are using the word "exploded", so maybe it
did. I see somebody else mentioned claims that Russians shot at it, but I'm
skeptical that they'd be able to notice and react to this thing in time.

EDIT EDIT: OK so it looks like space rocks "airbursting" is not unheard of:
[0]. Really curious what the physics of that involves.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_blast#Asteroid_airburs...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_blast#Asteroid_airburst)

~~~
svachalek
EDIT: Just saw Bill Nye explain this on the DA14 webcast from planetary.org.
When the meteor hits the atmosphere at such a high velocity, it's like hitting
a brick wall and it explodes on impact. Then the shock wave propagates to the
ground as the fragments fall and oxidize.

~~~
alanfalcon
I think Randall Munroe did a decent job explaining the physics of things
dropping from space here: <http://what-if.xkcd.com/28/>

------
ananyob
NASA's just confirmed this story on their twitter feed. >>>@NASA
#RussianMeteor is largest reported meteor since Tunguska event. Impact was at
3:20:26 UTC. Still being measured. More info to come.

------
ceejayoz
Well, that we've noticed, at least.

~~~
ChuckMcM
That is an interesting point, If this had travelled over one of the poles
would we have noticed? I tend to think that someone would have seen it, but we
wouldn't have a dozen dash cam videos of it.

~~~
uvdiv
The infrasound detectors mentioned in the article can supposedly detect a
1-kiloton blast anywhere on earth [1] (page 15). This meteor was "hundreds of
kilotons".

[http://www.ctbto.org/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/ISS_Publicati...](http://www.ctbto.org/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/ISS_Publication/Infrasound_11-16.pdf)

~~~
InclinedPlane
It also would show up on satellites that monitor for rocket launches and
nuclear explosions. But whether or not the details would be released to the
public is not entirely certain.

------
31reasons
Its interesting coincidence i suppose that there is going to be a close flyby
of a near earth asteroid on Feb 15th. Even google changed their doodle to
remind that (but the doodle is gone now!)

Edit: Ah, its also in the news
[http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/02/asteroid-2012...](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2013/02/asteroid-2012-da14-google-
doodle-removed-after-russian-meteor-shower-injuries/)

~~~
yeison
Heh. I would've loved to see the article: 'Google Trolls Injured Russians with
Doodle'

------
cygwin98
Thought I needed to mention the Tunguska event in 1908. It turned out it was
already mentioned in the Nature article.

Anyway, here is the wiki link to that event
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event>

When I was a kid who was fascinated by UFO stuffs, that one was always
speculated to be an explosion of an Alien spaceship.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Or Tesla's weird experiments! There's speculation he somehow anticipated the
event anyway.

~~~
cygwin98
Thanks for the tip. Didn't know that. Tesla was very likely an alien or time-
traveler anyway.

------
abcd_f
Can anyone comment on why we don't have a handful satellites sprinkled with
cameras pointing at all directions orbiting the Earth and feeding data down
for analysis? Perhaps it's not much, but something is better than nothing. The
excuse that this meteor wasn't spotted because it came from the sun side is
laughable.

~~~
paul_f
Sounds like a wonderful Kickstarter project. Seriously though, the
cost/benefit ratio isn't worth it for detecting stuff this small. "Worst in
100 years" and there was virtually no damage.

~~~
svachalek
True. There are programs actively looking for larger objects though, that you
can donate to if you're interested. This is the one that found 2012 DA14 which
will be passing us shortly:

<http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/>

------
Ingaz
"Russian guy suffers the most"

[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RussianGuySuffers...](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RussianGuySuffersMost)

Universe agrees with it: Tunguska and "УФО" are both in Russia.

I suppose that all other world can relax: something bad or REALLY BAD will go
on head of "russkie"

(It was a joke)

------
Raz0rblade
And there was no link to the other meteor that passed earth today ??. Or did
Nasa coverup that it didnt knew what trajectory it would take. It seams
unlikely to me that those two events are not related.

I mean recently Nasa found some anomaly on Mars too, and then they say "no its
not interesting its just erosion; (mars has next to none atmospheric pressure
btw) i mean if i where a geologist, then any curious shape even if it was made
by erosion would attract my attention i would take samples; and most likely
such samples would be more interesting then dust-hole digging. What has become
from NASA i wonder. Once they where explorers curious.. now they only call
their device curiosity

------
ravishk
Are there certain geographies or areas that are more prone to these incidents
than others? Countries in northern hemispheres for example?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikhote-Alin_meteorite>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patomskiy_crater> (Debatable meteorite origins)

~~~
lutusp
> Are there certain geographies or areas that are more prone to these
> incidents than others?

No. An incoming meteor or asteroid is perfectly ecumenical with respect to
location, therefore the vast majority of meteors fall into the oceans.

On a related note, the best time to see meteors is between midnight and dawn
in whatever location you find yourself. The reason? At dawn, if you look
straight up, you're looking in the direction Earth is moving in its orbit at
thirty kilometers per second. By contrast, if you look straight up at sunset,
you're looking at where Earth has just been and is receding from at thirty
kilometers per second. Earth's velocity is added to that of the wandering
space rocks near dawn, but is subtracted at sunset.

The Russian meteor even happened at dawn.

------
wglb
_We just have to live with it_

Or, alternatively, not.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
_"So, humans, how's that space program coming along?"_ \- a large rock

------
julieb612
It's unfortunate this event is a wake up call. 99% of Near Earth Objects
(NEOs) are unknown. We at the B612 Foundation (<http://b612foundation.org>)
are building a telescope for early warning detection. Everyone can get
involved. Please visit our site to learn more... you can help!

------
caf
The CTBTO has a small release on the infrasound detection:
[http://newsroom.ctbto.org/2013/02/15/ctbto-infrasound-
statio...](http://newsroom.ctbto.org/2013/02/15/ctbto-infrasound-stations-
detect-russian-meteorite-blast/)

------
prawks
They keep saying explosion, I was under the impression that the sound was the
sonic boom?

~~~
drakeandrews
Russian state TV claims that the meteor was intercepted by an anti-ballistic
missile system, which (if true) means the meteor was struck by a 10kt nuclear
warhead.

~~~
nollidge
Source?

~~~
prawks
[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/15/russia-m...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/15/russia-
meteorite/1921991/)

USA Today has a decently balanced assessment of the incident. Apparently
Russia Today was "informed" of that. However the deputy prime minister has
countered that by stating that "Russia does not have the capability to shoot
down meteors."

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

Russia Today claims that it was printed in the local paper.

~~~
uvdiv
_Russia Today_ also describes the Tungaska meteor as "one of the most
mysterious events in history" and suggests it was caused by space aliens [1].

[1] <http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/>

(today's <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5224616>)

------
whileonebegin
Isn't it quite a coincidence that the largest meteor impact since 1908 occurs
just hours before the closest fly-by of a large asteroid in 100 years? Yet,
NASA claims these two are unrelated.

~~~
rwhitman
Yea I find this curious as well, what are the odds of that happening? How many
other chunks of rock could be heading our way right now that are too small to
be spotted?

~~~
jacquesm
> Yea I find this curious as well, what are the odds of that happening?

About '1' apparently.

------
orangethirty
Nasa TV link for those who want to watch as they report.
<http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html>

------
chakalakasp
Those videos look like space junk re entering the atmosphere, unless they are
very much slowed down. Meteors tend move much quicker than that.

------
alanfalcon
I'm reminded of scenes from Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" where
rebelling Loonies plan to "throw rocks" at oppressive Earth.

------
RyanMcGreal
Does every car in Russia have a dashcam?

~~~
asselinpaul
quite a few, in case of accidents/fights, they serve as proof. The police is
apparently quite corrupt too so it might be an insurance...

