# Meanwhile in Russia



## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Falling meteor in Russia injures hundreds

Also, we need to catch up with the Russians and encourage more dash cams in cars!


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Spectacular. Good thing it didn't fall into a more populated area.

Resident Valya Kazakov said some elderly women in his neighbourhood started *crying out that the world was ending.*

The sky is falling! OMG! (Bozey Bozey!) The sky is falling. Maybe Mayans were right!:biggrin:


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## MoneyGal (Apr 24, 2009)

I kept thinking this would be the coolest excuse to be late for work (as I got into my office a bit late this morning...)


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

MoneyGal said:


> I kept thinking this would be the coolest excuse to be late for work (as I got into my office a bit late this morning...)


Be careful what you wish for M.G. That was a small meteor coming in at 34,000kph. 

Apparently there is a huge asteroid about the size of a football field (150ft) flying by earth today in a "near miss". 
This one is within 17,000 miles of earth. 

Going out with a big bang would be the least of our worries, if any of these get caught in earth's gravity.

http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2013-02-15/asteroid-to-narrowly-miss-earth/


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Isn't it bizarre that with so many meteors and asteroids flying around all the time, so few of them have actually ever crashed into the earth (land or sea).
I think we are riding our luck here, just like on the stock market.

At some point, the asteroid strike chart might turn around.
I think I see a head and shoulders pattern forming...or perhaps it is a double top.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Technically the Earth is hit by meteors every day. IIRC, Earth gains about 10 tonnes per day this way. Most disintegrate/are vaporized in the atmosphere.

Big ones (like Tunguska in Siberia) happen once every 100 years or so.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Tunguska meteor was an air burst that devastated hundreds of square miles in Sibera in 1908. it's been slightly over a hundred years since that one. Let's
hope for all our sakes that the law of averages does not apply to the big events.


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## Cal (Jun 17, 2009)

I saw the video on the news this morning and can't believe it was only the size of a dining room table....all of that light....the news report said it weighed 10 tonnes.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

carverman said:


> Tunguska meteor was an air burst that devastated hundreds of square miles in Sibera in 1908. it's been slightly over a hundred years since that one. Let's
> hope for all our sakes that the law of averages does not apply to the big events.


Worth noting, however, that about 98% of the earth's surface is unpopulated, so the odds of one of these larger meteors or small asteroids hitting a populated region are very small. The problem is that the big events can have much more widespread indirect effects related to changes in climate (e.g., the theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor or asteroid strike, possibly near Mexico).


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

There was a meteor tracked by missile defense satellites in Siberia/2002, estimated up to the size of Tunguska. 

Just look at a terrain map of Québec and you will quickly notice one obviously huge-*** meteor impact site, creating one of the largest lakes in the world. Tunguska exploded before impact, and was mere fraction of the size

If a meteor that can make that 100km impact crater on land hits the ocean instead, I can bet we would have a tsunami like we've never seen.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Apparently the near miss of that one that flew by yesterday was expected, as it circles around the earth at least once or twice per year. What is difficult to predict is if it's orbit is decaying so that at some point and some year, it's orbit would have decayed enough to be closer to the earth, so the earth's gravity would have a greater effect on it.

If the small meteor yesterday caused a huge sonic boom in the mid air burst, that shattered glass in a large area causing over 1000 reported casulties from flying glass..it would be horrible to predict what could happen if yesterday's big asteroid (150 meters wide) impacts the earth someday. 

Yesterday it's orbit cut a tangent across the normal geo-stationary satellite orbits (of around 22,300 miles). At that distance, so far we have nothing to worry about since it is too high for earth's gravity to affect it...but now the earth's gravity has given it a sling shot boost for it's flyby, so hopefully it will keep on flying to some other planet.




> If a hard asteroid of size 200 meters hit the ocean (which covers 70% of the Earth), the tsunami (i.e., giant wave) it would create would inflict catastrophic destruction of coastal cities and substantial worldwide human casualties along coastlines. If an asteroid of size 1 kilometer hit Earth, it would cause a dust cloud which would block out sunlight for at least a year and lead to a deep worldwide winter, exhausting food supplies. The latter is what caused the dinosaur extinction, as well as other major extinctions of smaller creatures in geologic time scales. The 200 meter asteroid hits, which are far more common than the 1 km+ hits, wouldn't show up much in geologic histories on a global scale.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

HaroldCrump said:


> Isn't it bizarre that with so many meteors and asteroids flying around all the time, so few of them have actually ever crashed into the earth (land or sea).
> I think we are riding our luck here, just like on the stock market.
> 
> At some point, the asteroid strike chart might turn around.
> I think I see a head and shoulders pattern forming...or perhaps it is a double top.


 ... lol!

Good to know that that we're not going to be hit by an asteroid or any other large planetary object for many many many decades or centuries to come. However, how about one hitting our moon instead and the effects on earth as depicted by the move "Impact 2008"? :eek2:


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> ... lol!
> 
> Good to know that that we're not going to be hit by an asteroid or any other large planetary object for many many many decades or centuries to come. However, how about one hitting our moon instead and the effects on earth as depicted by the move "Impact 2008"? :eek2:


That was an interesting show. Anything can happen I suppose. The problem with asteroid/meteor strikes is the mass x the speed can cause colossal devastation on anything it hits.
or..stating it another way... using Einstein's theory of relativety..E = MCsquared. Energy imparted = Mass x Speed (squared)
These celestial objects are moving at very high speed (37,000 mph hr). 



> The asteroid’s orbit around the sun is similar to that of Earth, and it makes relatively close approaches to our planet’s orbit twice per orbit.
> 
> The next close approach to Earth — astronomically speaking — will be on Feb. 15, *2046*, when it will pass no closer than 620,000 miles, NASA said.


Let's see 2046 is 33 years from now. At least I won't have to worry about it then..I won't be around.


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