People in Chelyabinsk, Russia were greeted this morning by a major meteor event that lit up their dawn skies like the daytime Sun. I have no idea how the driver of this car stayed so calm, but thank goodness for dashboard cameras which are ubiquitous in Russia due to massive amounts of insurance fraud.
The meteor could be seen up to 125 miles away and the shockwave that followed (as our atmosphere slowed the meteor down below Mach 1) was strong enough to shatter windows and set off car alarms. Notice how the shockwave comes long after the meteor has passed and the contrails are beginning to dissipate. Nice physics lesson there about the speed of sound versus the speed of light. WARNING: the sonic booms are *very* loud in this video.
For more on this, I refer you to the excellent Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy.
Leave a Comment:
Encounters of a third kind? The sequel.
incredible! this is really 'war of the worlds' stuff!
FOX news alert!!
Thor gets mad at the Ruskies!
I really love how the 2nd video the guy said what I can only understand as "Yeeah Boi!'
That would actually translate to something close to 'f*** that!'. In fact the only "printable" words from those both videos are "meteorit" from the first one and "missile", "war" and "windows" from the second. The rest is a creative use of swear words to express the emotional state of the speaker.
I'm glad that this didn't hit an urban area.
Imagine if this had happened in 1962?
Yav Toi loosely translates to a crude term associated with flipping the middle finger.
"Russia: telling exploding meteorites to eff off since 2013"
Amazingly cool!
The same thought occurred to me, Doug. If this had happened 20-30 years ago, there very well could be missiles in the air before anyone even considered a meteor...
hahahah top video has soooo much swearing in it
The scariest thing about this is that there is currently no way we could have known this meteroid was on its way. We've found literally hundreds of thousands of asteroids of various sizes, but even the small ones can cause real destruction, such as what was experienced in Russia today. The Tunguska blast in 1908 was far larger, but even that object would not have been spotted before impact, as it approached Earth from a patch of sky that was near the sun.
Believe me, this fear haunts me daily.
It's an issue that probably won't be dealt with for a few more years. In the meantime, I wouldn't fret about it too much. We've identified the vast majority of asteroids that could cause a global or even regional catastrophe. Now it's the city-killers we need to find.
amazing
Can you imagine one going over North Korea or Iran in a year or two? Unexpected...
"Mabus" then will soon die, there will come
Of people and beasts a horrible rout:
Then suddenly one will see vengeance,
Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger when the comet will run.
century: 2, quatrain: 62
The great star will burn for seven days,
The cloud will cause two suns to appear:
The big mastiff will howl all night
When the great pontiff will change country.
century: 2, quatrain: 41
When the sepulchre of the great Roman is found,
The day after a Pontiff will be elected:
Scarcely will he be approved by the Senate
Poisoned, his blood in the sacred chalice.
century: 3, quatrain: 65
http://nostradamus2012.com/quatrain_centurie_keyword_finder.php#showquatrainsearch
Where trolls can vent their hate! Welcome Trolls!
http://radicalsinc.newsvine.com/
Hm, is G#d's aim and timing that far off? US televangelists for years have predicted that meteors will strike Boston and LA as punishment for the toleration of the 'gay agenda' and now the strike comes down on Russia shortly after the parliament passed (church-applauded) new laws against 'gay propaganda'. Mixed messages, oh Lord! [/sarcasm]