Slashdot Mirror
Russian Meteor Largest In a Century
gbrumfiel writes "A meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region this morning was the largest recorded object to strike the earth in more than a century, Nature reports. Infrasound data collected by a network designed to watch for nuclear weapons testing suggests that today's blast released hundreds of kilotons of energy. That would make it far more powerful than the nuclear weapon tested by North Korea just days ago, and the largest rock to strike the earth since a meteor broke up over Siberia's Tunguska river in 1908. Despite its incredible power, the rock evaded detection by astronomers. Estimates show it was likely only 15 meters across — too small to be seen by networks searching for near earth asteroids."
Today's meteor event came a day after California scientists proposed a system to vaporize asteroids that threaten Earth. Of course, the process needs to be started when the asteroid is still tens of millions of kilometers away; there's no chance to shoot down something that's already arrived.
They say to expect a Tunguska sized one once a century and this one wasn't that big. They mostly ocean explode or strike so there's few signs of them but an ocean strike can be worse than a land one given the water they displace. They've got to wake up and start properly funding the near Earth program. It still won't protect against rouges but at least they can map ones that cross our orbit.
My favorite book on impacts. Scarier than any Stephen King novel you'll ever read, because it's real.
http://www.amazon.com/Rain-Iron-And-Ice-Bombardment/dp/0201154943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360966611&sr=8-1&keywords=rain+of+iron+and+ice
In USA, prisoners smash rocks. In Soviet Russia, rocks smashes prisoners!
Anyone seen pictures of pieces on the ground ? (The hole in Lake Chebarkul doesn't count.) There should be a nice strewn field from this event, and it shouldn't be hard to find pieces, which would tell us what it was made of.
"A meteor that exploded over Russia's Chelyabinsk region this morning was the largest recorded object to strike the earth in more than a century, Nature reports."
Meteors don't hit earth, meteorites do.
Ezekiel 23:20
It was "the biggest interdimensional cross rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909!" I wonder if Dr. Egon Spengler is en route to Russia right now trying to get samples of victims' brain tissue?
Watch the drive-by movie made by russian citizens passing by here (You can also hear the bang) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJO9Io4Suog
... will come when the top 0.1% realizes that as things are now, they could be wiped without warning, no matter where they are. Maybe this could convince a few of then in investing in something for everyone's benefit.
This one, Tunguska,and one in 1947 called Sikhote-Alin that some are claiming is bigger than yesterday's rock (though still smaller than Tunguska).
Granted, Russia is the largest country in the world by land area but do *all* the big rocks have to land there?
Such a small object causes such injury because of glass! Why do the world's leaders leave us peons so unprotected by this menace! There should be rules and regulations ... in fact, no, all glass just needs to be banned!
Energy is measured in joules fools.
this thing was 15 meters across, jet black, and moving like a bat out of hell. To paraphrase people that look for near earth objects "Its invisible until it hits the atmosphere." The sad fact of the matter is, no matter how much money you pour into programs to locate and track near earth objects, there is no way to detect objects of this size and velocity with any degree of reliability.
The fine summary notes,
Well, there's part of the problem right there -- we don't want to shoot the things *down*, we want to shoot them *up* and *away*. Meteors and asteroids are only a problem when they come down!
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I thought it was a piece of comet that exploded over Siberia's Tunguska river in 1908 - I also thought it was common knowledge - go figure.
What about all the foo fighters recorded by US pilots in second world war?
Or the resignation of the pope.
Well we don't want to shoot down stuff, we want to "blow UP" stuff!
Earth doesn't hit meteors. Earthites do.
Silly gooses. It's rather quaint that we have this rule. If you dropped a car out of a plane, the resulting wreck is not a "carite", so what's up with meteors? For that matter, who doesn't know what you mean? Good rule of thumb, if people already know what you mean there's no reason to correct them other than to demonstrate that you're a fucking pedant.
Musta been some puckering by the US and whoever else has satellites that detect nuclear explosions ... we'll read about it in 30 years when that's declassified .. or wikileaks publishes what the satellites saw ...
So, despite "serious" news agencies (like Associated Press) saying otherwise, it turns out this thing wasn't just a 10 ton asteroid. Which isn't entirely unsurprising. Getting a shockwave like that simply took the energy of a small thermonuclear warhead.
Now I'm still wondering, what about the reports that the russians tried to shoot down the asteroid? It's not unrealistic it's like ... almost real!
What's a "kiloton of energy"? Is that like a Kessel Run done in so many parsecs?
By convention, it is the energy released by spontaneous decomposition of 1000t of trinitrotoluol - or 4.2 TJ of energy.
The second biggest meteor hit in the upper Amazon in the 1930s, so not many people to see it (well make that 1) and a land surface that will repair very quickly, the estimate from the recorded observation is ~300 kiloton.
I now think the hole in Lake Chebarku is not the real impact site. Reasoning :
It is too regular. Not impossible, but suspicious. I would also expect such an impact to fracture the nearby ice, but that seems pretty solid.
There should be a strewn field all around (i.e., other pieces), with easy to find small pieces on the snow/ice on top of the lake nearby. This would basically be a repeat of Targish Lake. I have heard no report of such finds.
If fishermen go out on the ice, fishermen cut holes in the ice. I would want to verify that they never cut 30 m holes.
So, Where the fuck is Bruce Willis when you need him?
It must be Global Warming!!!
the rock exploded over the earth, some fragments hit the ground, but this rock did not strike anything but atmosphere
"...millions of kilometers away; there's no chance to shoot down something that's already arrived."
You lie! Superman could do it.
And probably Dr. Evil.
mobile homes are to tornadoes
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
The asteroid clearly read all the "we want to catch and mine an asteroid" stories on slashdot lately and was all like "Ok, I'm coming down"
Scientists have confirmed that debris from the russian metorite contained 80% horse meat
There are common jokes amongst Russians about people from Chelybinsk, similar to Chuck Norris jokes, basically it's a city populated by Chuck Norrises )
NASA has one expert stating that the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 is a once-in-forty-years event, and another expert stating that this Russian meteor/meteorite is a once-in-100-years event, and yet another expert asserting that the fact that these two events happened on the same day is a coincidence. Given that the standard statistician's definition of "highly significant" corresponds to a 1% chance of coincidence, and that one day out of 40 years is 0.007%, I think the probability that NASA has spoken hastily is greater than the probability that this was a coincidence.
E = mc^2
E = 1,000,00 kg * (299,792,458 m/s)^2
E = 8.98755179 × 10^22 J
It would probably be helpful to google "global warming asteroid"
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Preferably schedule it for when Congress is in session - it wouldn't do much good right now.
I am probably not going to get a response to this question, but!!!! I remember reading a couple years ago that Earths core of molten iron is expanding, of course outward. Having read this are there any scientists have bothered to predict the Earths demise not only thru, volcanic, asteroid/meteor, blackhole (longshot possibility), ect, but maybe because the planet may burn itself out (literally)? This could be something else that has lead to global warming as well, while I am sure /.'s blow off any other possible explanation or causes to global warming, is the Earths core something scientists are concerned with?
Am I the only one whose ears perked up at that? Hundreds of kT? Fat Man was only 20 kT.
Luckily it exploded in the upper atmosphere, but hundreds of kT at ground level would be a BIG deal if got close to anything.
Would those in the know explain why there wasn't significant EMP from the blast?
According to the American Meteor Society, there were 2219 sighted meteors in 2012; in 2005 there were 463. With a roughly exponential increase in-between. (e.g. 1628 in 2011) Thus far this year - i.e. in one and a half month - there's been 322.
There is historical evidence that impact events - including major ones - are not rare in human history. There's the research of Clube and Napier on the long-past break-up of a giant comet and the periodic intersection of Earth with its remains - and how fireballs and meteorites and their impact on societies seem to have led to religious developments. Recently, a new book by a historian - "Comets and the Horns of Moses" - was published on the subject of the history of cometary interaction with our planet, and both how it has affected life on Earth and how humanity has reacted to it. It goes into the evidence for repeated cometary catastrophes in the past and, looking at the history and the present, it goes into what seems likely to be coming up. I'd recommend it for the interested.
http://www.amazon.com/Comets-Horns-Moses-Laura-Knight-Jadczyk/dp/1897244835/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360956345&sr=8-1&keywords=comets+and+the+horns+of+moses
My massive carbon footprint led to the resignation of the pope?
Cool!
That's easy! A warmed Globe expands thereby making it a bigger target.
Hmm. Maybe they're not too hard to see after all. I mean, if I were going to propose an asteroid vaporization program, I'd want to do it around some event that would prove the program needs to be funded immediately...
Well, there's part of the problem right there -- we don't want to shoot the things *down*, we want to shoot them *up* and *away*.
Gee, I wonder who they have in mind to man this system. I mean, it would take some kind of super human eyesight to spot things moving faster than a speeding bullet. You'd need some type of heat-ray working with the optics in order to stop asteroids that are more powerful than a locomotive. They'd have to be able, willing, but most of all trustworthy enough that they wouldn't mess things up. Up and away, indeed...
Do you know what the nickname for Jardarite is?
Perhaps some comic books really are just thinly veiled cultural acclimation programs.
Then again, if you already knew of an alien threat, you'd want to match their capabilities. The timing of the proposal and meteor events hint at a cunning on par with Lex Luther.
Does this mean the Death Star is now operational?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Pus has a distinctive hue.
Shooting up and away would leave the thing intact -- into who knows what new orbit that may just now squarely intersect the planet rather than grazing. That's an iffy gamble at best.
I have an issue with the 'spontaneous' in there - do you mean a deliberate explosion releases a different amount of energy? :)
Actually, you mean if it all goes off at the same time. But that's not true either, I believe - you'd get the same amount of energy, over a longer period of time, by slowly decomposing the TNT
My other
You're right it's the wrong word. The point is, it is the decomposition of the stuff itself.
When you are burning TNT with air (a perfectly safe thing to do, btw, so long as there is no primary explosive around), you'll get about ten times as much energy out of it.
Thank you. I didn't know that