Russian Meteor Likely an Apollo Asteroid Chunk

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Russian Meteor Likely an Apollo Asteroid Chunk

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 26, 2013 @11:37AM from the apollo-always-was-kind-of-a-jerk dept.

astroengine writes "Helped by the extensive coverage of eyewitness cameras, CCTV footage and a fortuitous observation made by the Meteosat-9 weather satellite, Jorge Zuluaga and Ignacio Ferrin of the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, have been able to reconstruct the most likely orbit of the meteoroid that slammed into the atmosphere over the Russian Urals region on Feb. 15. What's more, they know what type of space rock it was — the Chelyabinsk-bound meteoroid originated from an Apollo-class asteroid (PDF). Apollo asteroids are well-known near-Earth asteroids that cross the orbit of Earth. Around 5,200 Apollo asteroids are currently known, the largest being 1866 Sisyphus — a 10 kilometer-wide monster that was discovered in 1972."

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Dear Asteroid by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 11:48 · Score: 4, Funny

Nice flying, Apollo.
- Starbuck
SG-1 by Marxist+Hacker+42 · 2013-02-26 11:49 · Score: 3, Funny

So it wasn't a Gu'ald attack?

--
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
1. Re:SG-1 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 11:59 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Indeed.
2. Re:SG-1 by JackpotMonkey · 2013-02-26 12:40 · Score: 2
  
  No no, this is much more likely a Zerg attack to publicize the upcoming Starcraft 2 Expansion, inspired by their Starship troopers brethren.
  
  --
  ______ Eagles may fly but monkeys don't get sucked into jet engines.
3. Re:SG-1 by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 13:15 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Do you mean "I'm a pedant"?
List by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 11:49 · Score: 2, Informative

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_asteroids
EEEP! by MrDoh! · 2013-02-26 11:50 · Score: 4, Funny

10k wide? And we don't have Bruce Willis on stand by at ALL TIMES!?!?!?

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Waiting for an amusing sig.
1. Re:EEEP! by FatLittleMonkey · 2013-02-26 12:26 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  So you never want him to close his eyes? Never want him to fall asleep?
  
  --
  Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
wow..! by zubieta · 2013-02-26 11:50 · Score: 5, Interesting

I know Jorge! That work is quite amazing. They are working based on shadows. They measure the shadows of lampposts changing in small fractions of time, their size and angle, and do the same from very different places in Russia. The result is amazing!
I read the title wrong... by Stratus311 · 2013-02-26 11:51 · Score: 5, Funny

What I read: "Russian Meteor Likely an Apollo Astronaut Chunk"
1. Re:I read the title wrong... by tragedy · 2013-02-26 15:48 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  "Open the pod bay doors HAL!"
  "First, you gotta do the truffle shuffle."
Discovered in... by Miletos · 2013-02-26 11:58 · Score: 5, Funny

"the largest being 1866 Sisyphus — a 10 kilometer-wide monster that was discovered in..."
WAIT! I KNOW THIS ONE! Is it 1866?
"...1972."
oh. okay :(
1. Re:Discovered in... by FatLittleMonkey · 2013-02-26 12:32 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You're thinking comets, like C/2013 A1. Asteroids are numbered in order of discovery. Ceres was 1st, Pallas was 2nd. This one was 1866th.
  
  --
  Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
Ummm... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-02-26 12:00 · Score: 3, Funny

Something's wrong when a 10 KILOMETER wide astroid has 'sisy' in its name, just sayin'.
1. Re:Ummm... by amiga3D · 2013-02-26 13:53 · Score: 2
  
  it wasn't funny
Re:John Dvorak says it's fake by Goaway · 2013-02-26 12:37 · Score: 2

There is apparently this one class of fairly harmless people who just can't accept that life isn't as exciting as an action movie.
Re:John Dvorak says it's fake by ozmanjusri · 2013-02-26 16:40 · Score: 3, Funny

claimed that the video and photos of the impact area showed just a perfect ice hole

I've heard rumours that John C Dvorak has been described as "just a perfect ice hole" himself on occasion.
Coincidence? You decide.

--
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
No surprise... by Kentari · 2013-02-26 22:00 · Score: 4, Informative

There are only 2 types of Earth crossing asteroids: Apollos with a semi major axis larger than 1AU and perihelion smaller than Earth's aphelion and Atens with a semi major axis smaller than 1AU and aphelion larger than Earth's perihelion. There are 4803 known Apollo asteroids (I don't know where the 5200 number in the summary comes from but IAU's Minor Planet Center knows of only 4803) and 747 known Atens, so there was a very good chance that the meteorite was an Apollo...