1. catdynamics
  2. Bolide low altitude break up over Russia

Bolide low altitude break up over Russia

By catdynamics on February 14, 2013.

A bolide hit the Earth over Russia, breaking up at low altitude, causing a strong shock that reached the ground causing damage.
There are reports of some fragments hitting the ground.

Good summary and videos at The Age

video from Russia Today

the fragments will be valuable and probably show up soon on ebay

there was no shootdown, the breakup is normal when the meteorite gets lower down into the atmosphere.
There are no issues with radiation [sic]

looks like a fairly slow shallow angle impact, detonating with kiloton++ energy below few km altitude - guessing from the video

that'd make it a substantial size meteor - probably well over a ton in weight, over a meter diameter, maybe several meters across.

Call it car size and the weight of a small truck
recovered fragments will give composition, I'm betting rocky chondrite - hope someone is sending some of the fragments to people who know what they are doing

interesting

unconfirmed reports of multiple injuries
- not unlikely given reports of shattered windows and ground shock, hopefully no one was killed

Tags
astro
Science
impact
metorite

More like this

Impacts
Earth Impact Calculator Ok, that was close, and I don't mean the zip by of li'l old 2012 DA14 this evening. The Chelyabinsk meteor looks to have been on the high end of the range of quick and dirty estimates, with impact energy of maybe 300 kTon equivalent. This is a size impact we'd expect every…
Meteor Impact Blasts Chelyabinsk
For once an asteroid strikes when we were kinda, sorta expecting one to.  According to the Washington Post, the Russian Academy of Sciences "estimated that the meteor weighed around 10 tons and was traveling at 10 to 12 miles per second (roughly 30,000 to 45,000 mph) when it disintegrated."  The…
The Universe Just Keeps Trying to Kill Us
“Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.” -Roger Zelazny It's always the ones you least expect that get you the worst, it seems. I went to bed last night excited that Asteroid 2012 DA14, a 200,000 ton asteroid, was going to pass within just 28,000 km (or 17,…
Call that a meteorite?
As reported by Uncertain Principles and Bad Astronomy, there was a meteorite impact in Northern Norway - Tromsø area. Initial reports were "impact compared to atomic bomb"... here is the proper report, including seismic signal - really did impact. Current reports suggest it was a ~ 10kg rocky…

You know what's going to happen next, right?

North Korea is going to issue a statement saying that its nuclear-tipped missile test was a complete success, thanking Russia for allowing the test over its own airspace, and warning the United States that the next one is for us.

And then U.S. Senate Republicans are going to filibuster NASA until after they get back from their next long vacation.

15 miles up is "low altitude?"

By Pareidolius (not verified) on 17 Feb 2013 #permalink