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Posted on 02/15/2013 12:34:43 AM PST by Islander7
A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteorite shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones have stopped working.
According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
500 injured, wow
Thank you for the clarification. I certainly appreciate it. I did not clearly remember the true speed of most spacebourne objects and did not wish to post incorrect information as that would merely have detracted from what I was attempting to point out.
I have been close to howitzers when they fired and can attest to how simply the side blast was enough to knock the dust off of things close by. I have been aboard a ship when another in the group lit off three of its sixteen-inch guns and felt the entire ship shudder from the concussion -no small thing in a ship that size. When a true meteorite hits, it rarely looks like the pics I saw posted there -that looked more like satellite or rocket debris coming back dirtside, or a failed missile coming down. A meteorite, not that I was there of course *cough*, looks like a dark speck in the sky gradually growing lighter and brighter as it draws close and is burning its way through the atmosphere. From the moment you can determine the small and extremely bright circular object headed towards the ground the next thing you see is a streak of light lancing into the ground -within an eyeblink at most. Even from a few kilometres away, the concussion is staggering, and the crater produced from even the tiny bit left when it strikes is incredible.
Strikes into a valley are usually the easiest on things as the majority of the resulting blast is deflected upwards at an angle into the atmosphere. On the side of a mountain, not so good. The giant 'V'-shaped pattern is quite large and easily detectable from the air.
I guess I am just longing for the old days when FReepers regularly posted pic in the thread, especially when they tag the headline with “(pics)”
Yes, I was being a bit snarky but it was only in the vein of light hearted ribbing. No offense intended so you have my apology.
On that big rock that hit Russia, Wow! The videos are incredible. The power of that thing intense considering its size. Did they say it was 40 tons?
You are right it is incredible. Absolutley out of this world .
Oh no biggie! I figured what you meant but posted just in case. The first time I checked the link I didn’t scroll down all the way.
I think the reason for less pics is to take pressure off the FR servers. Sometimes FR gets very bogged down. That’s why I try to keep pics to a minimum and when I do post them I resize them smaller.
The FR servers are definitely working over time at times. I think the other reason pics are not posted as often as they used to be is increasing use of tablet and smart phone browsing. Too difficult to post pics with those devices.
Were you around in the FR days when someone would forget to switch off an html tag, for example bold, and then every post after that would be bold until someone switched off the tag?
Also used to be common that everyone used italics to post the part of the thread being replied to, as I have done here. That FR norm is gone.
Finally, I miss some of the regularly posted toons. For example...
And dare I say, where are the kittens?
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