Russian 'meteor' was actually a tiny asteroid, NASA says (45 feet across, 10,000 tons & 40,000 mph)

The Los Angeles Times ^ | February 16, 2013 | Monte Morin

[2ndDivisionVet]

At a news conference Friday, NASA scientists said the object that exploded over Russia was a “tiny asteroid” that measured roughly 45 feet across, weighed about 10,000 tons and traveled about 40,000 mph.

The object vaporized roughly 15 miles above the surface of the Earth, causing a shock wave that triggered the global network of listening devices that was established to detect nuclear test explosions.

The force of the explosion measured between 300 and 500 kilotons, equivalent to a modern nuclear bomb, according to Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

“When you hear about injuries, those are undoubtedly due to the events of the shock striking the city and causing walls to collapse and glass to fly, not due to fragments striking the ground,” Cooke said.

Scientists believe the object originated from the asteroid belt, a vast collection of debris orbiting between Mars and Jupiter that consists of leftover bits from the formation of the solar system. The asteroid probably traveled for a year before it burst into the atmosphere Friday. As yet, no fragments have been recovered, but experts believe the asteroid was rocky in nature, and not formed of dense iron and nickel...

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

There was a very large object of some type that hit in the early 1900’s that affected a huge area.

Not to pick nits but it never hit the ground. It was much like the latest event this week. It blew up at high altitude and converted all it's kinetic energy into a blast wave which devastated hundreds of square miles. There was no impact crater, no radiation, and no debris were ever found. It happened to be in an extremely remote area with a very small and dispersed population so there were no human casualties. The major damage was a huge forest laid low like a giant crop circle with all the fallen trees pointing away from ground zero. The blast was estimated to have been in the 50 megaton range.

Yes that was a big blast but it was around 1906 and hasn't repeated since. The latest one was in the 20 kiloton range, much much smaller and those two do not seem to mark a trend being over 100 years apart.

Chances are we'll we more of these events because now we have observational tools which weren't available even 50 years ago. Who knows how many medium to large rocks have fallen into the oceans unnoticed?

Regards,
GtG

[Ozark Tom]

“Hot Fudge Sundae” a la Niven/ Pournelle

[Chickensoup]

Well I never thought this quite through I guess.

thank you for the fascinating information.

And I am waving back to you GTG!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet. Nice bunch of concurrent discussions here.

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[SunkenCiv]

The destroyer displaces 10,000 tons of water, which has a lower density than most of the asteroid (Earth’s density is about 4 times that of Jupiter, for example).

[SunkenCiv]

Well put.

[SunkenCiv]

The near side is ‘whooped’ too — it’s just that there are several newer large impact craters which refaced most of it. By contrast, the surface of Mars is divided into a Hemisphere of Craters and the Opposite Hemisphere, which is apparently due to a single large impact event which contributed a lot of ejecta craters. These two hemispheres are not the same as N-S or E-W hemispheres, and don’t match up with the Martian equator.

And yes, the Moon does in fact rotate, otherwise it *wouldn’t* show the same face, obviously — it has to rotate during its orbit or we’d see the entire surface at some point. The Moon got tidally locked because of the tidal transfer of momentum from Moon to Earth; the same transfer takes place in the other direction, IOW the Earth’s rotation slows just a little more every year and pushes the Moon away.

Moon’s Youngest Crater Discovered [1953]
BBC | 12-20-2002
Posted on 12/19/2002 7:42:01 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/809572/posts

A Celestial Collision
Alaska Science Forum | February 10, 1983 | Larry Gedney
Posted on 09/15/2004 9:04:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1216757/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Objects as small as this one come up a few miles short during terminal descent, so they’re not being actively looked for, although they are occasionally collaterally found. The asteroid which missed on the same day was about three times the diameter, which is approximately 3 times in each dimension, or 27 times the size (and probably the mass). Something about that size produced the 3/4 mile wide Barringer Crater in Arizona circa 50K years ago.

re deflection:

Astronomy Picture of the Day — Gravitational Tractor
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2990516/posts

[Mike Darancette]

At 40,000 mph had that asteroid missed the earth it wasn’t coming back.

[Nik Naym]

It was a really large asteroid before someone smeared “Preperation A” on it.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

That little guy waving up at you?
That was me...

Regards,
Gandalf

PS I "borrowed" the graphic from the FreeRepublic fund drive, it's just a copy so I don't think it will be missed...