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...

[wardaddy]

45 foot squared and cubed would be 3375 cubic yards

3375 X 4000= 13.5 million pounds

Divided by 2204 lbs = 6125 metric tonnes

If the matter approximated water...granite...ash.... silicates....iron.....clay....slag.....calcium sulfate and most importantly limestone

[wastedyears]

Awesome, I’ll add it to my Amazon wish list to remember to get it another day. Thanks

[cripplecreek]

Another smaller fireball over California this morning.

[cripplecreek]

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

[Sacajaweau]

The only thing I can think of is a magnetic force.

[Sacajaweau]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57569589/russian-meteorites-not-caused-by-asteroid-flyby-nasa-says/

[Sacajaweau]

Using a plane in this diagram....a deliberate reminder of 9-11??

[cripplecreek]

Planes are a pretty common scale comparison.

[Sacajaweau]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/apr/HQ_11-098_New_Mineral.html

[FreedomPoster]

On a related note, Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven and Pournelle is a great book about the aftermath of large meteorite strike on Earth. Highly, highly recommended. And Pournelle is an old school conservative. Besides FreeRepublic, he’s the only guy I send money to, to support him and his web site.

[dinodino]

That’s because Russia is vast.

[winodog]

Nice pics. Do you or anyone else know why we are not seeing moonstrikes? With all these asteroids buzzing, I would think the moon should get hit.

Actually I have read where asteroids become meteors and strike the earth every day but they are small ones.

I would think we should have see some good sized ones hit the moon and kick up a huge cloud?

[dljordan]

That’s some muzzle velocity.

[MD Expat in PA]

Nice pics. Do you or anyone else know why we are not seeing moonstrikes? With all these asteroids buzzing, I would think the moon should get hit.

Actually I have read where asteroids become meteors and strike the earth every day but they are small ones.

I would think we should have see some good sized ones hit the moon and kick up a huge cloud?

Actually meteors do hit the Moon with regularity and have been observed, sometimes by amateur astronomers with backyard telescopes.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2006/13jun_lunarsporadic/

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/21may_100explosions/

[P.O.E.]

but experts believe the asteroid was rocky in nature,

[cripplecreek]

Nice pics. Do you or anyone else know why we are not seeing moonstrikes? With all these asteroids buzzing, I would think the moon should get hit.

The moon gets hit all the time. They're recorded as flashes usually classified as transient lunar phenomena. The reason reason they don't just call them impacts is because not all are impacts. Some are believed to be flashes caused by static electricity or other little understood phenomenon.

At between 250,000 and 500,000 miles a flash needs to be pretty big to be seen with the naked eye and few are. If a nuke were detonated on the moon its pretty likely that it would go unnoticed by anyone not watching for it.

Tons of meteors enter our atmosphere every day but most are the size of grains of sand and burn up in our atmosphere. Obviously the moon gets hit by the same but they're so small that we're not going to see them.



Transient lunar phenomenon

[RegulatorCountry]

As I said; outside the atmosphere it’s an asteroid. While falling through the atmosphere it’s a meteor.

I was taught to remember the Latin roots in a high school meteorology and astronomy class. Astro, astronomy, asteroid. In outer space. Meteor, meteorology, within the atmosphere. Meteorite, stalagmite, stalagtite, the "-ite" suffix is a geological reference, so it's on the ground.

Pretty basic linguistic distinctions, really. But people have somehow gotten the notion that the terms refer to size, including the erstwhile genius Michael Medved.

Oh well, it won't be the first time he's been wrong and certainly won't be the last. Pity he'll never know it.

[winodog]

Thanks for the answer. Bottom line = it would take a very large moonstrike to raise a dustcloud large enough to be seen well from Earth

[cripplecreek]

I was taught to remember the Latin roots in a high school meteorology and astronomy class.

Why a basic working knowledge of Latin is important. The Latin root words are kind of like a linguistic library. The root word puts you in the right aisle.

[RegulatorCountry]

The part we see is facing us, so the impacts are less frequent being somewhat sheltered by the Earth itself, but they do occur. I’ve understood that the “dark” side is far more pocked with craters and that impacts are much more frequent.