Where exactly did the Russian meteor come from?

thewee.comk ^ | 4:22pm EST | Chris Gayomali |

[BenLurkin]

Poring over crowd-sourced footage, researchers Jorge Zuluaga and Ignacio Ferrin from the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia, were able to use "simple trigonometry to calculate the height, speed, and position of the rock as it fell to Earth," says BBC News. More importantly, the duo was able to find out where Russia's most famous meteor was likely born.

Using astronomy software developed by the U.S. Naval Observatory, Zuluaga and Ferrin gathered enough data to trace the meteoroid's origins in outer space. The information included the meteor's relative angle to the horizon, the shadows it cast, and video timestamps of the rock's screaming descent.

Based on its trajectory and speed — zipping through the atmosphere at an estimated rate of 13 to 19 kilometers per second — the Russian meteor appears to have originated from the Apollo family of asteroids, which are "well-known near-Earth asteroids that cross the orbit of Earth," says Discovery News:

Around 5,200 Apollo asteroids are currently known, the largest being 1866 Sisyphus — a 10 kilometer-wide monster that was discovered in 1972. Large Apollos are identified as being a significant risk to our planet, so the Chelyabinsk meteoroid acted like an Apollo warning shot. [Discovery News]

[BenLurkin]

Not to be confused with Columbia University

[darkwing104]

Where exactly did the Russian meteor come from?

Space...

[dfwgator]

[Venturer]

And now that we know what can we do about it?

Nothing.

[ansel12]

I’m still stuck back at trying to figure out how it was caused by global warming.

[Doomonyou]

Space.

Next question.

[jazusamo]

Iran? Syria? Russia should pick better friends.

[ThomasThomas]

Bush’s fault.

[COBOL2Java]

"And when this Sequester takes effect on Friday, more of these asteroids will plummet to earth, killing innocent women and children! If only Congress and the Republicans would work with me, we can avoid this catastrophe!"

[Paladin2]

Uh, Space?

[SaxxonWoods]

It came from the fracking, and was guided in by chemtrails.

[Blue Collar Christian]

Well, if they’re Russian, they must be from Russia.

[RegulatorCountry]

You’ve got to admit, “Sisyphus” is a pretty cool name for an asteroid, but the implication isn’t all that great.

On another note, the author needs an English class, and should also avoid headlines that immediately lead to “duh” responses such as “it came from outer space.”

[MotorCityBuck]

I was thinking N.Korea. LOL.

[bigheadfred]

Mickey Obama.

[mountainlion]

I thought the Russians came form bears.

[SampleMan]

We know where it came from and just what we have to do about it.

[hinckley buzzard]

Focus scarce resources on tracking Apollo asteroids as opposed to trying to cover the whole cosmos.

[ansel12]

CNN never said for sure.

“”CNN anchor Deb Feyerick asked Saturday afternoon if an approaching asteroid, which will pass by Earth on February 15, “is an example of, perhaps, global warming?”

Moments earlier, before an ad break, she segued from the Northeast blizzard to a segment with Bill Nye “the science guy,” by pointing to global warming: “Every time we see a storm like this lately, the first question to pop into a lot of people’s minds is whether or not global warming is to blame? I’ll talk to Bill Nye, ‘the science guy,’ about devastating storms and climate change.”””