Asteroid 'Hit Northern Russia'

Ananova ^ | 10-4-2002

[blam]

Asteroid 'hit northern Russia'

A large meteorite is thought to have smashed into a forest in a remote area of Russia.

Residents in the town of Bodaibo, in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, saw a large luminous body fall from the sky.

They say the impact caused the ground to shake and made a sound like thunder.

Flashes of bright light could be seen above the impact site, which was a long way from any settlements according to the Russian newspaper Pravda.

"Locals felt a strong shock, which could be comparable to an earthquake," said the report. "In addition to that, the people also heard a thunder-like sound."

Asteroid expert Dr Benny Peiser, from Liverpool John Moore's University, said: "If the eyewitness accounts are confirmed, this fact of an earth tremor together with thunder-like explosive sounds would indicate a rather significant impact event."

He said the incident occurred on the same day as the US House of Representatives debated the need to search for smaller asteroids and the danger of mistaking impacts for nuclear attacks.

At least 30 times a year, asteroids smash into the Earth's atmosphere and explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.

These smaller asteroids, between 200 and 500 metres wide, could potentially demolish a city with a direct hit or cause tsunamis - giant waves - capable of wiping out entire coastal areas if they land in the ocean.

Astronomers estimate there could be between 900 and 1,300 large asteroids measuring one kilometre or more in our part of the solar system, while the number of smaller bodies could amount to 50,000.

Story filed: 18:25 Friday 4th October 2002

[BullDog108]

Why not?

[prisoner6]

Just to calrify to everyone...

A meteor is a meteor. A >relatively< small chuck of rock. An asteroid is a >relatively< large chucnk of rock.

A meteorite is a meteor AFTER it impacts the Earth. prisoner6

[BOBTHENAILER]

Why can't these damn things ever hit somewhere like Mecca?

I have it on good authority that a meteor stream lasting from one week to two months will be falling in and around Baghdad sometime in the next two to four months.

Reportedly up to thousands of small to medium sized meteors, highly accurate.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I bet the same journalists that wrote this article also wrote the article about the semi-automatic revolver with the silencer...

[Movemout]

I know Pete Worden fairly well and I think he is right. I first mentioned that this problem deserves a higher priority more than ten years ago. It hasn't.

[PatrickHenry]

Because it's untidy. That's my opinion.

[OldFriend]

Nothing redeemable here............

[Lokibob]

Here is a satellite picture of a cloud that formed over Greenland after a meteor (asteroid) hit in 1997

 

GOES-8 visible image on 9 December 1997

The GOES-EAST visible image at 1445 UTC gives a nice view of a distinct high cloud over southern Greenland near local noon:

corresponding coastline map:

The "+" marks the reported impact point at 61.4N, 44.4W. Latitude and longitude lines are sketched at 2 degree intervals, based on the reported GOES earth-navigation. At this time, the navigated map's coastlines fall 3 pixels south and one pixel west of the observed coastlines, within the GOES earth-navigation error tolerances of 4 visible pixels.

Unfortunately, Greenland is too dark in December to provide visible images during the other GOES-8 observation times, such as 1145 and 1745 UTC.

GOES-8 infrared images on 9 December 1997

Fortunately, Greenland can be seen every three hours in the GOES-8 thermal infrared channel ("I04", or Imager channel 4 at 11 microns) with lower resolution:

GIF animation

coastline map ("+" marks impact point)

0245 UTC (local midnight)

0545 UTC

0845 UTC (30 minutes after impact)

1145 UTC

1445 UTC (local noon)

1745 UTC

2045 UTC

2345 UTC

A cold, high cloud appears over southeastern Greenland at 0845 UTC, 30 minutes after the reported impact, with faint hints of cloud formation along the center ridge of the southern Greenland ice cap at 0545 UTC.

[Savage Beast]

Siberia seems to be a magnet for these things. They're always blowing, flattening forests, blasting out craters.

[Mustang]

Your above #36 post reminds me of a Monty Python statement: "We're all bozo's on this bus"...we just need some proof we're not.

Best FReegareds...Mustang sends.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Jerrold Nadler?

Nah. We'd have heard it in California if it was Nadler. And the earth would have cracked.

[DentsRun]

At least 30 times a year, asteroids smash into the Earth's atmosphere and explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.

These smaller asteroids, between 200 and 500 metres wide, could potentially demolish a city with a direct hit or cause tsunamis - giant waves - capable of wiping out entire coastal areas if they land in the ocean.

The writer must mean (much smaller) meteors, not asteroids. If the earth got hit by 30 asteroids, 200 to 500 meters in diameter, every year there'd be nothing left of the planet. The meteorite that made Meteor Crater in Arizona was only 150 feet across and it made an impact crater 700 feet deep and 4000 feet across. Asteroids 600 to 1500 feet in diameter would cause unimaginable devastation. I'm afraid the reporter wrote this story after a three-martini lunch (either that or an editor mixed and matched a few paragraphs here).

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Those poor people must be scared out of their wits. I hope they don't blame it on GWB, but they probably will

Hitlery: "Bush should have known about this asteriod!"

[BulletBrasDotNet]

It said "atmosphere" not the ground. These things usually burn up.

[BulletBrasDotNet]

better than hemorrh-oids

[BulletBrasDotNet]

now that's funny.

[Hemlock]

astroids!!! Not Astronds!!! Or Osmonds or anything else....

FR needs a spell checker...

Teacher to Johnny: Please use astroids in a sentence.

Johnny to teacher: "Astroids -- We couldn't go to the baseball game last night because my dad's astroids were flaring up."

[FReepaholic]

>>...a large luminous body fall from the sky...<<

"LOOK OUT BELOW!!!!"

[BulletBrasDotNet]

I bet the same journalists that wrote this article also wrote the article about the semi-automatic revolver with the silencer...

I remember that. What a bunch of bozos. Yesterday, an FBI official think a "22" (rimfire) is the same as a .223 round. Maroons or what?

[MacDorcha]

i think they really just figured since it didnt hit a populated area, it couldn't have been a targeted attack. simple logic forms the simple hypothesis. along with that, although the U.S. is the only nation with satelites that may recognize what types of expolosions are occuring, most semi developed countries can seismically determine what types of tremors meen what, and all of them that have such instruments know how to register explosions. you ppl seem to be over thinking it all.