Russian Meteor Strikes (Video) (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Flat out awesome videos of this event. This one has the boom right off, listen to the glass break and the breakup sonics.. The last one.. damn, I would not want to be in front of that building full of glass!

 

[Coressel]

Holy Shitzky!
I wish I spoke Russian. Sounds like the guy in the first video yells "YOUR BUTT!" after the explosion.

 

[mattCR]

If I was standing in front of a building of glass windows and heard a gigantic boom and all the glass behind me shatter, I might be very worried about my butt. Can't blame the guy!

 

[Coressel]

Now they are saying that there were at least 1000 people injured: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/meteorite-streaks-across-russian-urals_n_2691904.html

 

[Sam Posten]

Pure awesome, and terrifying. Now we know how the dinosaurs felt =p No matter how much we think we have success in life, how much we think we are in control, how much we have it all figured out, we are all just one meteorite strike from instant vaporization =) heheh

 

[mattCR]

If you were in a car and saw this, I would NOT blame you for having an accident.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Some of the video is so good you might think it came out of a disaster movie! Here's what's bothering me about this: to my knowledge, no government is putting that much effort into finding objects that might strike the earth, even though we know the earth is struck by asteroids on a routine basis. Further, several times I've heard on the tube that the year's warning we got on the bigger near-miss asteroid is not enough time to do anything about it. Had it been discovered this baby was going to hit the Earth, there's was nothing we could do. Further, the near-miss asteroid was discovered by amateurs. If I remember correctly, it was stated on the tube that the asteroid that struck was about the same size as the asteroid that created the Arizona crater yea-many years ago. That crater is huge. This last strike didn't do as much damage because it broke apart and it weighed less due to its different composition. I infer from that, that an Arizona crater capable meteor could hit the Earth and we couldn't do anything but bend over, spread 'em, and put our heads up our patooties. The asteroid that struck released the explosive power of 20 hiroshiba bombs, but since it exploded in the atmosphere, most of the energy was absorbed there. Do these asteroids have a thing for Russia? There was that big mother around the turn of the century that struck in Siberia (I think it was Siberia) and now this one. Well, one expert has also said its just coincidence, helped along by the fact that Russia is such a big chuck of square footage.

 

[Cees Alons]

If you include Siberia, Russia is huge. So chances are big.
What's remarkable is the fact that these guys were (easily) able to film what they saw.
That's because a camera in the front of your car (the "dashboard-camera") has become really popular there.
It seems it's almost a necessity: to be able to prove your version of accidents (there was a guy who was able to prove that the driver of another car had really backed up and run into him than being hit from behind like the other claimed).
As a result you see more and more on-the-road youtube footage from inside Russia, lately.
Cees

 

[Yee-Ming]

Originally Posted by Cees Alons
If you include Siberia, Russia is huge. So chances are big.
What's remarkable is the fact that these guys were (easily) able to film what they saw.
That's because a camera in the front of your car (the "dashboard-camera") has become really popular there.
It seems it's almost a necessity: to be able to prove your version of accidents (there was a guy who was able to prove that the driver of another car had really backed up and run into him than being hit from behind like the other claimed).
As a result you see more and more on-the-road youtube footage from inside Russia, lately.
Cees

Here too (Singapore) -- there was one infamous case where a Ferrari blew through a red light at over 200km/h (120-130mph?) and caused a big accident, narrowly missing a cab with a dashboard cam that caught the whole incident.
I'd guess no government is tracking asteroids simply because there's no benefit -- there's nothing anyone can do anyway (movies like Meteor and Armageddon notwithstanding), so why spend the money in the first place? Also, there's the whole "free rider" economic problem: assuming say the US does it, and for that matter let's assume the US can develop the tech to deflect a potential killer asteroid, everybody else in the world rides along free, since any action the US takes benefits the whole world, without the rest of world having paid a cent towards it. Conversely, can you imagine the hoo-ha if the US had the tech to stop a big meteor projected to land in, say Australia, wiping out Perth and most of populated coastal Western Australia, but declined to use its 'asteroid killer' because the US would not be affected by a strike, and it cost billions to do so?

 

[Regulus]

Some of the video is so good you might think it came out of a disaster movie! Here's what's bothering me about this: to my knowledge, no government is putting that much effort into finding objects that might strike the earth, even though we know the earth is struck by asteroids on a routine basis. Further, several times I've heard on the tube that the year's warning we got on the bigger near-miss asteroid is not enough time to do anything about it. Had it been discovered this baby was going to hit the Earth, there's was nothing we could do. Further, the near-miss asteroid was discovered by amateurs. If I remember correctly, it was stated on the tube that the asteroid that struck was about the same size as the asteroid that created the Arizona crater yea-many years ago. That crater is huge. This last strike didn't do as much damage because it broke apart and it weighed less due to its different composition. I infer from that, that an Arizona crater capable meteor could hit the Earth and we couldn't do anything but bend over, spread 'em, and put our heads up our patooties. The asteroid that struck released the explosive power of 20 hiroshiba bombs, but since it exploded in the atmosphere, most of the energy was absorbed there. Do these asteroids have a thing for Russia? There was that big mother around the turn of the century that struck in Siberia (I think it was Siberia) and now this one. Well, one expert has also said its just coincidence, helped along by the fact that Russia is such a big chuck of square footage.

There are two kinds of meteors, Iron and Stony. Thank heaven this was a Stony, these tend to explode before hitting the ground (As this one did). The one that struck Arizona was an iron meteor, and you could just imagine the damage this one would cause if it had struck the ground! The force of the explosion was calculated to be around 500 Kilotons (1/2 Megaton) - 30 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

 

[Johnny Angell]

With enough warning and enough motivation (it's a big one) we could do something. With enough warning a little nudge would be enough. One method would be to paint half the asteroid white (I'm not kidding)which would cause the suns rays or solar wind to alter the asteroids trajectory.

 

[DaveF]

Those videos are the start of a JJ Abrams scifi. Terrifying and awesome.

 

[DaveF]

I'd guess no government is tracking asteroids simply because there's no benefit -- there's nothing anyone can do anyway (movies like Meteor and Armageddon notwithstanding), so why spend the money in the first place?

JPL tracks asteroids and near-earth objects. http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/ And there's the amateur community which helps in the effort. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/newsfeatures.cfm?release=2013-060 Space Debris is also a concern, watched by NASA. http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/measure/measurement.html

 

[Stan]

There are two kinds of meteors, Iron and Stony. Thank heaven this was a Stony, these tend to explode before hitting the ground (As this one did). The one that struck Arizona was an iron meteor, and you could just imagine the damage this one would cause if it had struck the ground! The force of the explosion was calculated to be around 500 Kilotons (1/2 Megaton) - 30 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

I also believe the Arizona crater was caused by a straight on hit, directly into the earth. The Russian meteor was more of a fly-by, coming in at an angle which caused it to be exposed to much more of the atmosphere, heating up and exploding before falling in small pieces. Still pretty amazing the damage it caused. Probably more on their way, just a matter of time. Even the larger one that missed us by 17,000 miles was awfully close. Just good timing we weren't in its path.

 

[Malcolm R]

With enough warning and enough motivation (it's a big one) we could do something. With enough warning a little nudge would be enough. One method would be to paint half the asteroid white (I'm not kidding)which would cause the suns rays or solar wind to alter the asteroids trajectory.

Yeah, in one of the articles I read about the Russian asteroid, they quoted some scientist as saying it would really only take a relatively small rocket in the zero-gravity vacuum of space to alter the trajectory of an incoming object enough for it to miss the Earth. He says current technologies are satisfactory to accomplish this. Films like Armageddon and Deep Impact really exaggerate what would have to be done.

 

[Cees Alons]

That's right. Sort of Drone. Still a bit tricky, though. You must be sure you hit it firmly enough to cause the desired effect. But not really damage it, or you may have changed a bullet into a shower of space hail. And mistakes can work out terribly: if the meteoroid instead of hitting the original target, say, Perth Australia, still appears to hit our earth's surface after the tingling with its trajectory by the US, but now takes away a secret Russian or North-Korean military rocket-launch site, no one is going to believe it was purely an accident. Cees

 

[Colin Davidson]

Everyone has it ALL wrong.... Just the Empire sending more probe droids. Wonder who they are looking for this time.

 

[Cees Alons]

"...long long time ago.... galaxy far far away...." Cees