VIDEO: Large meteorite caught on dash cameras in Russia
![still-youtube-potapow-614[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/still-youtube-potapow-6141.jpg?quality=83)
Image from RT video, see below.
People are a little jumpy with news of the close flyby of the asteroid 2012 DA14 tomorrow. This meteor actually hit and destroyed a building. make you wonder is this wasn’t a piece of 2012DA14 that was a fragment that got ejected from the main asteroid by some other deep space collision but was in a similar trajectory out ahead. If so, there may be more incidents like this. It may also be simply coincidence. [UPDATE: NASA has issue a statement on this, see below]
Story from the YouTube description, video follows.
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A series of explosions in the skies of Russia’s Urals region, reportedly caused by a meteor shower, has sparked panic in three major cities. Witnesses said that houses shuddered, windows were blown out and cellphones stopped working.
A bright flash was seen in the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions, Russia’s Republic of Bashkiria and in northern Kazakhstan.
Lifenews tabloid reported that at least one piece of the fallen object caused damage on the ground in Chelyabinsk. According to preliminary reports, it crashed into a wall near a zinc factory, disrupting the fiber-optic connections of internet providers and mobile operators.
Witnesses said the explosion was so loud that it resembled an earthquake and thunder at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.
Photo from Twitter.com user @TimurKhorev
Police in the Chelyabinsk region are reportedly on high alert, and have enacted the ‘Fortress’ plan in order to protect vital infrastructure.
Office buildings in downtown Chelyabinsk are being evacuated. Injuries were reported at one of the city’s secondary schools, supposedly from smashed windows. No other injuries have been reported so far.
An emergency message published on the website of the Chelyabinsk regional authority urged residents to pick up their children from school and remain at home if possible.
The video suggests it was shot down by the Air Force, that’s now proven false. Word has it that there was an air burst at about 10,000 feet.
Here is another video showing the trail plume, you can hear the sonic boom, car alarms go off, and windows blown out. It is quite something:
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UPDATE: (via NASA’s spaceweather.com)
It is natural to wonder if this event has any connection to today’s record-setting flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14. NASA has issued the following statement:
“The trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14’s trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.”
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It’s one of the ships of the alien search party that came looking for their lost Tunguska ship, which crashed after it was safely abandoned by its crew. I know this because “R W Wood” performed his revolutionary and technologically-well-before-its-time experiment in 1909 only one year after the Tunguska crash! Coincidence? I think not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/02/06/the-r-w-wood-experiment/
I guess the aliens still haven’t got the hang of their newfangled thiotimoline drives. 🙂
First I head of that meteorite strike was WUWT. The leading news story du jour (again) is the Pistorious murder. What’s up with that?
The new CEO of the Interplanetary Society missed this one? The Nye Of Sauron?
apologies for linking to everyone’s favourite news outlet, Russia Today ( you may spot a hint of sarcasm, I could not possibly comment ;))
http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-meteorite-asteroid-chelyabinsk-291/
reports coming in now of over 400 injured and damage in 6 cities. Wow, this thing was big. If they did fire missiles at it I expect that they missed!
A collection of videos ( 14 ) and pictures from the event.
http://say26.com/meteorite-in-russia-all-videos-in-one-place
Can be heavy to load when all videos start.
Bill Parsons
A lot of drivers in Russia use dashboard cameras, that’s why. There are a lot of false claims there (check out youtube) and drivers have resorted to filming their journeys. It’s catching on here in England too – I’ve been doing it for the past year. You have to be a little wary driving behind someone who has a dented boot (tailgate, I think it is to you Americans) as they could suddenly stop on purpose and you ram them from behind. They get their boot (tailgate) repaired AND claim for whiplash, thus getting thousands of pounds (dollars) for really nothing at all. Cash for crash.
The fireball observed above Belgium and the Netherlands on February 13 around 22h10, was the re-entry of the third stage of the Soyuz rocket (SL4-R/B) that transported the unmanned space cargo Progress (M-18M) to the international space station ISS.
http://www.astro.oma.be/EN/hotnews/index.php
worth looking into date RI video (38 sec in).
A missile was fired at the meteor?!!!!!
Yea…right.
Duster, just to add a snippet, during the 70s there was a flash detected by satellite over the southern Indian Ocean. It was deemed to be a South African nuclear test and more sanctions were applied. Only decades later did it become clear that it was a meteorite strike.
Well that must have been quite discombobulating for the citizens.
Thanks for that link pekke.
What would have happened if the 50m item had hit I wonder. It also seems a bit coincidental if these little guys aren’t related to 2012 DA14.
So envious. Tungushka and now this. How cone the Russkis get all the best meteorites??
The first was space junk. It triggered air defence system. All the missiles they shot at the junk had to fall back to earth somewhere, which explains the second crash.
That’s the theory that pops into my head at 3:51 AM, EST. Now I likely should go back to bed, but this just shows you that I can’t go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without checking WUWT to see WU.
That was a sonic boom and then some: and they used to complain that the Concorde would be to noisy.
Looks like it broke into two pieces flying in formation, or possibly was two chunks flying in orbit together. Saw something like that back in the last century, a Russian booster rocket that was breaking up as it re-entered, bright glowing pieces flying along together.
Car insurance in Russia is a tad… unreliable. Hence the prevalence of dashcams. Google “Russian Dashcam Video” if you are ever bored and need some entertainment. Amazing stuff.
Thanks for posting this Antony. I think I would have jumped at the noise, an adrenaline rush experience all around I think.
It is being reported that it has injured at least 400 people,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21468116
Now here is something we need to worry about. It’s not if but when. No need for consensus here. Instead billions are being spent on a phantom threat when the real threat is above our heads. Imagine if the Tunguska event happened today and terminated on New York city or Washington DC.
The South African flash was a nuke test. I know someone who was involved. The test site was located by a low altitude plane flying a grid pattern on behalf of the US embassy and they got caught doing it. Big headlines at the time.
The day of the double flash a desert region was declared a no-fly zone to “unlimited” altitude. The double flash was spotted by a supposedly dead weather satellite controlled by an American high school class. All a matter of record. It was the only known atmospheric test of what is assumed to be Israel’s neutron weapons. They did it together.
Meteorites hitting the Earth is not inconsistent with anthropogenic global warming
(sarc)
Really? First I heard of it was BBC TV news at 6:30 followed by an interview with a scientist, who thought it unlikely that this was anything to do with tonights fly-past, and pointed out that this one was probably just a little rock so was too small to have been seen coming.
Anthony: I doubt that the building was hit by pieces of the meteorite. Its likely it collapsed from the sonic boom. An old, sub-standard building, with snow on the roof, would be more likely.
If you lookclosely at the condensation trails you will see that it was two meteors flying side by side.
The roof of the building collapsed from the pressure wave of the sonic boom.
The injuries came from falling glass.
Perhaps a fellow traveler with today’s flyby. I certainly hope that the Spanish correctly calculated today’s trajectory when they reported it.
Every thing in Russia bigger,bigger cars, bigger trains, bigger drones. ]”7)
Alfred
Sonic booms blew out many windows.
Many vehicles in Russia have dashcams now – and high quality HD ones with sound. There will be hundreds of videos available.
Apparently this meteor in Russia is unlikely to be related to the asteroid due to pass close later this evening at 19:25 GMT. I think we have more important things to worry about Earthlings.
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/meteorite-crashes-in-russian-u/6195714
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21442863