COSMIC COINCIDENCE

Friday, February 15, 2013

RUSSIAN METEOR

Around 9:30AM Moscow time a meteor streaked across the Ural Mountains, releasing several kilotons of energy.

Window shattered by the meteor's sonic boom

The meteor entered the atmosphere at about 33,000mph, causing a massive sonic boom to shatter windows along it’s path.  Over 900 people have reported sustaining injuries from the sound explosion.

GIVE IT TO ME STRAIGHT

•  SIZE: Reports vary from the size of a kitchen table, to an SUV.
• SPEED: Entered the atmosphere traveling at 33,000mph.
• WEIGHT: Scientists are estimating that if the meteor is made of pure iron it could weight anywhere from 8-10 tons!

Russian meteor streaking across the sky

• WHERE: Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, about 900 miles east of Moscow.
• WHEN: About 9:30AM, local time.
• ODDS: Sergei Lamzin, deputy head of the Sternberg Sternberg State Astronomical Institute in Moscow, says Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dustand sand-size articles a day, most of which burns up in the atmosphere.  According to NASA, once every 100 years asteroids larger than about 50 meters reach the Earth’s surface, and every few hundred thousand years, asteroids larger than a mile across may cause global disasters.

ASTEROID DA14 AND RUSSIAN METEOR NOT LINKED

Earlier this week we wrote a blog on Asteroid 2012 DA14, which is the LARGEST recorded asteroid to pass this CLOSE to Earth.

When the Russian meteor was first reported, many speculated the two were related.  However, Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at the Astrophysics Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, says Da14 and the Russian meteor are approaching earth from opposite directions, indicating there is no correlation.

“This is literally a cosmic coincidence, although a spectacular one.”

SOURCES : RIPLEYS BELIEVE IT OR NOT FACTS