Last night, what is now believed to be a 10-ton bolide (an exceptionally large and bright meteor) apparently exploded and evaporated about 20-30 miles over Siberia, sending varying fragments of meteorite debris crashing to the ground. No deaths have been reported at this point, but some 1,000 people have been injured, mostly by breaking glass. Note about terminology here - once a solid piece of debris from a "meteor" (the solid piece of debris is called a "meteoroid") reaches the ground, it is called a "meteorite." Three large meteorites from last night's event have been retrieved so far, and a large impact crater has been located about 50 miles west of Chelyabinsk. According to The New York Times, "The object was visible from the city of Nizhniy Tagil, around 220 miles north of Chelyabinsk, where so many people called an emergency assistance number that it stopped working." The following video compilation provides a sense of the magnitude of this event:
After seeing the footage, it's easy to understand why this has set off widespread panic across the region, particularly as people anticipate today's near-Earth flyby of Asteroid DA14. Despite the unnerving timing of these two events, Asteroid DA14 is not connected in any way to last night's shower of meteorites in Siberia. Most importantly, Asteroid DA14, although missing Earth by an astronomically close 17,200 miles, will have no impact on Earth whatsoever. That's certainly a good thing, as Asteroid DA14 - even at only 150 feet across - would not just knock out windows and television sets, but would devastate an entire region if it made impact. Of course, What's maybe more sobering is that DA14 was only discovered last year - and there is no way to track the vast number of smaller objects that fall to Earth everyday, including last night's meteorites.
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