Visible and infrared imagery of the meteor that made a fiery entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Ural Mountains of Russia has been captured by Colorado State University scientists. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org
By Tim Worstall, Contributor The newspapers are full, of course, of the news of the metorite that came down over Chelyabinsk yesterday. That plus the news of the vastly larger 1012 DA 14 which has just gone sailing past (in a near miss that in astonomical terms is hardly a miss at all) leads to the hope that Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources get going with their idea of mining asteroids pretty sharpish. For the meteorite and the asteroid (which we can think of as a would be meteorite that didn’t make it) are stark reminders of the ultimate fate that awaits us as a species if we don’t get going. A meteor streaked across the sky above the Ural Mountains in Russia this morning, injuring more than 400 people, many hurt by broken glass, and causing explosions. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
The asteroid that slammed into the atmosphere and exploded over the Ural Mountains, injuring over 1,000 people, gets an animated treatment. Close up and over Earth views are shown. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Space.com
By Matt Cantor 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
A meteor exploded in the sky above Russia on Friday, injuring hundreds of people as its fragments fell to the ground in the Ural Mountains. Here’s a look at those objects in the sky:
What’s the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?
Meteors are pieces of space rock, usually from larger comets or asteroids, which enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Many are burned up by the heat of the atmosphere, but those that survive and strike the Earth are called meteorites. They often hit the ground at tremendous speed — up to 30,000 kilometers an hour (18,642 mph) according to the European Space Agency. That releases a huge amount of force.
How common are meteorite strikes?
Experts say smaller strikes happen five to 10 times a year. Large impacts such as the one Friday in Russia are rarer but still occur about every five years, according to Addi Bischoff, a mineralogist at the University of Muenster in Germany. Most of these strikes happen in uninhabited areas where they don’t cause injuries to humans.
Is there any link to the asteroid fly-by taking place later Friday?
No, it’s just cosmic coincidence, according to European Space Agency spokesman Bernhard Von Weyhe, who says Asteroid 2012DA14 is unrelated to the meteorite strike in Russia.
When was the last comparable meteorite strike?
In 2008, astronomers spotted a meteor heading toward Earth about 20 hours before it entered the atmosphere. It exploded over the vast African nation of Sudan, causing no known injuries. The largest known meteorite strike in recent times was the “Tunguska event” that hit Russia in 1908. Even that strike, which was far bigger than the one that happened over Russia on Friday, didn’t injure anyone. Scientists believe that an even larger meteorite strike may have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.
What can scientists learn from Friday’s strike?
Bischoff says scientists and treasure hunters are probably already racing to find pieces of the meteorite. Some meteorites can be very valuable, selling for up to €500 ($670) per gram depending on their exact composition. Because meteors have remained largely unchanged for billions of years — unlike rocks on Earth that have been …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Russian officials say a meteorite has fallen in the Chelyabinsk region some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow.
A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry, Vadim Kolesnikov, said the Friday morning fall caused a blast that broke windows.
There were no immediate confirmed reports of injuries, but Russian news agencies cited unnamed sources as saying several people were injured at a school in a thinly populated part of the region, which is on the eastern edge of the Ural Mountains.
By ScottCWaring
