Meteor over Russia

How far do our heads need to be up our ass, to be safe from the next asteroid? ;D

Meteorites are worth pretty good money aren't they? I assume people are trying to find fragments. Each one could be more valuable than finding a chunk of gold.

I live in almost the same latitude... This is why this kinda freaks me out. All the latest bloody meteorite strikes seem to have been closer to the poles. Goldarned magnetism.
Regardless, I've been watching videos and this has been so cool to watch. Wish I'd been there. The last video is of the 6 metre hole the meteorite left in its wake.

http://say26.com/meteorite-in-russia-all-videos-in-one-place

I really thought so too (especially since it is common for a larger asteroid to have such smaller companions), but I heard mentioned on the news tonight that they were on two completely different orbital trajectories, and so were not in any way related.

I guess coincidences really do happen.

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BTW, I think the news passed mostly unnoticed, but since I'm thinking of orbital trajectories:

There is a large comet heading in through the outer solar system right now. And it is following the same trajectory as the Great Comet of 1680 (that was one of the best comets ever seen by human eyes, at least in recorded history). It'll be here just in time for Christmas.

Last I heard, they don't think this is the Great Comet of 1680, but rather that the two comets are fragments of a larger body that broke apart a couple thousand years ago.

Regardless, based on early observations, this incoming body already has all the ingredients to be just as spectacular as its sister object was some three centuries ago.


EDIT: Thread about the incoming comet: http://able2know.org/topic/199030-1

Interesting website--includes a video of the 1.5 meter diameter, 10 (meteric or short?) ton Russian meteor track from weather satellites.

Russian Meteor Not Related to Asteroid Flyby, NASA Confirms

http://www.universetoday.com/100003/russian-meteor-not-related-to-asteroid-flyby-nasa-confirms/

Rap

I was told by a meteor dealer that the world economy has affected the prices of meteorite. The only ones that are still high are the chondrites with crystalline inclusions.

They used to be like 20 bucks a GRAM, noe thwy are down to, like 5 bucks/g

COURSE I could be all wet , this past week was the worlds biggest rock show in Tucson Az and whenever that thing is over, there are always new minerals that become really popular and orices for some older ones change radically.

Now...there's a fireball in San Francisco last night....so, is that three?

Are we done ?
Joe(here comes one now!)Nation

Where the hell have I been. Just stumbled across this thread and it's the first I've heard of the Russian meteorite. Sheesh. I feel like I'm living on a different planet.

or a remote island in the Pacific...

I know right. Aloha boys!

I was a bit surprised how many pictures they got of it.

Yeah, but we have newspapers. It's true that I never watch TV but I do listen to news on NPR and check headlines online. How'd I miss this?

you were probably out poaching pineapples for personal profit.

Oh.....I was kind of assuming it was some sort of asteroid tail or something. Interesting.

Damn! Busted again.

(101955) 1999 RQ36
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%28101955%29_1999_RQ36
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/a101955.html
Possible impact date (low probability): 2182 AD
Diameter: 0.560 km
Impact yield: 2,700 megatons


(29075) 1950 DA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2829075%29_1950_DA
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/1950da/
Possible impact date (low probability): 2880 AD
Diameter: 1.1 km
Impact yield: 100,000 megatons (ouch!)

What is so interesting, and frightening, is that the really big meteor missed us by only 17,000 miles. The diameter of earth is about 8,000 miles, which presented a pretty big target for the meteor.

Thus, we do need serious research in blocking meteors that look like they are heading our way.

It's a combination of mass and speed, is it not? E= mc2 or sum'n like that. I think the velocity of the rock had much to add to the mix.

It was inside the orbits of our outer synchro... satellites, roughly 2.1 earth diiameters from the center of the earth, or 4.2 earth radii. All the way from outer space, this one had our number cause it will return

There was an interesting interview on the radio the other day of an astronomer from Western University in London, Ontario. She alluded to the listening gear which was put in place for the comprehensive test ban treaty, to detect explosions in the atmosphere. From that data, they estimate the object when it struck in Siberia was 15 meters in diameter (about 46 feet), weighed 7000 metric tons (7140 U.S. Standard tons, 14,280,000 pounds) and the impact explosion was 30 to 40 times as explosive as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. (She said how many megatons of tnt equivalent, but i don't recall the number she gave.)