Russian meteor

[BroncoHauler]

I think that explosion you hear is the sonic boom, and not the disintegration or impact of the meteor. Could be wrong though.


Herb

[WVvan]

Infrasound data collected by a network designed to watch for nuclear weapons testing suggests that today's blast released hundreds of kilotonnes of energy. That would make it far more powerful than the nuclear weapon tested by North Korea

the vast majority of damage in the region was caused by shockwaves of the explosion, as the rock broke up in the upper atmosphere.

infrasound stations belonged to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an international body that is designed to watch the Earth for nuclear-weapons tests.

From this article at Nature.com

EDIT: From the replies in the above article.

Ruth Kletnick said:

Last night, a glass on a counter in my bathroom in New Hampshire, US, shattered spontaneously and seemingly, without any physical cause. I looked up the time difference between Chelyabinsk and my home, and the glass shattered at almost exactly the same time that the meteor hit. Has anyone heard of anything else like this happening? I know there was no other possible physical cause.

Interesting if true.

[Makalu1]

I can't wait for the inevitable NOVA about this thing! I will bet that boom is not a sound barrier phenomena, but a true shock wave generated by the disintegration of the rock that made the big flash. I could sure be wrong about that though. I'm also betting that speed of 19 miles a second should have read 9 mps. The reports I've heard claimed 33,000mph. Divide by 60 minutes = 550, divide by 60 seconds = 9.16 mps. I think I got that right. The fastest a manned spacecraft has flown is nearly 25,000 mph (almost 7 mps) on Apollo 10 as the lunar module returned to earth. I agree Herb, weird how so many people don't seem to pay much attention to that blinding flash! I'd have been doing handstands if I'd seen something that cool!

[TwoVans]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

I think that explosion you hear is the sonic boom, and not the disintegration or impact of the meteor. Could be wrong though.


Herb

I've felt a sonic boom before. That seemed quite a bit bigger. Also, the smoke trails appear to be closer than 6-9 miles away. If they are closer, the sonic boom would have had to have been sooner.

[daveb]

Originally Posted by Makalu1

I agree Herb, weird how so many people don't seem to pay much attention to that blinding flash!

Natasha, another Russian experiment dot gone wrong. I said not to move here.

[BroncoHauler]

I'm sure 'the facts' will continue to be refined, but I read the following estimates from NASA.

Estimated weight of meteor: 10 tons
Estimated speed: 10 miles per second
Estimated height above ground at time it exploded:12 - 15 miles

[daveb]

Being the fly by of 2012 DA14 wasn't too far off time wise, I'm sure some of the people over there were thinking somebody screwed up but the trajectory was very different between the two and not related to one another. Even if I were to see the russian object coming on CCD images, I would think it was a mistake and figure it was 2012 DA-14.

I wish I had a piece of that meteorite.

[Ocsmb]

Russian Superman?

[WVvan]

Latest News:

It was traveling at 65,000 km/h (40,000 mph), which we are told is a typical speed, and lasted only 30 seconds in the atmosphere. This is why hoax claims to the effect that the meteor was shot down by Russian missiles are easily dismissed - no existing weapons system is capable of detecting an atmospheric entry, launching a missile, and delivering the missile to a high altitude in front of an object traveling that fast within that short a period of time.

Apparently the meteor burst between 50-20 km high (160,000 ft - 66,000 ft), which is roughly where weather balloons fly and between twice and six times the height of Mt. Everest. There's not much air up there, but to an object traveling that fast, even tenuous atmosphere is basically solid. The smoke trail you see in some of the videos may seem little different from something a low-flying plane that exploded might leave behind, but in fact it is HUGE. The fact that it looks so big from so high in altitude means that it's probably several miles wide.

It came in at a very shallow angle, giving it a lot of time to bleed off energy and reach lower altitudes than it might otherwise have. If it had come in straight down, it would have exploded much higher up, but the explosion could have been more energetic and the shockwave directed right at Chelyabinsk. On the other hand, traveling to lower altitudes meant the ultimate shockwave originated closer to the ground.

Moral of the story? For your next interplanetary war forget explosives. Just use mass drivers.

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by WVvan

Moral of the story? For your next interplanetary war forget explosives. Just use mass drivers.

Hence the theory behind the Navy's railgun program. Goal is 40lb projectiles hitting at Mach 7. No warhead needed.


Herb