Meteorite!!!!!
Over the Ural Mountains!!

There's apparently a vid out there somewhere !!

there are lots of videos from lots of different angles.  the sonic boom is very loud in them (caused by the bolide travelling at supersonic speeds through our atmosphere); there is at least one video where you can hear & see it break windows

pedant moment:  oh, and the term for falling star is meteor -- that is when a meteoroid enters our atmosphere and begins burning up.  If a meteor hits the ground then it is called a meteorite.  Confusing, yes?

oh, and the fancy name for a meteor fireball is bolide.  there are actual videos of this event where you can see this meteor enter our atmosphere.  very impressive stuff.  i was totally skeptical at first.  thought it was a promo or some sort :3

i've read reports that people have been hurt -- by glass, it looks like.  some have been hospitalized.

this shows just how important it is for us to get off this planet (note: that doesn't mean leave it behind, but, rather, to have our eggs in more than one basket so to speak)

The report I read was that, as Inanna suggests, the injuries were all due to glass and other debris left when the "boom" shattered windows and did other damage.

Something on this scale is going to be inevitable from time to time. Let's just be thankful that this was a small one and not something on the scale of the Tunguska Event when an exploding meteor/asteroid/comet did nuclear-level damage to an area in Siberia. It was very sparsely inhabited at the time so minimal if any casualties (some hunters were apparently reported missing) but if it happened over even a small city today...

Damage from the Tunguska event (from a 1927 investigation):

As for getting off the planet, that won't help. Every body in the solar system has been hit and hit hard at some point. I'd suggest that there's even a good probability that other solar systems will be similarly afflicted with cosmic debris.

How to deal with the problem:

- civil defence preparedness (needed anyway due to other natural catastrophes)

- a program of monitoring and mapping of large bodies that could do major damage (under way, but smaller debris like this one likely will be too small and too numerous to be mapped)

- Figure out how to deflect the most dangerous ones and get preparations under way. I believe that the Russians are already planning tests of some kind using a known asteroid (but one that isn't currently believed to be a threat, just close enough to be reachable). Again, today's little meteor and even Tunguska might be too small to worry about here. We're talking the extinction level monsters like the one that helped the dinosaurs down the path to oblivion.

Mendalla

I checked out the videos on Youtube and this meteor was AMAZING! And to think the big one is going to pass over our earth, a very close brush (we hope), tonight. Watch for it!

We will also have another big one pass the earth later this year in November that is supposed to stay visible for around 2 months. That should be interesting too.

(must quickly check that 3rd secret of Fatima!)

The big one's supposed to come in another 20 years....so enjoy yourself now!

I wonder if we did have a definite threat heading our way if all we'd have to do is to be able to keep some people in space (on a wide orbit of earth?) for about 5 years until things settle down? Of course we'd have to create another "Ark" with every living things DNA.

Mendalla,

the getting off of Earth spreads out humanity more so that when the big baddie comes that we either didn't predict or can't stop (supervolcanoes, comet, cthulhu rising), then only a smaller portion of humanity will be wiped out/compromised rather than everyone

(plus, limitless resources in space and we don't have to spend as much on fuel weight there...one of the current reasons why space programs are so expensive)

and yes, spend more money on finding these dangers to Earth & how to deal with them before they arise

i envision a future where we will spread to other planets and become other species, bootstrapping ourselves to adapt to the environment...GMO, cyberware, etc etc etc

We as a species can't even prevent competition from colouring our space efforts so what are the odds we can coordinate enough to build an asteroid defence, let alone move a viable population to another world? And, there are major fish to fry here on earth that are social, rather than natural, catastrophes and are a much more intractable problem.

Deflecting an asteroid is simply a matter of applying Newton's Laws of Motion and finding enough money to fund the necessary gear to apply said laws. A major space power like the US or Russia could do that on their own.

That's peanuts compared to changing society to bring about a more just and peaceful world which is what is needed to end the much more real and imminent threats posed by NBC weapons, terrorism (which is often  a reaction to injustice), and war in general.

While colonizing space is a wonderful goal, we'd be making a big mistake to put it too high on the priority list. And, if the problems of justice and peace aren't resolved or mitigated, we'd just be exporting those problems so that they can dog the new colonies.

Mendalla

Mendalla,

and that's the beauty of it; you don't have to go :3  you don't even have to be 'for it' -- you can live whatever life you want to and not have your state tell you how to behave or be

you can't stop humanity (just like you can't stop reality endlessly innovating)

even though modeltheist Marxists and modeltheist Pop Ecologists might try...

*waggles eyebrows*

Well the ones that witnessed an extinction and survived will change, it's the fourth, sixth, seventh generation that will turn it into a myth and start becoming territorial again.

:3

have you ever watched the remake of Battlestar Galactica?  You might like it :3

i look forward to the first earth colony seceeding from Earthgov...

No I haven't, but I'll give it a try sometime. I am an avid amateur star gazer and we have been getting quite the show these last few years.

Yeah, the reboot of Battlestar Galactica has Christian symbolism in it :3

Here are some of the amateur flicks of the Ural Bolide that i especially like

this one shows it ENTERING THE ATMOSPHERE.  wow

this one shows the EFFECTS of the SONIC BOOM and why so many people got hurt (watch your volume, viewers, it is loud)

Also, try googling brazil tunguska.  in the 1930s it looks like there was a tunguska-level event in brazil

there have been actual reports of people being hit by meteors...like this report http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-3000... (what a blessed kid; what a story to tell his grandkids one day)

More news:

Russian academy of sciences says meteor was 10 tons and entered our atmosphere at approx 54,000 kph and shattered around 30-50 km above ground with several kilotons of energy (hiroshima bomb's yield was 16 kilotons).

This is where most of the reports are coming from, Chelyabinsk

Diving into the opinionsphere:

"Meteor was Lord's Message"  Russian Cleric (but can he cast Cure Light Wounds?)

Vladimir Zhirinkovsky, ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party member is going on aboot how it is an American new weapon against Russia...

Alternate opinions

Allah allah, there's only one G_d

And Allah is humanity's messenger

Allah allah allahooey allah!

-- not Cat Stevens

Pope quits, fireballs from the sky, cute kitten memes - signs & wonders, my friends.

Ever see "Space Cowboys"?

If that's the one with the Canadarm, then yes and I found it to be a HOOT!  Slightly less fun than Space Truckers

Mendella - Agree. I think it's absurd to believe that we won't carry our social ills with us regardless of whether or not we can leave the planet. All I can imagine is a dystopia without an atmosphere. As a species, we just haven't evolved enough socially to make something like that work. Technology always runs centuries ahead of human ability to use it properly.
I can imagine using "fallout shelters" though, if objects that are going to hit are accurately predicted. Maybe old mines or missile silos (with more than one exit please) would provide some protection for places that are at risk.
I suppose someone with a terminal illness could volunteer to strap a warhead on themselves and be a kamikaze, knocking it out of orbit.

Doesn't need to be that dramatic. There are proposals under investigation that suggest that simply making one side of the asteroid reflective (paint-bomb it, basically) could allow light pressure (so-called solar wind) alter its course. Barring that, rockets or a VERY carefully placed explosion might do it. The problem with explosives (nuclear or conventional) is that while they could be used to redirect it, they could also break the sucker up. If that happens, then you still risk having pieces of it falling on your head. Instead of 1 Cretaceous extinction event, you get dozens or hundreds of Tunguskas.

Mendalla

Of course the less dramatic options are preferable. The warhead scenario was just the spoiler for Space Cowboys ;)
It doesn't take more than a well-timed and positioned bump to moveit does it?
What if a probe could be equipped to do the bumping if it encounters a big rock heading our way?

Hi InannaWhimsey,

Just 18 hours ago I placed this link on my facebook page.

http://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/

With the simulator you can describe the size, mass and composition of the meteorite to strike the earth.

You can also describe the impact area water (and the depth thereof) sedimentary or crystalline rock.

Finally, you can picki how close you are to the point of impact.  You can not pick where the impact will happen.

It has been fun to play with.  Especially the Ejecta analysis if your meteorite manages to impact the earth rather than exploding  somewhere above it.

Grace and peace to you.

John

I don't have much faith in the nuclear warhead scenario to be honest if we were threatened with a life threatening asteroid. Do we actually have the capabilities to take out a 10 mile radius of the Rocky Mountains? And if we do develop the capabilities then you want to have a very slow and known approach because a fast and unknown approach would give us no time.

I find it fascinating that alot of cultures have this scenario in their folk lore or storytelling. The Bible mentions "wormwood" and the Hopis called it Blue Star Kachina and it is supposed to be followed by the Red star Kachina (the purifier).

Oh that was fun Revjohn, I figured out how to take out wall street or the vatican or a running pope with pinpoint precision, LOL.

Hi waterfall,

It seems the angle of entry has a tremendous amount of influence.

Got my nastiest hit this afternoon.

Grace and peace to you.

John

Sometimes I wish we just didn't know about these things unless and until we can do something about it. My morbid cuiosity took over. I didn't watch the vid but i followed tweets fom people following the event. I was sitting in the park close by at the time- beautiful sunny day today and I realized it was just after 11 so i checked the internet on my phone. Dogs were running around catching frisbees, and I thought "why am I doing this? If the sky falls in the next 5 minutes I'm wasting my time watching for it and it would happen before I knew what hit me anyway." I can't speak for everyone but it seems to me people were happier when we didn't have this sort of information available at our fingertips instantly. There could have been dozens of fly bys this size in my lifetime that they just weren't able to track yet, and therefore noone worried about it.

I grew up in the shadow of the Cold War with a risk of Armageddon that was probably significant higher than the risk of a Cretaceous-level asteriod hit. I actually had a fairly happy life back then so why would knowing about the risk of an asteroid make me less happy.

I drive to and from work five times a week and my risk of dying in a car crash en route makes the risk from an asteroid hit negligible by comparison. I'm not always the happiest of people, but it's not the risk of a car crash that's making me unhappy.

We dwell on these things because of the enormity of the outcome if they do happen, but if we dwell on them to the point of being unhappy in our everyday lives, then we have a problem because the risk is so slim that it's not worth worrying about on a daily basis.

Mendalla

Good point. I get a little overwhelmed by the news sometimes though. Everyday there's an impending catastrophy that the media is all too happy to boost ratings over- that and the stress of everyday life and the adrenals can only take so much!

So, the asteroid's passed and I'm already thinkin' "how do you solve a problem like North Korea?" (seinfeld reference pun intended)

revjohn,

thanks for the link to the cosmic billiards simulator :3

chaos and joy to you,

IW

So it is your contention that we shouldn't leave Earth or shouldn't be allowed to leave Earth without solving all our social ills first?

(to try to analogize:  should you be allowed to move to, say, Tibet without solving all your social ills first?)

So then do you believe that the space of 'leaving Earth' is a special place, somehow sacred or filled with an unsullied soul that would be polluted with our tainted presence?  That sounds like a believer in Original Sin t'me :3

And do you believe that we live in a dystopia right now?

Just things to think aboot :3

Kimmio, I find these things absolutely fascinating! It's not morbid curiousity it's wondrous amazement! I love it. So many things going on. We had a transit of Venus this past year, fabulous views of planets, Eclipses, meteor showers (every year), it's so much more amazing to go outside and look up then watching TV.

You have now ruined my brain with the image of nuns solemnly singing "How do you solve a problem like Korea?".

For those not familiar with the Sound of Music, this is the tune:

Mendalla

That I understand and agree- more of that and less speculation about how devestating an impact would be. I guess it's about what I choose to filter. The fireball looked amazing for example , but it was terrifying for people there. I thought- those poor people. One minute your cooking breakfast and reading the paper, next minte-sonic boom! If it weren't for that scarey fluke i probably wouldn't have felt nervous about the asteroid- but after that I really didn't trust Nasa's predictions for the rest of the morning. Now, it's all good- for now.

Lol. It's a catchy tune. I also like the Seinfeld episode. Derail. Sorry back to deadly spacerocks.

*giggle*  go ahead and derail -- i'm no derail nazi "no derail for you!"

For a while I had an adult child who took up a new hobby called Worrying. Her life was getting filled with fears about "What if ,,,,"

Eventually I got a bit snappy and said "What if it did .... or what if it didn't ?  There isn;t anything either of us can do to change it.  Not much point in wasting today worrying about what might or might not happen tomorrow.  Heck we might be dead by then".

Yeah, but a dystopia without an atmosphere means kids shoving each other outside the Dome as a drunken March Break prank. I will think on it more though.

A good column from The Register that offers a good supporting argument for Inanna's position.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/16/space_asteroid_impact_inevitable/

I think the more correct statement is that our social ills are likely to kill us off or at least screw up civilization badly before an asteroid does, so let's deal with the greater threat while planning for the lesser.

Mendalla

Some spinoffs from the US Space Program (which was so 'cheap' as above)

Cordless power tools & appliances
Tang
GPS
Home insulation
At home smoker detectors
Scratch resistant lenses
trash compactors
high-density batteries
Solar panels
home security systems
composite golf clubs
flat panel tvs
freeze-dried tech (mmmm)
Sports bras
hang gliders
Quartz timing equipment
Forest management
Oil spill control
Fishing from orbit
air purification
sewage treatment
pollution control
Digital Imaging Breast Biopsy System
Laser angioplasty
Camera on a chip
MRI
Ultrasound scanners
Eye screening
Cataract surgery tools
automatic insulin pump
Microcomputers
clean room aparel
VR
Laser surveying
CDs
Database Management Systems
Aircraft controls & design systems
Ground processing scheduling systems

and much more.

In order to help with all this, might I suggest a book that will help those here to 'learn how to fish'?

The Theoretical Minimum: What you Need to Know to Start Doing Physics by Leonard Susskind & George Hrabovsky. You're never too old to know :3

I hear ya, m'man :3

One of the inspirations for my handle I got from a fine comic book called Moonshadow, which is that tale of a young boy growing up and his fantastic and strange adventures.  There are a race of beings that people call the G'L-Dose who are enigmatc, seemingly omnipotent and seem to exemplify whimsy.  On one world that is wracked with endless war they appear POP! and bring peace while on another world that is a peaceful agrarian world they appear POP! and bring aboot a horrific global plague...it's a very beautiful melancholic etc story; one of those comics that i consider literature

I think that globally the human race is being enabled more and more to be able to do their own thing, to solve their own problems, or perhaps not solve but to enjoy them :3  So the people that want to study volcanoes will do so and the people who want to create a new organism capable of turning their skin green will do so as well...there are different attitudes as well that can affect how people think their world is:  someone can look at a slum like Jakarta and want to stop the slum while another person can see the same slum and see the innovation going on there and base their 'help around that...

And you already know my particular bailiwick on humanity...

I would advocate vigorously a person's right to turn green, but not if it makes me turn green too. Turning green must remain a choice.

Oh, the future is gonna blow so many minds -- just imagine, in every household, a Kinect game console with Kinect opensource to scan in objects then one can print them out with your 3D printer.  Add to this a home stem cell kit & DNA modifying kit and voila...instant artist!  This is SO going to play havock with, at least, Intellectual Property laws :3

More breaking news:

It looks like some 1,200 or so people were injured by flying glass; 40 remain hospitalized.  Estimated damage 1 billion rubles.  Midday temp is -12 C so brrrr to those whose windows were shattered.  An estimated 50 acres of windows were broken.  Some 24,000 people have mobilized to help those in need.

A suspicious-looking round hole in the ice in nearby Chebarkul is being explored for possible meteorite fragments.

More blasts from the past:

2800-3000 BCE hypothesized Burckle crater around 29 km diameter in Indian Ocean.  A large asteroid or comet impact produced a megatsunami that would have severely affected several cradles of civilization.

10,000 people may have been killed in 1490 in China by 'falling stones'.

1564 Jacksonville,Florida.  Hypothezied 100 foot comet or asteroid leaving current crater in Round Marsh.  A tunguska-level event.

In 1954 an Alabama woman was struck by a 4kg meteorite, causing severe bruising.

June 7, 2006 meteorite struck Reisdalen in Troms County, Norway with a force of 100-500 tonnes of TNT.

January 18, 2000, fireball over Whitehorse, Yukon, during the night.  Estimated to be 15 ft in size & 180 tons.

There was a fireball in Calgary 4 years ago and on a personal note I witnessed a large green fireball last year as it whizzed over Ontario. It was  beautiful and it started in the states and I think it fizzled out over northern Michigan.

you are blessed :3

Let's not forget this beauty from 50000 years ago. The ancestors of our First Peoples hadn't arrived yet to witness but humans were definitely out of Africa and starting to spread by this point. If it had hit Central Africa or the Middle East, could definitely have had an effect on our ancestors.

http://www.meteorcrater.com/

Mendalla

I happened to be in Alberta when that one happened - it was really amazing! Fortunately it broke up over some farmers fields and nobody was hurt.

Lucky you; you're one of nature's gfs :3

the 2008 bolide?

the Ontario 2011 meteor?

definitely another place i want to visit before i die

you're lucky to be a part of nature's harem :3

Updatey-type things from NASA

(they've already figured out the orbit of this bolide as well.  i love science!)

and fragments have apparently been found

Another meteor sighting caught on tape over Florida yesterday.

Thanks for the Ontario video Inanna, but the one I saw was in June of 2012, and was very green. As far as I could find there was only one video taken of it and that was in Michigan and doesn't show nearly how beautiful it was.

Watch the skies on November 28th this year for what they're calling the comet of the century...Comet Ison.