Meteoroid explosion in Russia

Thunder Chicken

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We all make mistakes :cheers:

(Hopefully, noone dealing with asteroid impact calculations will... :blink: )

I only do asteroid impact calculations in rigorously peer-reviewed forums :lol:

---------- Post added at 11:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 PM ----------

Is there enough information to develop elements for the meteor prior to entry?
Might be interesting to play with in Orbiter.
 

Sky Captain

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The latest blast and entry speed figures seem to be determined from infrasound sensors deployed to detect possible secret nuclear tests. So that sensor network should have global coverage. Then there should be data collected also about other similar events that have happened over uninhabited areas. If this meteor had exploded over ocean there probably would be no videos available unless some guy on some random ship or aircraft were filming somthing just at the right moment.
 

boogabooga

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I suppose US Defense Support Program IR satellites in geostationary orbit over Russia got a good view. I wonder how close we came to having a "misunderstanding" :blink:
 

Urwumpe

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I suppose US Defense Support Program IR satellites in geostationary orbit over Russia got a good view. I wonder how close we came to having a "misunderstanding" :blink:

Since it happened in the blind spot of the Russian EW radar system, not that close. The flash and the shockwave should also be different to nuclear explosions. But both simply show on the same sensors as for nuclear explosions.

The main source for the US estimate was the infrasound measurement station in Alaska, as far as I read. There was also a very weak earthquake that was registered.
 
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Scorpius

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Although nothing has been found on the Chebarkul lake bottom, around hole in the ice found tiny rock particles.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130217/17...nts-Found-in-Icy-Urals-Lake---Scientists.html
5%2810%29.JPG


Total found 53 particles with a size of 0.5-1 cm and confirmed its meteorite nature. Analysis by Urals Federal University show it is a stony meteorite which contains some 10 percent of iron, it was assigned to [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chondrite"]Ordinary chondrites[/ame] class.
It is most likely to be named Chebarkul meteorite.
 

FADEC

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I saw the first comments in the web which stated that this must a test of a new weapon, because it is "strange" that it was filmed "intentionally on a bright sky"... :facepalm:

Does stupidity know any limits at all?
 

Urwumpe

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Does stupidity know any limits at all?

Einstein asked himself the same question, estimating human stupidity to be infinite, while the universe possibly isn't.
 

Cosmic Penguin

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Although nothing has been found on the Chebarkul lake bottom, around hole in the ice found tiny rock particles.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130217/17...nts-Found-in-Icy-Urals-Lake---Scientists.html
5%2810%29.JPG


Total found 53 particles with a size of 0.5-1 cm and confirmed its meteorite nature. Analysis by Urals Federal University show it is a stony meteorite which contains some 10 percent of iron, it was assigned to Ordinary chondrites class.
It is most likely to be named Chebarkul meteorite.

More explicitly, the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_chondrite"]H chondrite[/ame], which accounts for about 40% of all recorded meteorites on Earth. The ultimate origin of this class of iron abundant meteorites is thought to be the large asteroid [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6_Hebe"]6 Hebe[/ame].
 

garyw

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I saw the first comments in the web which stated that this must a test of a new weapon, because it is "strange" that it was filmed "intentionally on a bright sky"... :facepalm:

Does stupidity know any limits at all?

I'm not sure it's so much stupidity as disbelief. For those not as well versed in science as we are, the thought that a 9,000 tonne rock could come screaming into the atmosphere and break up must be very alien to them.

There have been people on youtube claiming it's all fake because the light and sound are seen at different times. Again, showing a lack of basic science possibly due to the diet of science-poor hollywood movies?
 

4throck

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Our world is complex. With all the communication tech we are exposed to lots of information that we must process in real time.

That means the what each individual knows is now less that before, exactly because we, as a collective, now know much more.

Education and rational/critical thinking is needed more than ever.

Only reason can let you come to grips with the notion of a rock coming from the skies and exploding in mid air.
Instinct will simply lead you to the magic, impossible, wonder weapon or gods punishment "explanations".
 

Sky Captain

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I'm not sure it's so much stupidity as disbelief. For those not as well versed in science as we are, the thought that a 9,000 tonne rock could come screaming into the atmosphere and break up must be very alien to them.

There have been people on youtube claiming it's all fake because the light and sound are seen at different times. Again, showing a lack of basic science possibly due to the diet of science-poor hollywood movies?

On some Latvian news articles about the asteorid some people said the event must be some sort of covered up weapons test or space rocket failure because appearently it is impossible that a piece of dumb rock could explode with such a force simply from flying through the air.
 

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If data suggesting the airburst energy in 300 - 500 kt range is correct we are very lucky this rock came in at such shallow trajectory. Objects of this size can make it to the ground and produce direct impact or low altitude airburst. An asteorid that made Kaali_crater is thought to be much smaller only 20 - 80 tons and it made 110 m crater and set forests on fire in 6 km radius from impact site. Had Russian asteorid came in closer to vertical there would be much less atmosphere in its way making a low altitude airburst or direct hit much more likely.

Thanks for the info. Had not heard of that crater before.

Bob Clark
 

Artlav

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So, have they reached an agreement whether it's 10 tonnes or 10000 tonnes, and 1-2kt yield or 500 kt yield?
Every news source seem to quote their own figure within these extremes, including official academic ones.
 

Sky Captain

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So, have they reached an agreement whether it's 10 tonnes or 10000 tonnes, and 1-2kt yield or 500 kt yield?
Every news source seem to quote their own figure within these extremes, including official academic ones.

The blast yield must be in hundreds of kt range to produce observed damages if explosion happened at ~30 km altitude. So the mass of the object should be somewhere closer to 10 000 tons depending on entry speed.
 

garyw

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From NASA:

The meteor was also substantially more massive than thought. Initial estimated pegged the space rock's mass at about 7,000 tons. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., now say the meteor weighed about 10,000 tons and was travelling 40,000 mph (64,373 km/h) when it exploded.

It seems that 9-10,000 tonnes is the agreed upon weight estimate.
 

Topper

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I have one question:

Does a part of the matter of the asteroid would be converted into energy (light / heat; by E=mc²; "nuclear fusion?") in a event like this?

I think it's possible at such a high pressure it is in a event like this isn't it...?

I'm not a nuclear expert, it's just a question...
 
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Thunder Chicken

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I have one question:

Does a part of the matter of the asteroid would be converted into energy (light / heat; by E=mc²; "nuclear fusion?") in a event like this?

I think it's possible at such a high pressure it is in a event like this isn't it...?

I'm not a nuclear expert, it's just a question...

I'd have to check on the pressures and temperatures, but my gut sense is fusion was a so-tiny-as-to-be-negligible part of the energy release. Chemical heat release was possible but also probably quite small.

The vast amount of energy dissipated as friction and pressure waves came from kinetic and potential energy possessed by the meteor just as it hit the upper atmosphere.

Kinetic Energy (K.E.) = (1/2)*mass*(velocity^2)
Potential Energy (P.E.) = mass*gravity*height

mass = 10,000 tonnes or 10^7 kg
velocity = 64,000 km/hr or 17,800 m/s
height = 100 km (Karman line, estimate of upper atmosphere limit)

K.E. = (1/2)*(10^7 kg)*((17,800 m/s)^2) = 1.6*10^15 Joules (~380 kilotons)

P.E. = (10^7 kg)*(9.81 m/s^2)*100,000 m = 9.8*10^12 Joules (~2.3 kilotons)

There is a 500 kiloton number floating around with relation to this meteor - I don't know how that particular number was determined but you see that the above calculations provide the same order of magnitude.
 
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