Meteoroid explosion in Russia

[steph]

Romanian sources say the russians claim to have intercepted it with a missile at 20 km altitude. Don't know where they got that info though.

 

[Urwumpe]

Is there something special about the composition of an airbursting meteor, like it's make of ice?
Or would any kind of the right size going at the right speed and angle fall apart like that before reaching the surface?

Can happen to any kind of small meteoroid, it is more about fractures and aerodynamic properties than the composition. Only size really matters there, bigger meteoroids are less likely to explode before impact (They have more mass per surface area and decelerate slower already). Also a more shallow angle means a higher chance for fragmentations to happen in flight, because of the longer flight time.

The explosions of meteors are not caused by stored thermal energy, that is suddenly released, but rather, because the aerodynamics change and parts of the meteor are suddenly decelerated at a much higher rate. It is similar to the Columbia accident, which also had such small bursts of light visible when parts of the wing fragmented and suddenly decelerated.

So, a solid and monocrystaline iron meteoroid is almost impossible to fragment, a typical iron meteoroid is only likely to fragment, while a dirty snowball of rocks and ice clumped together will be very likely to fragment. But not because of suddenly melting ice, but rather because of sudden changes in the ballistic properties.

Really important for such big destructive bursts is, that the meteor separates into multiple fragments of similar size at once. In this case, the meteor seems to fragment suddenly into a cloud of dust-sized particles except a small solid core fragment.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://en.ria.ru/science/20130215/179484907.html

MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti) – Buildings across Russia's Chelyabinsk Region were damaged by falling meteorite particles and the shock waves and sonic booms caused by them, Russian officials said on Friday morning.

A roof and wall partly collapsed at a zinc factory in Chelyabinsk Region after it was struck by the shock wave from the meteorite, the Interior Ministry reported. The officials did not specify which factory it was.

The factory has continued working normally despite the damage, the regional government said in an online statement.

South Ural State University has cancelled classes for at least two days due to damage to its buildings.

“The roof did not collapse, but the damage is quite significant. The windows are broken, some of them were blown in with their frames,” a university spokeswoman told RIA Novosti. Some ceiling tiles also fell down, she added.

Windows were also broken in at least a dozen schools and three hospitals, the Emergencies Ministry reported. The roof of a Chelyabinsk ice rink has also been damaged.

The Yuzhnouralskaya district power station had 10 percent of its windows broken but there was no effect on its operations, Russian energy supplier Inter RAO reported.

Russia's nuclear agency, Rosatom, said its facilities across the affected regions were functioning normally. The Defense Ministry also said none of its property had been damaged.

Some 400 people were injured in the Chelyabinsk region alone, mainly due to cuts from flying glass. The meteorite shower was witnessed in at least three Russian regions - Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen - as well as northern area of neighboring Kazakhstan early on Friday morning.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/

According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers, local newspaper Znak reports quoting a source in the military.

A golden star to somebody?..

 

[Yurik]

http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/



A golden star to somebody?..

Also read "this" :facepalm:

 

[garyw]

Intercepting something moving through the atmosphere that is travelling so fast it makes a sonic boom would be pointless. You'd get a nice explosion, a few debris shards and thats it. The meteroid itself would barely notice anything happened.

Personally, I don't believe this shoot down story. It's more likely that shock heating caused the rock to fragment and the loud boom that was heard was the supersonic shock wave of it's entry.

 

[Yurik]

Intercepting something moving through the atmosphere so far it makes a sonic boom would be pointless. You'd get a nice explosion, a few debris shards and thats it. The meteroid itself would barely notice anything happened.

Personally, I don't believe this shoot down story. It's more likely that shock heating caused the rock to fragment and the loud boom that was heard was the supersonic shock wave of it's entry.

Often similar nonsense gets in the news

 

[Urwumpe]

I see no indications of a missile salvo in the videos. Also I have no idea, what kind of SAM they expect to be stationed in Urzhumka and ready to fire in seconds, without a long-distance warning. The large S-400 system has ABM capability, a range of 400 km and 185 km attack ceiling... but the 40N6 missile with that capability is still vaporware.

Also, where the hell is Urzhumka? There are quite many military zones around Chelyabinsk, but nothing like that.

 

[Sky Captain]

Would it even be possible to intercept something moving at several km/s with regular AA missiles? Those missile systems are designed to hit aircraft traveling no more than 1 km/s. Besides AA missiles work by exploding near aircraft and sending a shower of shrapnel that would do next to nothing against solid rock or iron. To shatter a piece of rock would require direct hit by high explosive warhead or kinetic impactor.

 

[garyw]

Would it even be possible to intercept something moving at several km/s with regular AA missiles?

If it's in the right spot yes, a meteor would have one hell of an IR signature! The intercept would have to be a head on intercept - more like an ASAT shot than a traditional shoot down.

Besides AA missiles work by exploding near aircraft and sending a shower of shrapnel that would do next to nothing against solid rock or iron. To shatter a piece of rock would require direct hit by high explosive warhead or kinetic impactor.

Indeed, which is why above I pointed out that the meteroid would barely notice that anything had happened. :lol:

Wow.... This is a shot from an Earth environmental satellite which picked up the entry trail of the meteorite:

And I think the russians are getting a little paranoid:

9:36 GMT: There is a high chance that another meteorite could enter the Earth’s atmosphere in the next few hours, Sergey Smirnov from Pulkovo Observatory told Vesti news channel.

Source: http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-meteorite-asteroid-chelyabinsk-291/

 

[Urwumpe]

Astronomers from St Petersburg rate the object (without any own observations) at multiple 10,000s tons of mass... if it would be made of rock, this is already achieved at 8000 cubic meters of material (25 meter diameter), iron would already reach this at half the volume (18 meter diameter).

Shooting this mass down with anything non-nuclear, would be quite an achievement. A literal magic silver bullet. Alone getting any warhead effect through the plasma sheet would be impressive.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Also, where the hell is Urzhumka? There are quite many military zones around Chelyabinsk, but nothing like that.

It's actually more like a resort place, good spot for mountain hiking:
http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=55.1161067&lon=59.7802548&z=13&l=0&m=b

Noticeable for having a mark of the border between Europe and Asia. Not sure why did it ever get to the news.

 

[steph]

If there's another one coming on the same trajectory, wouldn't it hit more like somewhere in Europe due tot the Earth's rotation? I hope they're paranoid....or else I might have to go somewhere underground )

 

[Urwumpe]

If there's another one coming on the same trajectory, wouldn't it hit more like somewhere in Europe due tot the Earth's rotation? I hope they're paranoid....or else I might have to go somewhere underground )

Too late. The plane of the impactor is now over the Atlantic. The event happened at about 9:30 local time. It arrived almost directly opposite of the expected asteroid for today.

 

[Yurik]

And I think the russians are getting a little paranoid:

Our press and such can write :lol:

 

[Artlav]

The thing was not seen on the radars, it gone from a blink to a flash to a boom in less time than it takes to say now you see it, now you don't, and the military still claim that they shot it down?
With what, lasers controlled by thoughts of a look-out officer?

 

[Urwumpe]

The thing was not seen on the radars, it gone from a blink to a flash to a boom in less time than it takes to say now you see it, now you don't, and the military still claim that they shot it down?
With what, lasers controlled by thoughts of a look-out officer?

This had been the tabloid special forces. Their actions are only reported to tabloids, they have genetically engineered soldiers and highly advanced technology, that is indistinguishable from magic.

 

[Artlav]

Meanwhile, the event is already creeping into the advertisements for Russian Post, which can't even deliver an apocalypse on schedule:

 

[Notebook]

Better late than never, I think...

N.

 

[SiberianTiger]

This sums up the situation pretty well:

A note by some local housing and utility administration for a house inhabitants:

"In case you discover a damage to your block's window glasses caused by the emergency situation, you will have to repair it yourselves".

:facepalm: