Meteor blast wave blows out doors and windows in Russia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xq5uN1eUy4 ^ | February 15, 2013 | RT

[Vince Ferrer]

Meteor blast wave blows out doors and windows in Russia

There is a lot of good footage of this meteorite. (Especially thanks to the Russian fad of everyone driving around with dash cams in their cars. ) Russians estimate the explosion was the size of 20 Hiroshima bombs.

[bubbacluck]

Holy Toledo! Why do so many wheels fall off their vehicles?

[Vince Ferrer]

I am not sure that I completely understand your comparison, but I have seen a meteorite in daylight and the path appeared to be parallel to the ground.

If the meteor was really a failed launch, then when it is burning up in the atmosphere, it would be pointing directly at the center of the Earth, as you can kind of see in the first picture.

The second picture is a trajectory of today's near asteroid approach. If you can imagine the Earth in that picture being a bit bigger, and the atmopsphere surrounding it too, you can imagine a path that would take the asteroid through the atmosphere, but not necessarily crashing into the Earth, or pointing at the center of the Earth. If you were standing on the Earth at the closest point to it, you might see it come down, burn in the atmosphere, and then go right back up and out of the atmosphere.

Watch the video in my post #14.

[Greysard]

Here is a view from a city street:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvxlK-tDxRw

With the fireball being far ahead, it looks like a nuclear strike.

[CrazyIvan]

Thanks. Got it. I was thinking of a launch that had nearly achieved orbit rather than something looking more like a morter shot.

[cva66snipe]

About 20 years ago I was driving home from work about midnight. I saw one cross in the sky just to my left. Much brighter than the typical shooting star. I also heard it and it was a small one. I got home a minute later and my wife had heard it as had persons in several counties by media reports. It wasn't as bright as this one but certainly bright enough to be well seen. At that time of night not that many saw it though.

As I understand it hunting their impact areas is a profitable venture in the southwestern U.S..

[Kolath]

What are the mechanisms which makes a meteor or comet explode in mid-air?

[Ditto]

In Westeren Pa about 25 years ago, my kids were playing outside one evening and the oldest came in and said she just saw a meteor streak across the sky. She was about 10 or 12 years old then. I said ok and didn't think much of it at the time.

Then on the 11 pm news, they showed this video. Yep, she saw it and it and knew what it was. They say the sucker landed up in the North woods of Michigan.

My daughter was a pretty sharp kid then --- and she still is. :~))

[hoosierham]

Pretty much the same that happened to the space shuttle over Texas years ago.Things get REALLY hot just from friction of air resistance .

[ozzymandus]

I'm about as ignorant of astrophysics as I can be, but I do remember reading stories about Soviet “satellites” in the 60’s that involved radio traffic from cosmonauts begging for help until their voices faded away. It would not surprise me if there were still some mummified Russkis in high orbit.

[Hoplite]

Consider a match. You strike it, it ignites, and then starts to burn. No big problem - the heat can dissipate. Consider a 10 x 10 block of match heads. You light that, and the match heads on the outside will be tossed aside by the heat generated by the ones in the center, as that heat escapes.

Now consider millions of match heads, which in this case are fragments of a fractured meteor which are being heated to incandescence due to atmospheric drag, while being further fractured by the deceleration (like hitting a brick wall) provided by that same atmospheric drag, creating even more match heads to generate heat as they themselves are exposed to atmospheric drag.

The net effect, if your object is big enough and traveling fast enough, is the same as a nuclear explosion - too much heat in too small an area. Boom.

Simplified, sure. But I didn't sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so my Neil deGrasse Tyson impression isn't what it could be.

[RoadGumby]

Ping

[Vince Ferrer]

It's not a fad, it's a necessity. You'll start doing it too, when the insurance fraud artists here learn the techniques.

Looks like you are right: Pedestrian scams

[justa-hairyape]

While in the greater Los Angeles area, if you see a car driving near you that has a lot of dents and scrapes, be very cautious. Had one try to cut me off from the far right exit lane in a two lane exit. He decided to get back on the freeway right in front of me. Luckily I am quick on the brake pedal.

And they apparently now have a major counterfeiting problem in that area also. Merchants in the area, may soon stop taking $100 bills. Not a problem for me with wallet of 20's, but it was a problem for the gentleman in front of me. The cashier at the counter had just had some money docked from his pay check due to accepting a counterfeit bill.