Asteroid 'Hit Northern Russia'

Ananova ^ | 10-4-2002

[blam]

Asteroid 'hit northern Russia'

A large meteorite is thought to have smashed into a forest in a remote area of Russia.

Residents in the town of Bodaibo, in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, saw a large luminous body fall from the sky.

They say the impact caused the ground to shake and made a sound like thunder.

Flashes of bright light could be seen above the impact site, which was a long way from any settlements according to the Russian newspaper Pravda.

"Locals felt a strong shock, which could be comparable to an earthquake," said the report. "In addition to that, the people also heard a thunder-like sound."

Asteroid expert Dr Benny Peiser, from Liverpool John Moore's University, said: "If the eyewitness accounts are confirmed, this fact of an earth tremor together with thunder-like explosive sounds would indicate a rather significant impact event."

He said the incident occurred on the same day as the US House of Representatives debated the need to search for smaller asteroids and the danger of mistaking impacts for nuclear attacks.

At least 30 times a year, asteroids smash into the Earth's atmosphere and explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.

These smaller asteroids, between 200 and 500 metres wide, could potentially demolish a city with a direct hit or cause tsunamis - giant waves - capable of wiping out entire coastal areas if they land in the ocean.

Astronomers estimate there could be between 900 and 1,300 large asteroids measuring one kilometre or more in our part of the solar system, while the number of smaller bodies could amount to 50,000.

Story filed: 18:25 Friday 4th October 2002

[eno_]

Yup. Volcanic events in the ocean can have the force of DOZENS of big, H-bomb-sized nukes, and nobody notices, because (usually) nobody is there. Maybe a fishing vessel goes missing. THe world is big, we are small.

[Godebert]

Fascinating stuff. What would have happened if that meteor had impacted a few miles south into the North Atlantic Ocean? Could something like that generate a tsunami that would effect the eastern seaboard?

[Lokibob]

A tsunami would be highly doubful. Tsunamis are generated by a movement of the sea bottom, making the ocean surge.

I searched the news in the last month and found 3 possible meteor (asteroid) impacts that have occured and been reported. Based on that (I'll admit this survey is flawed) the figure of 30/year is probably low.

The earths atmosphere has protected us for millions of years, and I'm confident that it will protect us for my lifetime.

[blam]

"Ah! The Picts!! Thanks very much for the link."

Do a search on Xiongnu and see if you can find a connection. (Try Hakka too)

[HighWheeler]

The official name of The Moon is "Luna", named after the Roman goddess Luna. Even NASA refers to trips to the moon as "lunar" events. I like using the word Luna, it drives some other people nuts when I do it, but they also learn.

The word "moon" comes from the German Der Mond, meaning "male moon" (man in the moon).

[GOPJ]

Like soon there won't be any blondes? Then again, there is a lot of water...

"I would think that if 30 astronds hit with this sort of impact each year that a city would have disappeared by now."

[sweetliberty]

"Why can't these damn things ever hit somewhere like Mecca?"

ROTFL! They'd know they were in deep do if God started throwing rocks at them huh?

[sweetliberty]

"Hitlery: "Bush should have known about this asteriod!"

Well obviously Bush knew about it and he then conspired with a bunch of Israilis with contacts in high places to negotiate the trajectory of the "big rock." It is thought that this may be a practice run for how he intends to eradicate everybody who doesn't agree with him. Of course, the ultimate goal is to obtain oil rights in space for his wealthy Jewish buddies in the business so they can establish a monopoly to furthur oppress the people of the planet. Did I leave anything out?.

[Consort]

   Irkutsk Region

[sweetliberty]

"do you know the earths moon is the only large body in the solar system that we havn't named?"

You know; I never thought about it. Great observation.

[drlevy88]

BTW, do you know the earths moon is the only large body in the solar system that we havn't named?

We haven't named Sun either, to my knowledge.

[HighWheeler]

BTW, do you know the earths moon is the only large body in the solar system that we havn't named?

We haven't named Sun either, to my knowledge.

The official name of the sun is Sol. Sol is named afer after the Roman goddess Sol Invictus. She was one hot babe.

[Lokibob]

I was going to say what wheeler said. The sun is a star, and it has a name, SOL, and alternately sun. Without a name, we would just call it "star" like we call "moon".

[blam]

"The official name of the sun is Sol. Sol is named afer after the Roman goddess Sol Invictus. She was one hot babe."

Didn't the Egyptians call it RA?

[Lokibob]

After I went to bed last night, I realized my response was wrong on the tsunami. It would be highly unlikely that a tsunami would occur if the meteor exploded IN THE AIR as most of these do. A water impact is a whole different story and a tsunami is very posssible. Sorry about the mis information.

[VadeRetro]

My calculations were a little silly anyway, as I had the rocks flying to earth at light speed. A strict "No no!"

[Sam Cree]

Thanks, Blam,

Just walked into my home in Miami from driving down from Charleston, S.C. Going to read the artlicle now.

[Robert A Cook PE]

I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, that somebody scrweed up the editting ...

Maybe the original quote (from some "reliable source" had a "total mass" of 30 asteroids hitting the world ... adding up millions of dust-sized particles could acrrue a lot of mass, but none of it important as far as a "collision" goes.

[Shooter 2.5]

You better watch it. I own a semi-automatic revolver.

Without a silencer.

[justsomedude]

Asteroid 'hit northern Russia'

That-explains-everything.