Asteroid 2012 DA14

[Pego]

A good-size rock (50 meters in diameter), it flies by the Earth today less than 30,000 km (20,000 miles) away. I am surprised there has not been more of an end-of-the-world screaming.

[mcgato]

Just had a meteor explode in Russia injuring 700 or so.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/15/world/eur ... ?hpt=hp_t1

[KDFINE]

When I first read of this the article mentioned a miss of about 17,000 miles. They never mentioned that this was not much more than twice the diameter of the earth.
In the immortal words of Alfred E. Newman,"What, Me Worry?"

[JRM]

Just had a meteor explode in Russia injuring 700 or so.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/15/world/eur ... ?hpt=hp_t1

The videos of this are amazing! Most likely unrelated to the asteroid today, since it's believed they came from different locations.

It's estimated that the meteor exploded with the equivalent yield of over 100 kt (100,000 tons) of TNT. That's about the size of a small strategic nuclear weapons. Since it exploded about 50km above the surface, however, the effects on the ground were "minimal" considering the size of the blast. For comparison, Little Boy (Hiroshima bomb) was around 12-15 kt, while the largest nuclear weapon ever exploded was 57 Mt (57,000,000 tons). That was a Soviet-developed hydrogen bomb, scaled down from a 100Mt design!

Other interesting tidbits: this was the largest meteor strike on the Earth since the Tunguska event in 1908, also in Russia (Siberia). Although estimates are less reliable because of the lack of recorded data, it's believed the Tunguska event had a yield of about 1-10 Mt and exploded about 5-10km above the ground. The effects were much more severe, flattening trees over an area of almost 1000 square miles.

[jeremyp]

Just had a meteor explode in Russia injuring 700 or so.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/15/world/eur ... ?hpt=hp_t1

The videos of this are amazing! Most likely unrelated to the asteroid today, since it's believed they came from different locations.

It's estimated that the meteor exploded with the equivalent yield of over 100 kt (100,000 tons) of TNT. That's about the size of a small strategic nuclear weapons. Since it exploded about 50km above the surface, however, the effects on the ground were "minimal" considering the size of the blast. For comparison, Little Boy (Hiroshima bomb) was around 12-15 kt, while the largest nuclear weapon ever exploded was 57 Mt (57,000,000 tons). That was a Soviet-developed hydrogen bomb, scaled down from a 100Mt design!

Other interesting tidbits: this was the largest meteor strike on the Earth since the Tunguska event in 1908, also in Russia (Siberia). Although estimates are less reliable because of the lack of recorded data, it's believed the Tunguska event had a yield of about 1-10 Mt and exploded about 5-10km above the ground. The effects were much more severe, flattening trees over an area of almost 1000 square miles.

What's great about this one is the mass of videos. Apparently many Russians have car videos for Insurance and to counter police corruption, and this is an added bonus. I haven't seen one yet with the big bang.

And then there's another use for the dash cam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj4xvlkdc64

[bambam]

Other interesting tidbits: this was the largest meteor strike on the Earth since the Tunguska event in 1908, also in Russia (Siberia). Although estimates are less reliable because of the lack of recorded data, it's believed the Tunguska event had a yield of about 1-10 Mt and exploded about 5-10km above the ground. The effects were much more severe, flattening trees over an area of almost 1000 square miles.

Tunguska event is a fascinating thing. I first read about it in the 4th grade, and over the last couple years, have collected several books and articles on it. Still a big mystery. Read about it online if you don't know much about it.