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Credit & Copyright: RussiaToday
Explanation:
What in heaven's blazes is that?
Thousands of people living near the
Ural Mountains in
Russia saw last Friday morning
one of the
more spectacular meteors of modern times streak across the sky.
Forceful
sound waves
arrived at the ground minutes later, knocking people over and breaking windows for
hundreds of kilometers.
The above video is a compilation
of several
car dashcams and includes real time footage of the meteor rampaging,
smoke trails drifting,
shadows quickly shifting, and even the meteor's light reflecting off the back of
a bus.
The fireball is thought to have been caused by a
car-sized chunk
of ice and
rock crashing into the Earth's atmosphere.
Since the event was captured from so many angles, the
meteor's trajectory has become determined well enough to indicate from where
it came
and to where any resultant pieces might have landed.
It is already certain that this meteor had nothing to do with the several-times larger
asteroid 2012 DA14 which passed the
Earth from a different direction later the same day.
If pieces of the meteor are found,
they might tell
humanity more about the
early Solar System,
when the meteor was likely formed.
Gallery:
Videos and images of the Great Russian Meteor
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: meteor - fireball - sonic boom
Publications with words: meteor - fireball - sonic boom
See also: