Russia reports amazing meteorite strike

[EmoBorg]

Don't the Russians have Space Forces that can deal with these threats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian...Defence_Forces

[Christopher]

EmoBorg wrote:

---

Don't the Russians have Space Forces that can deal with these threats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian...Defence_Forces

You can only deal with what you see coming. Objects like this are small and dark, and we're a long way from having located and identified all of them. We've only found 90% of the near-Earth objects large enough to pose a planetary threat; for smaller objects like this, we've barely begun to identify them, since the threat level is lower. (Keep in mind that this is the only time in recorded history that a bolide has exploded this close to a city, or that a meteoroid event has injured a large number of people. This has never, ever happened before, so it's very unlikely that it will happen again in our lifetimes.)

And our ability to intercept and deflect asteroids and meteoroids before impact is currently nonexistent. Deflecting missiles is one thing -- something that's never actually been tested in combat so we don't even know how effective it would be, and hopefully never will -- but we're talking about objects that are immensely faster and more massive than any human-made missile. You might as well ask why the US Coast Guard couldn't fight off Superstorm Sandy. For all our vaunted technology, we're still a long way from being able to match the power nature has to throw at us.

[sojourner]

Christopher wrote:

---

so it's very unlikely that it will happen again in our lifetimes.

Great, NOW you've jinxed it. Que incoming multiple bolides.

[Christopher]

sojourner wrote:

---

Great, NOW you've jinxed it. Que incoming multiple bolides.

Actually there are thousands of them every day, mostly small ones, getting exponentially less frequent with increasing size. And they mostly happen over uninhabited areas. Surprising though it may be, humans inhabit less than one percent of the total surface area of the Earth, counting both land and water. Which is why it's so unlikely for anything like this to happen over a city.

[gturner]

sojourner wrote:

---

Great, NOW you've jinxed it. Que incoming multiple bolides.

California had one last night.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/?le...bay-area-skies

[J.T.B.]

My mom has long told of a meteor that passed over in the evening when she was a little kid in the early '50s. She said it lit the night like day for a second or two and made a noise that shook the windows (and my grandmother corroborates). I could never really picture it before, but now it does make sense.

[sojourner]

Christopher wrote:

---

Actually there are thousands of them every day, mostly small ones, getting exponentially less frequent with increasing size. And they mostly happen over uninhabited areas. Surprising though it may be, humans inhabit less than one percent of the total surface area of the Earth, counting both land and water. Which is why it's so unlikely for anything like this to happen over a city.

Yes, I know this. I was making a joke about your comment that this (being an incident that causes thousands of injuries) will likely never happen again in our lifetime.

[YellowSubmarine]

billcosby wrote:

---

Now I have to bring up the other question in mind... is it customary to drive in Russia with a recording device on your dash?

It seems this is one of the reasons:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c12_1349902324

It's as fascinating and as disturbing as the meteorite. Natural phenomena, meet homo sapiens.

[bigdaddy]

OH MY GOD!!! THE SMOG IN CALI DIDN'T BLOCK OUT A SHOOTING STAR!!! WE ARE DOOMED!!!

Honestly the American media (I refuse to call it news) is making a big deal over a shooting star. It's a fucking shooting star, I saw at least one a night when I lived on an island with clear skies.

"What if it blew up over a city!?!" Bad things, the chances of something hitting the Earth "soon" is small, then the chances it hits land, small, and the chance it hits a major city is tiny.

[CorporalCaptain]

It's a "shooting star" that was big and dramatic in the daytime, whose shock wave shattered windows and hurt people. That's news.

ETA: Having no link to the contrary, I thought bigdaddy was referring to the thread topic, so that's what I was talking about. The Bay Area fireball didn't make my local news, although dramatic falling stars in my area have my local broadcasts before.

[BillJ]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

---

It's a "shooting star" that was big and dramatic in the daytime, whose shock wave shattered windows and hurt people. That's news.

What should be news is how unprepared we are if a big rock heads this way.

[RoJoHen]

bigdaddy wrote:

---

OH MY GOD!!! THE SMOG IN CALI DIDN'T BLOCK OUT A SHOOTING STAR!!! WE ARE DOOMED!!!

Honestly the American media (I refuse to call it news) is making a big deal over a shooting star. It's a fucking shooting star, I saw at least one a night when I lived on an island with clear skies.

"What if it blew up over a city!?!" Bad things, the chances of something hitting the Earth "soon" is small, then the chances it hits land, small, and the chance it hits a major city is tiny.

I don't think we're making a big deal about the rock itself. We're making a big deal about the fact that this one was big enough and close enough to the ground when it exploded that it caused a lot of damage.

It's no different than if we made a big deal about tornado destroying a city. Sure, there are lots of tornadoes every year, but not all of them do major damage. The ones that do become newsworthy because of their effect on us.

[Christopher]

I think bigdaddy is referring to the fireball over the San Francisco Bay Area last night, given the references to "Cali" (California) and the American media. That one was a rather commonplace event, but it's getting more attention than most because it happened so soon after the Russian fireball.

[RoJoHen]

Ah, well, I apparently pay even less attention to the American media because I didn't even know that happened.

[CorporalCaptain]

Oh, OK.