CHELYABINSK, RUSSIA - A fireball streaking across the clear sky in Russia and Kazakhstan Friday morning exploded in the atmosphere before some fragments impacted, sending hundreds to the hospital.
Reports to the number of people vary, but the governor of the Chelyabinsk region was quoted as saying as many as 950 people were hurt, two seriously. City officials said about 1 million square feet of glass broke in the blast, and the majority of injuries are related to the shattering glass.
The meteor impact occurred less than a day before an asteroid is set to make the closest recorded pass of earth by an asteroid at around 17,000 miles.
According to the Russian Academy of Sciences the meteor was about 10 tons and entered the atmosphere at a speed of about 9 miles per second. The aerial explosion was 18-32 miles above the ground (95,000-169,000 feet) and released the energy equivalent to several kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT).
Several fragments of the meteor did strike the earth, and those meteorites. A Russian army spokesperson said a 20ft wide crater had been found in the ice of Lake Chebarkul.
The region where the impact occurred is about 1,000 miles east of Moscow and has an approximate population of 3.5 million.
This is not the first recorded meteor event in Russia. In 1908, a meteor exploded and impacted in Siberia. The Tunguska Event as it is now known, leveled trees over nearly 1,000 square miles and its blast was estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
Reports to the number of people vary, but the governor of the Chelyabinsk region was quoted as saying as many as 950 people were hurt, two seriously. City officials said about 1 million square feet of glass broke in the blast, and the majority of injuries are related to the shattering glass.
The meteor impact occurred less than a day before an asteroid is set to make the closest recorded pass of earth by an asteroid at around 17,000 miles.
According to the Russian Academy of Sciences the meteor was about 10 tons and entered the atmosphere at a speed of about 9 miles per second. The aerial explosion was 18-32 miles above the ground (95,000-169,000 feet) and released the energy equivalent to several kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT).
Several fragments of the meteor did strike the earth, and those meteorites. A Russian army spokesperson said a 20ft wide crater had been found in the ice of Lake Chebarkul.
The region where the impact occurred is about 1,000 miles east of Moscow and has an approximate population of 3.5 million.
This is not the first recorded meteor event in Russia. In 1908, a meteor exploded and impacted in Siberia. The Tunguska Event as it is now known, leveled trees over nearly 1,000 square miles and its blast was estimated to be 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb.
