This is Meteor Crater, AZ. Imagine if this was to happen again..
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Russian meteor shockwave circled globe twice
By Simon RedfernReporter, BBC News
Archive: The BBC's Daniel Sandford reports on the "ball of fire" in February
Continue reading the main storyRelated Stories
The shock wave from an asteroid that burned up over Russia in February was so powerful that it travelled twice around the globe, scientists say.
They used a system of sensors set up to detect evidence of nuclear tests and said it was the most powerful event ever recorded by the network.
More than 1,000 people were injured when a 17m, 10,000-tonne space rock burned up above Chelyabinsk.
The study appears in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The researchers studied data from the International Monitoring System (IMS) network operated by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO).
The detection stations look out for ultra-low frequency acoustic waves, known as infrasound, that could come from nuclear test explosions. But the system can also detect large blasts from other sources, such as the Chelyabinsk fireball.
Alexis Le Pichon, from the Atomic Energy Commission in France and colleagues report that the explosive energy of the impact was equivalent to 460 kilotonnes of TNT. This makes it the most energetic event reported since the 1908 Tunguska meteor in Siberia.
Irons in the fireMeanwhile, another team of scientists has published a study focusing on the Tunguska event.
The Tunguska airburst flattened trees for thousands of square kilometres
The 1908 fireball, the biggest space impact of modern times, was probably caused by an iron-rich meteorite, a study in the journal Planetary and Space Science has confirmed.
The Tunguska air blast is estimated to have been equivalent to three to five megatonnes of TNT, hundreds of times more energetic than the Hiroshima explosion, and it flattened trees across 2,000 sq km of forest.
Victor Kvasnytsya, from Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences, and colleagues studied microscopic samples of mineral debris from the blast area that have been trapped in peat.
In their paper, they describe the mineralogy of samples recovered from the peat in the 1970s and 80s. High-resolution imaging and spectroscopy identified carbon minerals such as diamond, lonsdaleite and graphite.
Lonsdaleite in particular is found in carbon-rich material subjected to a shock wave, and is typically formed in meteorite impacts.
The lonsdaleite fragments contain smaller inclusions of iron sulphides and iron-nickel alloys, troilite and taenite, which are also characteristic meteorite minerals.
The iron to nickel ratio and the precise combinations of minerals assembled in these small fragments all point to a meteorite source, and are nearly identical to similar minerals found in the Canyon Diablo meteor that impacted Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater) in Arizona.
The findings would appear to rule out a theory that the Tunguska airburst was caused by a large fragment of Comet Encke. This comet is responsible for a meteor shower called the Beta Taurids, which cascade into Earth's atmosphere in late June and July - the time of the Tunguska event.
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This is Meteor Crater, AZ. Imagine if this was to happen again..
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I think that crater is less than 50,000 years old. ing cool place if you're ever in the Grand Canyon area.
u know whats bs about this article, in february they didnt even tracked the meteorite to tell the world a rock was coming, now t hey make up some it came from big rock and orbit the earth 2 laps...get the out of here...
No, we knew an asteroid was doing a close flyby. I don't think they noticed the small fragments that took a tangent to earth until it was happening. There was nothing unexpected about this.
How can the solar system still have active meteorites if according to science the Big Bang was over 12 "Billion" years ago?
Do you think the asteroid belt in our solar system is that old?
It doesn't matter what I think it's science with its foot in its mouth once again.
They forget comets meteorites and asteroids have lifespans of 1000s of years it contradicts itself.
The mere fact the moon is drifting away from the earth at about 3 inches a year alone contradicts the earth being millions of years old , and yet science claims the earth is 4.6 "Billion" years old? It's basic math.
Mouse.
I give up.
It has been explained how orbital patterns change. Where you get the 1000's of years is a crock of .
Translation:
Your right I was wrong.
the big question for me is why does it seem most meteorites enter Earth's atmosphere through Russia....I find that interesting is Russia the gate way or portal to what's beyond Earth?
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