Meteor strike injures hundreds in central Russia

[Caelus]

A meteor crashing in Russia's Ural mountains has injured at least 950 people, as the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.

Most of those hurt, in the Chelyabinsk region where the meteor fell, suffered cuts and bruises but at least 46 remain in hospital.

A fireball streaked through the clear morning sky, followed by loud bangs.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

A large meteor fragment landed in a lake near Chebarkul, a town in Chelyabinsk region.

The meteor's dramatic passing was witnessed in Yekaterinburg, 200km
(125 miles) to the north, and in Kazakhstan, to the south.

"It was quite extraordinary," Chelyabinsk resident Polina Zolotarevskaya told BBC News. "We saw a very bright light and then there was a kind of a track, white and yellow in the sky."

"The explosion was so strong that some windows in our building and in the buildings that are across the road and in the city in general, the windows broke."

Officials say a large meteor partially burned up in the lower atmosphere, resulting in fragments falling earthwards.

Thousands of rescue workers have been dispatched to the area to provide help to the injured, the emergencies ministry said.

The Chelyabinsk region, about 1,500km (930 miles) east of Moscow, is home to many factories, a nuclear power plant and the Mayak atomic waste storage and treatment centre.

Here's the link. Not the kind of news you would like to wake up to.

 

[Mark Kamill]

I did not know it actually killed people, I thought it was just a simple explosion. I feel bad for all of them, so unlucky. I wonder if this is a mini asteroid that's accompanying the huge one that's gonna miss us by 15 minutes or so.

 

[Caelus]

I did not know it actually killed people, I thought it was just a simple explosion. I feel bad for all of them, so unlucky. I wonder if this is a mini asteroid that's accompanying the huge one that's gonna miss us by 15 minutes or so.

As far as I know no fatalities have been reported. Obviously that may not be the case as they start to find any remains but I'd say most of the casualties were just injuries.

Just read about that asteroid. Pretty crazy stuff.

 

[Sweets Witch]

I wonder if this is a mini asteroid that's accompanying the huge one that's gonna miss us by 15 minutes or so.

That was my first thought when I heard about this.

But yeah, it's terrible that so many got injured. That's just a case of being dealt a bad hand. The fragments just happened to hit civilization instead of, say, a huge body of water. Tragic, but unfortunate.

 

[Livewire]

Here's the gif of the meteor flying by. Absolutely incredible, I can't believe that A, one this big was visible, and that it even caused damage. It might wake us up to the danger of asteroid & meteor strikes.

 

[PokéZoom]

Here's the gif of the meteor flying by. Absolutely incredible, I can't believe that A, one this big was visible, and that it even caused damage. It might wake us up to the danger of asteroid & meteor strikes.

I can't see it the gif...

 

[Captain Gizmo]

Here's the gif of the meteor flying by. Absolutely incredible, I can't believe that A, one this big was visible, and that it even caused damage. It might wake us up to the danger of asteroid & meteor strikes.

Don't alarm yourself and start creating your own bunker, Livewire xD
This type of stuffs happens around every 10 years or so :P

 

[Esper]

The video of this thing is just amazing.





It's kind of surprising things like this don't happen more often, what with the countless objects flying around the inner solar system. We don't even have the technology to track most of them.

Glad no one was killed though.

 

[Firox]

When I heard the news, I had to read more about it, and have been seeing dozens of videos on YouTube. It really captured my attention, and still amazed at seeing the videos. Except for broken windows, glad no real damaged was caused.

 

[BlazingLink]

It's incredible that this happened, and there was a fireball seen in Northern California recently, too. It's sad that approximately 1,100 people were injured, but at least no one died.

The sound it made on some videos on impact was crazy. HUGE Explosion.

 

[♣Gawain♣]

At least it's not an impact. Actually meteorites careening throughout the earth is very common, but we don't see often because they are small and easily burns up when it enters the Earth's atmosphere.

 

[Synthet]

It's actually incredible that so many were injured and no one died. Very, very fortunate. The only good I can see coming of this is the potential for space rock powered superheroes.

 

[curiousnathan]

I was talking about this in Physics today, and having seen the second video Scarf posted, I'm amazed at the occurence. Hopefully no one is killed or if there is fatalities, hopefully not many. Just goes to show how powerful nature is.

 

[Jirachi504]

Yes an amazing occurence it was. Good thing nobody was too seriously hurt!