Meteor Airbursts over Chelyabinsk

A good sized meteor has airburst over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. There are reports of injuries and damage, but how much is unclear right now. Give it a day and we will probably have a good idea of the scale of this event, and probably fragments of the meteor itself.

A lot of vehicles in Russia carry dashcams, and videos of the event are rapidly showing up on YouTube. It is quite spectacular, the bright fireball saturating the closer cameras.

I have seen meteoric airbursts, but nothing on this scale. It is impressive, and a bit scary to be reminded that this can happen. This even almost certainly has nothing to do with the close approach of asteroid 2012 DA14 tomorrow, but I am sure some people will make a connection. The conspiracy theorists will probably go further, perhaps much further, it should make amusing reading.

Update: A link to a collection of videos and photos of the damage here. Midway down is a vid from a warehouse security camera of a loading bay door blown inwards by the blast wave.

A dashcam video of a meteor airburst over Chelyabinsk
Warehouse loading bay door blown inwards by meteor blast wave

Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

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