Armageddon! Meteor Strikes Russia, 850 Injured
The headline really says it all...And this article in the UK Daily Mail has a pretty comprehensive run-down of the 10-ton meteor strike yesterday in the Chelyabinsk region, about 900 miles east of Moscow and near Kazakhstan. (This one is far more dramatic than the Perseid Shower pictured here.)
The meteor was traveling at 19 per second, or 20,000 miles an hour, shattered about 18 miles up, and sent shards across the region, including one chunk which left an 18-foot-wide hole in the ground. The city of Chelyabinsk suffered substantial damage from the shock wave, including tons of broken glass, a shattered factory and 82 injured children, including two in intensive care.
Later today, another larger--but still fairly small--meteor called Asteroid 2012 DA14 is due to pass Earth at a distance of 17,000 miles. That one is 150 feet across and weighs 130,000 metric tons.
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