From Russia with love: what threat do meteorites pose?

On February 15th, 2013, a giant space rock exploded over the Russian skyline, in a region known as the Urals.  The Chelyabinsk meteor – named after the main city in the area – proceeded to break-up into hundreds of smaller pieces and fragments, and sent a powerful shock-wave out over the landscape; anyone who has managed to glimpse the numerous videos that went viral can attest to the havoc it caused.  Indeed, reports of over 1300 injured and roughly 10 million dollars of  damage have been touted by many looking into the aftermath.

Meteorite and tail soaring over Earth’s surface. Source: Marat Akhmetvaleev / marateaman.livejournal.com

What is a meteorite and how common are they?

Basically, meteorites are pieces of larger space rocks, known as comets or asteroids. When they enter Earth’s atmosphere, they either burn up – and are known as meteors – or they pass through and strike the Earth – and we call them meteorites.

‘Sikhote-Alin’ by jttaylor14368. Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons

Small strikes are expected to happen about 10 times a year, though meteors burn-up in our atmosphere on a daily basis; large strikes, such as this one, are much rarer, but take place every few years.

So what happened?

Analysis of the fragments has indicated that this rock was nearly 4.5 billion years old; before its fiery demise above Russia, the meteorite spent most of its life voyaging around the solar system and beyond, but scientists have surmised it has crossed Earth’s orbit multiple times before.  Unfortunately for the couple million residents of the region, this time, luck was not on their side.

‘Meteor trace’ by alexeya. Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons

Separate and apart from the falling pieces of rock, most destruction was created by the shock-wave, which shattered thousands of panes of glass, and left many walls weakened or collapsed.   Amazingly, sensor readings by NASA measured the energy release to be equivalent to 500 kilotonnes of TNT – or approximately 3o times the power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

An immediate threat?

‘asteroid’ by andrewsrj. Retrieved from Flickr Creative Commons

Only meteorite strikes on the truly immense scale  (involving bodies of kilometers in size or more) are worrisome. Thankfully, experts have been tracking asteroids and comets for years, and have concluded that no such body will near Earth’s vicinity for at least 200 years…ain’t that a relief.

This amazing video below was taken from a Russian dashboard camera; it demonstrates just how incredible and surreal this event was:

Sean Mac.