Large Meteorite in Russia

[scaru]

@Orion

@FlashPilot

The REAL truth: Someone on the internet from Africa commented that NASA reactivated an “SR-71 with linear aerospike”:Linear Aerospike SR-71 Experiment - Wikipedia (after being retrofitted with a special titanium nose cone with depleted uranium tip) to intercept the meteor. The tip was used as a giant ice pick to break up the meteor while in flight before entering the troposphere. The sonic boom was actually caused by the blackbird in supersonic flight, followed by a loud crash as the spike pierced the meteor, smashing it into dust. The mission was a complete success and the meteorite fragments are already for sale on ebay to the highest bidder. The staff at Wallbuys are already digging up common rocks from the ground to sell as counterfeit meteorite fragments during their next big sale. Potential buyers are urged to place their orders early through the special reservation service to assure that they will get one. Limit: 500,000 metric tons per customer.

Staff at Home Depot have quickly retrieved all their hidden ‘Defiant Tactical Super Throwers’ for clearance sales to make space for boxes of space rocks hidden on the top shelves which are to be released only in a future promotion!

They will sell them to you if they find them though, just ask for Sku 666666.

[Orion]

@scaru

They will sell them to you if they find them though, just ask for Sku 666666.

That’s Armageddon! 1,200 injured, $30 million loss, 300 buildings damaged and it was minus 18 degrees.

Russians also made fun of the event : montage showed Putin riding the meteorite and Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovksy said in jest it was really a new weapon being tested by the United States.

But Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin spoke about the need for an international initiative aimed at creating an early warning system that would also prevent extraterrestrial objects from coming dangerously close to Earth. Existing missile defense systems can be used only against ballistic targets because they follow fixed trajectories in the near-Earth space, but as far as extraterrestrial objects are concerned, it will be a direct “hit” from outer space. He said, “At the moment, neither we nor Americans have such technologies to shoot down meteorites and asteroids as they approach Earth. Russia and other major countries have their own outer space monitoring systems, but they are mainly intended to track down space junk that comes dangerously close to spacecraft.”

Currently, astronomers have no information on the size and trajectories of the flights of 90 percent of the space objects that may threaten Earth, Oleg Malkov, the head of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Interfax-AVN. “Unfortunately, there are very many such objects around us in space,” he said. “We call them asteroids, or small bodies of the solar system. The larger the bodies, the fewer they are. Small objects are more numerous than large ones. In general, we know the trajectories and behavior of only 10 percent of everything that may threaten us.” “Thus, our ignorance is ten times more than our knowledge,” he added.

[texaspyro]

Scientists are saying that the meteor was half the size of that close-passing asteroid. I guess that would make it a hemi-roid… J)

[texaspyro]

There was a nice NOVA show on PBS tonight about the meteor… apparently blew up around 15 miles up with 500 kilotons of energy. If you missed it, check your local listings… it should be rebroadcast a time or two within the next week.

[mfpmax]

NOVA “may” be on the internet to watch as well. Not sure if all of PBS’s catalog is free to watch online but it’s worth a check.