Attack of the Killer Asteroids: This s*** getting real.

Ray: You have been a participant in the biggest interdimensional cross rip since the Tunguska blast of 1909!

 

Well, meteorites don't have any set speed -- it all depends on the relative orbital speeds between the meteor and Earth when their paths intersect. Plus it would be decelerating as it came through the atmosphere.

However given the fact that on 9/11 it took the US air defenses something like a half hour to 40 minutes to react to what became clear was an organized attack from the air, I am somewhat skeptical that Russian air defenses could shoot down basically a bolt out of the blue.


There will be all kinds of speculation and guesses as to the size of the actual meteor -- I have seen 10 tons used in a few news stories -- but a 10-ton meteor is not a huge object, it's a rock maybe 10 feet in diameter -- basically the size of a car. (And it could have been much smaller than that.)

Most meteors disintegrate on their own when they enter the atmosphere. They have been drifting for ages in space and are very cold (usually -300F or thereabouts). When they enter the atmosphere they heat up to a couple thousand degrees due to air friction. If there is any ice or gassy material inside the meteor, blammo.

 

And, the migration continues...

 

It will also be very interesting to hear what kind of conversations took place on the NATO air defense hotlines yesterday between Russia and the US.

Probably something fairly similar to "WarGames."

"Why the hell didn't we get any launch detection?" "Now they got us chasing ghosts!" "I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would do any good." "Well, that's a load of shit ... oh no, not you, Mr. President."

 

See ... told you!

 

Totally awesome. Russians make Tennessee drivers look competent, and that's saying something. I like the clip with the stealth bomber buzzing a few feet over the cars.

 

Is this the highlight video that includes the fighter jet buzzing the highway?

 

Edited to add.

 

Holy shitstains x 100:

Fairly credible sources now say the meteor:

-- was the biggest observed since Tunguska (1908)

-- was probably about 50 feet in diameter and weighed 7,000 tons (14 million pounds) before breaking up.


(Essentially if those estimates are in the ballpark, the meteor was about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the asteroid which buzzed by later in the day.)


http://www.space.com/19822-russian-fireball-biggest-explosion-century.html


I'd probably put a big asterisk in front of that first one; the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Antarctica are hella big places, and up until a couple decades or so ago meteors could fall there and likely nobody would ever have known.

 

As usual, Cuba tries to leach some glory off its big brother Russia. They're saying another meteor came down there a few hours before the one in Russia.
Coincidence? Two pieces of the larger asteroid that passed by and might have broken off?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/second-meteor-video-cuba-two-1712957

 

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear a meteor in your hair:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/on-heels-of-russia-meteor-explosion-calif-residents-report-streak-of-light-over-calif-sky/2013/02/16/cd8b0c7e-7851-11e2-b102-948929030e64_story.html

 

WE'RE ALL FUCKED!