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Following last week’s meteorite explosion, scientists have finally had chance to sit down and figure out exactly what happened — and the results help explain why it shook Russia so hard.
Peter Brown, from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, has been using the extremely low frequency sound waves detected during the incident to work out exactly what happened. The ESA explains:
The object is estimated to have been about 17 m across with a mass of 7,000 – 10,000 tonnes when it hit atmosphere. It exploded with a force of nearly 500 kilotons of TNT –- some 30 times the energy released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb — around 15 to 20 km above the ground.
No wonder reports from Chelyabinsk, the city close to where the meteorite struck, described widespread window breakages and structural damage. [ESA]
Image by AP/Chelyabinsk.ru
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Scary yet beautiful and awe-inspiring.
17m is about twice the length of a bus.
It would have been amazing if it had exploded about 1mm above the Pentagon, or even the White House.
I know, I know, I’m being naughty.
So I guess the Russian Academy of Sciences estimate of 10 tons was a bit off?
Hahaha yes!
I’m still waiting for someone to calculate where exactly it was expected to land in the UK if the timing had been different as news report commented.
It’s pretty scary to think this could happen again tomorrow and this time it could hit our homes!