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Meteorite Fragments - Russia
Were the meteorite fragments that hit Russia today fallout from Asteroid 2012 DA14? Experts say no.
According to Reuters, meteorite fragments hit Chelyabinsk, Russia this morning at 9:20am local time (9:20pm PT Thursday night). There were no fatalities, however several hundred people were injured, mostly from flying glass. Over a hundred remain at the hospital. Scientists believe there is no correlation to today's flyby of Asteroid 2012 DA14. From NASA's website:According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russian meteorite was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russian meteorite and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north.
Nature has a great video on its site and explains why no one saw this coming:Although a network of telescopes watches for asteroids that might strike Earth, it is geared towards spotting larger objects — between 100 metres and a kilometre in size.
Scientific American is reporting that this object was likely only "15 meters... when it hit the atmosphere." Want to see how one blogger mapped the trajectory of the meteor? Check it out here.
