When covering meteors, one usually expects it to be a slow news day. However, it seems today that Asteroid 2012-DA14 is not the only dangerous flying object in our midst, as a meteor has exploded over central Russia and sent fireballs crashing towards Chelyabinsk resulting in over 500 people being injured from largely shattered glass caused by the meteor’s sonic boom. Of the 514 people who sought medical attention, 112 are still in the hospital. No fatalities have been reported. **(UPDATED) Reports coming in now are claiming upwards of 1000 people have been injured.**
The meteor as reported to have been going at a speed of 19 miles per second, and could be seen streaking across the sky at a distance of 125 miles.
Business and schools have been disrupted by the errant meteor, and Putin has stated on television that “it is necessary to think about how to help the people, and not only to think about it, but to do it immediately.”
Already, the people of the affected area are trying to cash in on the meteor’s arrival. Despite being warned against approaching unknown objects, rocks that are advertised as being from the Chelyabinsk meteor have already started to appear on online Russian auction websites.
Since this report, this youtube video has emerged and garnered more than 200,000 hits since it was put up.
Though Tatiana Bordovitsina, an astronomy professor at Tomsk State University supposed the object could have been space debris from Asteroid 2012-DA14, The European Space Agency released a statement via twitter that there is not connection between this meteor and the asteroid that will be passing 17,000 miles from our orbit today.
(Source: Rueters, RIA Novosti)
