The meteor that streaked across the sky on Friday, creating a powerful shock wave when it exploded more than 12 miles above the Earth’s surface, was a once-in-a-century occurrence. It was the largest recorded meteor since the 1908 Tunguska event, when a larger one exploded over Siberia.
NASA scientists said the meteoroid that came down over Russia was a space rock about 50 feet in diameter. They said the resulting explosion was equivalent to detonating about 300 kilotons of TNT — making it roughly 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, although the bomb was detonated near the Earth’s surface.
Comments
"...a once-in-a-century occurrence." We hope. The best you can say is 'once-in-a-century' over Siberia. With 70% of the Earth covered by water, these may well happen with greater frequency.
I love this guy's sense of perspective. Even though the blast of a meteorite that large would have been like a nuclear bomb going off, we're only tracking those which are big enough to destroy the planet altogether. Can't we track the ones that have the equivalent power of a nuclear bomb too?
I'd really like to see a sense of perspective. Lack of health care kills people every day. Poverty kills people every day. Guns kill people every day. Meteors--not so much.
Now you and I both know that I'm not that bright but...... I read this piece twice to see if there was any relevance to Healthcare, Poverty or guns. I didn't see it. Maybe, just maybe it was only a story about a meteor that became a meteorite. Perhaps someone can be commissioned to do a comparative analysis on death from above versus death from the cold uncaring hand of man. I'll look for that in the next issue of the Huffington Post.