The contrails of a meteorite that exploded in the Ural Mountains are shown in this screen grab from a YouTube video.
After the break, another of the many amateur videos recorded by drivers, surveillance cameras and curious observers. In this video, you can see the blinding flash of light and hear the ear-splitting boom of the meteorite’s disintegration in the atmosphere about 20 to 30 miles above the earth. The sound of glass shattering follows the blast. Hundreds were injured, many by glass splinters. Some of the videos record the barking of dogs immediately after the sonic boom.
Meteors are typically very dense, and Russian scientists believe this may have been a 10-ton meteor. When rocky matter from outer space enters earth’s atmosphere, it is called a meteor. It usually disintegrates, incinerated in the atmosphere. When fragments survive and fall to earth, they are called meteorites.
Asteroids are also rocky pieces of matter, but they orbit the sun. Some have eccentric orbits that bring them close to the earth. NASA predicted the close approach of such an asteroid later today, though it is not on a collision path with Earth. The meteorite that exploded over southwestern Siberia, however, was not foreseen. The New York Times reported that a Russian physicist surmised the meteor may have been orbiting together with the expected asteroid.
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