Record Setting Asteroid Flyby

[thorfourwinds]

In support of the theory that these impacts were not in any way related to 2012 DA14,
but rather 2013 CL22 (and associated fragments) which was a known incoming entity -
deliberately withheld from the public -
and 2012 DA14 was another false flag,

    

we offer screen caps of the JPL Orbit Diagram module for these dates for both asteroids
to consider whether or not it is possible that 2013 CL22 (and companions)
is the true origin of the Russian, Cuban and Japanese strikes.

15 January 2013

  2 February 2013

  8 February 2013

15 February 2013

 

[astr0144]

 Mysterious 'ball of fire' over Calif.

Hours after a meteor explodes over Russia, San Francisco residents claim they saw a blue light.


Bright streak of light reported over Calif.



SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hours after a meteor exploded over Russia and injured more than 1,000 people and an asteroid passed relatively close to Earth, residents in California reported seeing an unusual flash of light over the San Francisco Bay area that left many startled and thrilled.

Based on reports, the light streaking in the Northern California sky was a sporadic meteor, or fireball, and not a major event, said Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, based in Genesee, N.Y. The group recorded at least 35 reports of the event, he said.

"Fireballs happen every single night, all around the world," he said.

Experts say smaller meteorites hit earth five to 10 times a year but chances of a large meteor passing, such as the one that streaked over Chelyabinsk, Russia, are much rarer. Another meteor landed in the Bay Area in October and caused a loud sonic boom, a sound that could have been from the meteor traveling faster than the speed of sound, officials said at the time.

Another meteor that exploded April 22 was seen over a large part of Northern California and Nevada.

On Friday, the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland also reported receiving calls describing what appeared to be a fireball flying west around 8 p.m.

Jonathan Braidman, an instructor at the center, described the object based off reports as likely being a small piece of an asteroid that "somehow" got on a collision course with the earth.

"This is a very common occurrence," Braidman said. "What is uncommon is that it's so close to where people are living."

Bay Area media outlets reported the fireball was reported seen from an area stretching from Gilroy, about 80 miles south of San Francisco, to Sacramento, about 90 miles to the northeast.

One viewer told television station NBC11 the object appeared bluish in color and appeared to be heading straight to the ground. San Leandro resident Krizstofer Loid told KTVU-TV that he was sitting on a lawn chair in the backyard of his home when he saw the object.

"I saw, like, a blue streak from the sky coming down. I thought it was fireworks, but I didn't hear any sounds," he said.

The center's large telescopes did not pick up the object during a stargazing event, astronomer Gerald McKeegan told KGO-TV.

"The media attention on the Russian thing got people's attention, so they're more likely to notice things in the sky," said Mike Hankey, operations manager of the American Meteor Society.

While Friday night's fireball received a lot of attention in the San Francisco Bay area, Braidman notes about 15,000 tons of debris from asteroids enter the earth's atmosphere every year.

"Usually these things break up into small pieces and are difficult to find," he said.



http://news.yahoo.com/bright-streak-light-reported-over-calif-155742051.html

[thorfourwinds]

Fireballs Reported Several Places February 15 2013 - YouTube


California, USA Meteor 15 FEB 2013
















NBC-TV San Francisco: "...3,000 degrees Farenheit traveling at 140,000 mph..."

Published on Feb 15, 2013

Alert! Meteorite Explosion - Russia 15 Feb 2013

From RT: http://rt.com/news/russia-meteor-mete...
The Russian Urals region has been stricken by a sudden cosmic attack. Unidentified flying objects exploded over several major cities, including Chelyabinsk, where the blast waves blew out windows and disrupted mobile connections.??­The Emergency Ministry said the incident was caused by a shower of meteorite debris. Unconfirmed reports suggested that a meteorite was shot down by Russian air defenses. Multiple dashboard videos appeared online, showing huge fireballs flying over buildings and exploding with a strong blast. A local zinc factory was the worst-hit, with some of its walls collapsed.


TIMELINE:

9:07 GMT: "The object could be about a meter in diameter and weigh a few tons," said Valeriy Shuvalov of the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics. "As it entered the atmosphere, it broke into a cloud of pieces that flew on, creating a blast wave and emitting light. That's where the flashes came from, as well as broken windows. Most of the object's material evaporated, the remaining pieces slowed down and fell. It was most likely of iron nature as it penetrated so far through the atmosphere. However, we still don't have the exact data on the debris."

8:56 GMT: The Chelyabinsk regional governor reported that an emergency team discovered that a meteorite fell into a lake near the town of Chebarkul.

8:49 GMT: The number of people requesting medical assistance has risen to 500.

8:30 GMT: Residents of Chelyabinsk buy out plastic wrap to screen the windows blown off by the meteor shower blast wave, as temperatures are expected to fall to -14°C at night.

­8:20 GMT: More than 400 people have requested medical attention for minor injuries after a meteor shower hit the Russian Urals region. The number of injured may change, police said.

­8:10 GMT: Oleg Malkov, an aerospace scientist at Moscow State University, told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper that the meteorite went undetected by space scanners, likely because it was coming from the direction of the Sun. "We can only register stones coming from the direction of the night sky," he explained. Malkov confirmed that the meteor shower in the Urals was not connected to the 2012DA14 asteroid that will approach Earth in a few hours.

7:30 GMT: ­The number of people seeking medical attention has risen to 150.

[zorgon]

NASA Invents Explanation For Recent Fireball Cluster: It's 'Fireball Season'


© EUMETSAT

Saturday, February 16, 2013 18:33


The meteor which exploded over the Urals of central Russia was seen by Meteosat-9, at the edge of the satellite view. Hundreds of people were reportedly injured as the meteor's massive sonic boom caused widespread damage. Image taken Feb. 15, 2013, 3:15 UTC.

Astronomer Ian Holliday studied photographic records of roughly a thousand fireballs from the 1970s and 80s, finding what looked like a fireball stream crossing Earth's orbit during February, late summer and fall. Halliday's results are somewhat controversial, but the phenomenon appears real.

The meteor which exploded over the Urals of central Russia was seen by Meteosat-9, at the edge of the satellite view. Hundreds of people were reportedly injured as the meteor's massive sonic boom caused widespread damage.

It's fireball season on Earth, and it is starkly clear for residents in eastern Russia where a bright fireball exploded in the atmosphere early today (Feb. 15).

Comment: The only sense in which it is 'Fireball Season' is that these next few months and years are going to see a whole lot more fireballs than usual.

For reasons scientists don't quite understand, there appears to be an increase in the number of bright meteors visible blazing through the night sky during the month of February. The notion hit home today when a meteor exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains, injuring more than 900 people and damaging thousands of buildings, according to press reports. (Another space rock, the asteroid 2012DA14, is on course to pass very close to Earth Friday evening, but will not hit the planet.)

Comment: Yes, they noticed a string of bright fireballs in February last year, so they invented the term 'February Fireballs.' But then bright fireballs continued to appear so they called the next cluster the 'April Fireballs', and so on. They won't just come straight out and tell you that fireballs are increasing all the time.

http://beforeitsnews.com/space/2013/02/nasa-invents-explanation-for-recent-fireball-cluster-its-fireball-season-2454506.html

[zorgon]

Yup NASA actually said that  LOL

Spring is Fireball Season

March 31, 2011: What are the signs of spring? They are as familiar as a blooming Daffodil, a songbird at dawn, a surprising shaft of warmth from the afternoon sun.

And, oh yes, don't forget the meteors.

"Spring is fireball season," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Center. "For reasons we don't fully understand, the rate of bright meteors climbs during the weeks around the vernal equinox."

 


A spring fireball recorded by a NASA all-sky camera located at the Marshall Space Flight Center on March 16, 2009.



In other seasons, a person willing to watch the sky from dusk to dawn could expect to see around 10 random or "sporadic" fireballs. A fireball is a meteor brighter than the planet Venus. Earth is bombarded by them as our planet plows through the jetsam and flotsam of space--i.e., fragments of broken asteroids and decaying comets that litter the inner solar system.

In spring, fireballs are more abundant. Their nightly rate mysteriously climbs 10% to 30%.

"We've known about this phenomenon for more than 30 years," says Cooke. "It's not only fireballs that are affected. Meteorite falls--space rocks that actually hit the ground--are more common in spring as well1."

Researchers who study Earth's meteoroid environment have never come up with a satisfactory explanation for the extra fireballs. In fact, the more they think about it, the stranger it gets.

Consider the following:
Spring Fireballs


A NASA fireball camera at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

There is a point in the heavens called the "apex of Earth's way." It is, simply, the direction our planet is traveling. As Earth circles the sun, the apex circles the heavens, completing one trip through the Zodiac every year.

The apex is significant because it is where sporadic meteors are supposed to come from. If Earth were a car, the apex would be the front windshield. When a car drives down a country road, insects accumulate on the glass up front. Ditto for meteoroids swept up by Earth.

Every autumn, the apex climbs to its highest point in the night sky. At that time, sporadic meteors of ordinary brightness are seen in abundance, sometimes dozens per night.

Read that again: Every autumn.

"Autumn is the season for sporadic meteors," says Cooke. "So why are the sporadic fireballs peaking in spring? That is the mystery."

Meteoroid expert Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario notes that "some researchers think there might be an intrinsic variation in the meteoroid population along Earth's orbit, with a peak in big fireball-producing debris around spring and early summer. We probably won't know the answer until we learn more about their orbits2."

To solve this and other puzzles, Cooke is setting up a network of smart meteor cameras around the country to photograph fireballs and triangulate their orbits. As explained in the Science@NASA story What's Hitting Earth?, he's looking for places to put his cameras; educators are encouraged to get involved. Networked observations of spring fireballs could ultimately reveal their origin.

"It might take a few years to collect enough data," he cautions.

Until then, it's a beautiful mystery. Go out and enjoy the night sky. It is spring, after all.

See the ScienceCast of this story on YouTube at:

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/31mar_springfireballs/

[zorgon]

NASA's All Sky Fireball Network

They even have a PATCH 



"What was that bright light in the sky last night?"

Intro:  The NASA All-sky Fireball Network is a network of cameras set up by the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) with the goal of observing meteors brighter than the planet Venus, which are called fireballs.  The collected data will be used by the MEO in constructing models of the meteoroid environment, which are important to spacecraft designers.

Network:  The network currently consists of 8 cameras, 6 of which are placed in locations in north Alabama, north Georgia, southern Tennessee, and southern North Carolina.  The remaining 2 are located in southern New Mexico. The network is growing all the time, with plans to place a total of 15 cameras in schools, science centers, and planetaria in the United States, predominantly east of the Mississippi River, where there are few such systems. 



Cameras:  Cameras in the network are specialized black and white video cameras with lenses that allow for a view of the whole night sky overhead.

Data:  The cameras have overlapping fields of view, which means that the same fireball can be detected by more than one camera.  This allows us to calculate the height of the fireball and how fast it is going.  We can even work out the orbit of the meteoroid responsible for creating the fireball, which gives us clues about whether it came from a comet or an asteroid.  If the fireball is traveling slow enough, and makes it low enough, it is possible that it can survive to the ground as a meteorite.

This website:  This website displays fireball data in the form of images, movies, diagrams, and text files.  The data is organized by date.  Click on a date in the list on the left to see the fireballs detected that night.  If the page appears blank that means no fireballs were detected, probably because of bad weather. The website is automatically updated every morning at 8:00 am Central Time.  Only the last 3 weeks of data is available online.

For more information, contact Dr. Bill Cooke or check out the MEO website.

http://fireballs.ndc.nasa.gov/

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/meo/home/index.html

[zorgon]

Dr. Bill Cooke, Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, Dr. Rob Suggs. Image Credit: NASA

Meteoroid Environment Office

About MEO  The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) is the NASA organization responsible for meteoroid environments pertaining to Spacecraft engineering and operations. The MEO leads NASA technical work on the meteoroid environment and coordinates the existing meteoroid expertise at NASA centers.

The NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) was established by the NASA Headquarters Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) in October of 2004 as the NASA organization responsible for meteoroid environments pertaining to spacecraft engineering and operations. Its creation is the result of various NASA panel recommendations and recent Leonid meteor storms.

The MEO is located at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Organizationally, it is part of the Natural Environments Branch (EV44) – a component of the Space & Vehicle Systems Department of the Engineering Directorate. The MEO is the first official NASA meteoroid program since the Johnson Space Center meteoroid group was disbanded in 1970.

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/meo/home/aboutMEO-rd.html

[burntheships]

Photo Credit: Annie Henderson
This Is Somerset UK

Captured over the Avalon Marshes nature reserve at Shapwick Heath last Wednesday, these pictures of a curious light in the sky have many people baffled.

The pictures were snapped at the bird sanctuary by Annie Henderson who lives on the Somerset Levels.

Unlike the usual blobs of light, which can be explained away as the contrails of distant jet aircraft, Chinese sky lanterns, weather balloons or passing satellites, the distant light appears to be burning up with flaming gases shooting off its form.
http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/UFO-spotted-Avalon-Marshes-similar-meteor/story-18157644-detail/story.html#ixzz2L7AQZdoP

There are 14 photos there at the site, I embedded only the first one to show the object.
Photos were reportedly taken with a Sony DSLR camera.
This is curious, if this was another meteor, that would add UK to the list,
along with Russia, Cuba, Japan, and California.

[burntheships]

Oh, how the experts scramble....

NASA has confirmed the meteor skyfall in Russia was
actually a small asteroid and not a meteorite due to the
size and mass of the object.

At a news conference Friday, NASA scientists said the object that exploded over Russia was a "tiny asteroid" that measured roughly 45 feet across, weighed about 10,000 tons and traveled about 40,000 mph.

The object vaporized roughly 15 miles above the surface of the Earth, causing a shock wave that triggered the global network of listening devices that was  established to detect nuclear test explosions.

The force of the explosion measured between 300 and 500 kilotons, equivalent to a modern nuclear bomb, according to Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-russian-tiny-asteroid-20130215,0,5424522.story?track=rss

[zorgon]

There are 14 photos there at the site, I embedded only the first one to show the object.

Actually if you look at them most are the same photo just cropped differently.

That is an airplane contrail at sunset... I see them most every night out here.

[zorgon]

Seems everyone has dash cams these days cept me   but then I need a dash first

Shooting Star (Meteor) across San Francisco 2/15/2013 7:44PM

[zorgon]

Bright Streak Lights Fla. Night Sky

South Floridians who happened to be looking in the right place at the right time Sunday night saw one spectacular light show – likely a sporadic meteor.

The Coast Guard began getting flooded with phone calls about 7:30 p.m., with reports of folks seeing flare-like objects from Jacksonville to Key West, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Sabrina Laberdesque.

People called in, describing the flares "as orange or red fireballs in the sky," Laberdesque said. The display was limited to the sky: No injuries were reported, Laberdesque said.

Based on reports, the streak across the Florida sky was likely a sporadic meteor, essentially a rocky object that comes from the asteroid belt, said Mike Hankey, operations manager for the American Meteor Society, based in Genesee, N.Y.

The group logged 27 reports within about the first two hours of the event, he said.

"This is a lot of reports to come in quickly," Hankey said. Gauging by the reports, it happened somewhere over the ocean.

"These fireballs are common," Hankey said. "It's rare for any one person to see one more than once or twice in their lifetime. But on any given night, it might happen somewhere in the globe a few times in a day."

The Coast Guard said it suspects it was a meteor shower, but Hankey said that was unlikely.

"Meteor showers usually are much dimmer and faster moving," Hankey said.

There are no active major meteor showers going on right now, because according to a calendar, the next window for such a shower would be in mid-April, he said. 

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50843785/ns/local_news-miami_fl/#.USGXFNj5mSp

Don't ya just LOVE 'experts'? LOL and on the same page they are reporting the Russian hit and those in California. "according to the calendar" BWAHAHAHAHA

[thorfourwinds]

WATCH VIDEO: Streak Lights Up Night Sky Across Fla. - Local News - Miami, FL | NBC News

"These fireballs are common," 

Hankey said. "It's rare for any one person to see one more than once or twice in their lifetime. But on any given night, it might happen somewhere in the globe a few times in a day."

Hankey added: "People should not be scared of the sky falling or anything at all."







NASA scientists say the object that exploded over Russia on Friday was a "tiny asteroid."
(Associated Press / February 15, 2013)


Russian 'meteor' was actually a tiny asteroid, NASA says - latimes.com

At a news conference Friday, NASA scientists said the object that exploded over Russia was a "tiny asteroid" that measured roughly 45 feet across, weighed about 10,000 tons and traveled about 40,000 mph.

The object vaporized roughly 15 miles above the surface of the Earth, causing a shock wave that triggered the global network of listening devices that was  established to detect nuclear test explosions.

The force of the explosion measured between 300 and 500 kilotons, equivalent to a modern nuclear bomb, according to Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"When you hear about injuries, those are undoubtedly due to the events of the shock striking the city and causing walls to collapse and glass to fly, not due to fragments striking the ground," Cooke said.

The fact that the asteroid hit on the same day that the world was anticipating the close flyby of a larger asteroid, 2012 DA14,

was an extraordinary coincidence.

The smaller asteroid was traveling in a very different trajectory and much more quickly than DA14, indicating they were not related, according to Paul Chodas, research scientist in the Near-Earth Object Program office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. 
...
?"I would call this a tiny asteroid," Chodas said. "This is the largest recorded event since the Tunguska explosion in 1908." That event, which may have involved a meteor, leveled more than 800 square miles of forest in Russia.
...
NASA leads international efforts to track much larger, asteroid-size objects, and Chodas said the agency had identified 95% of them. It's the smaller ones that pose a problem. "They are very difficult to find," he said.

The criminalization
of aerosol cheese products
solves Global Warming...
















The Myoshi Effect: Jim Yoakum: 9781479234677: Amazon.com: Books

Book Description
Publication Date: September 27, 2012
The year is 2020. Can the President of the United States of America, and the President of the United Blue States of America, come together in order stop a giant asteroid before it destroys Earth in one month's time?

Who IS the mysterious Doctor Apophis?

What is the "S.U.R.", and why is the President if the USA determined to defend it at all costs?

Why the hell is the Canadian army in North Dakota?

And what is... "The Myoshi Effect"?


JIM YOAKUM has been a professional writer for over thirty years. He is the author of non-fiction books, novels and is the screenwriter of three produced films. He has contributed articles to numerous magazines, websites and periodicals including Rolling Stone, The Onion and Goldmine. He was former writing partners with the late Graham Chapman of Monty Python and is U.S. Curator of the Graham Chapman Archives. He is also a professional musician. Some of his other writings can be seen at thearchivest.wordpress.com.

[thorfourwinds]

FOR THE RECORD

by John Macneill

Space-based weapons have exceptionally disparate advantages and disadvantages: They are extremely powerful and difficult to defend against, but they're also expensive to launch and maintain and they're in constant motion above the Earth. John Macneill


This technology is very far out—in miles and years. A pair of satellites orbiting several hundred miles above the Earth would serve as a weapons system. One functions as the targeting and communications platform while the other carries numerous tungsten rods—up to 20 feet in length and a foot in diameter—that it can drop on targets with less than 15 minutes' notice.

When instructed from the ground, the targeting satellite commands its partner to drop one of its darts. The guided rods enter the atmosphere, protected by a thermal coating, traveling at 36,000 feet per second—comparable to the speed of a meteor. The result: complete devastation of the target, even if it's buried deep underground. (The two-platform configuration permits the weapon to be "reloaded" by just launching a new set of rods, rather than replacing the entire system.)

The concept of kinetic-energy weapons has been around ever since the RAND Corporation proposed placing rods on the tips of ICBMs in the 1950s; the satellite twist was popularized by sci-fi writer Jerry Pournelle. Though the Pentagon won't say how far along the research is, or even confirm that any efforts are underway, the concept persists.

The U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan, published by the Air Force in November 2003, references "hypervelocity rod bundles" in its outline of future space-based weapons, and in 2002, another report from RAND, Space Weapons, Earth Wars, dedicated entire sections to the technology's usefulness.??

If so-called "Rods from God"—an informal nickname of untraceable origin—ever do materialize, it won't be for at least 15 years. Launching heavy tungsten rods into space will require substantially cheaper rocket technology than we have today.

But there are numerous other obstacles to making such a system work. Pike, of GlobalSecurity.org, argues that the rods' speed would be so high that they would vaporize on impact, before the rods could penetrate the surface. Furthermore, the "absentee ratio"—the fact that orbiting satellites circle the Earth every 100 minutes and so at any given time might be far from the desired target—would be prohibitive.

A better solution, Pike argues, is to pursue the original concept: Place the rods atop intercontinental ballistic missiles, which would slow down enough during the downward part of their trajectory to avoid vaporizing on impact. ICBMs would also be less expensive and, since they're stationed on Earth, would take less time to reach their targets.

"The space-basing people seem to understand the downside of space weapons," Pike says—among them, high costs and the difficulty of maintaining weapon platforms in orbit. "But I'll still bet you there's a lot of classified work on this going on right now."


And this from rense.com:


Did God Rods Cause A US Space Weapon,  Not Meteors, To Hit Russia And Cuba?

The Western media cover-up, promoted by so-called "meteor experts" planted by the military complex, tells of a fantastic meteorite striking Russia's Urals region, while trying to ignore a second spectacular space disaster in Cuba, which occurred just hours later.

 A pair of massive meteorites, each brighter than the Sun, has never been recorded before in the entire history of astral chronologies. Obviously, the bus-size objects that fell from the sky are man-made and not freaks of nature.

 While it is too early yet for a conclusive determination, one scenario can explain the twin disasters, and that is a free fall of a U.S. Air Force orbital weapons platform loaded with super-heavy "God Rods". A dual-cabin space-based bomber likely caused the falsely attributed X"meteorite" hits on Russia's Urals region and, just hours later, on Cuban territory. In both cases, witnesses and videophone images showed "bus-shaped" objects "brighter than the Sun" falling to Earth in regions halfway around the world from each other.

 Rods from God

 God Rods are the ultimate bunker busters, which strike with Luciferian power despite their name, which came no doubt from the apocalyptic corps of evangelical graduates of the Air Force Academy. To prepare a God Rod assault on Iran's hardened nuclear bunkers, the USAF dual-chamber orbital ship would be positioned into a slower near-geostationary orbit over the Caspian Sea.

 The Rods from God are depleted uranium rods sheathed in a ceramic foam shell, which prevents friction-caused searing vaporization during re-entry. The DU rods rely on kinetic energy from gravity acceleration reaching supersonic speeds along a close-to vertical trajectory. Upon impact with the Earth's surface, the ceramic shell is shattered into powder, while the DU becomes a red-hot searing liquid fire that burns through rock and concrete. Turning into dust and gas, the depleted uranium will ignite the air inside any bunker or tunnel, creating shock waves that cause  the roof to cave in.

 A test drop of a God Rod probably caused the seismic blast and destruction of an underground Iranian nuclear lab in late January.

 What Goes Up

 One problem of near-geostationary orbit, however, is the massive weight of the God Rod canisters aboard the space bus. With the slightest miscalculation of minimum orbital momentum, the space-based weapons platform tumbles into free fall.

 Plummeting to Earth along an oscillating parabolic path, the astro-soldiers aboard the USAF weapons platform would have to decouple the weapons-carrying cabin from the command module. Presumably the crew boarded an escape pod, the blue streak seen by San Franciscans, which landed at sea in the Gulf or Atlantic. Their fate will never be revealed to the public, despite the loud claims from the United States of being a democracy with information transparency in contrast to evil dictatorships.

 It was probably the weapons cabin that hit the Russian Urals, a region with a dozen nuclear research reactors around the Chelyabinsk nuclear-weapons zone and the large power reactor near Ekaterinaberg. Besides injuring 1,400 people, mainly from flying glass of windows broken by sonic booms, the vaporized DU rods will also add more radiation to the atmosphere, already contaminated by the Fukushima meltdowns, and further degrade the Siberian environment, which is highly radioactive from reckless Soviet strategic weapons testing in the past.

 If the USAF vehicle had smashed into one of the many terrestrial research reactors, a nuclear power station or a warhead facility in the Urals, there would undoubtedly have been a thermonuclear exchange between Russia and the US. A Russian "retaliatory strike" would have destroyed every US military base worldwide and most major cities in America.

 The complacent and amoral American public has tolerated the secret space-based weapons program and so would have no grounds for complaint at the loss of a hundred million or more lives inside their own territory. The rest of the world, of course, would not be so forgiving to the USA for triggering an Armageddon.

 As for the gung-ho evangelical Air Force officer corps, it seems the loss of their space toy means that God must be on the other side of the rod.

 Yoichi Shimatsu, former editor of The Japan Times Weekly, is a Hong Kong-based science writer.

[zorgon]

Harry Drew
16 hours ago

NASA UPDATE ON RUSSIAN METEOR ID: IT WAS A SMALL ASTEROID

Late Friday, NASA revised its estimates on the size and power of the devastating meteor explosion. The meteor's size is now thought to be slightly larger — about 55 feet (17 m) wide — with the power of the blast estimate of about 500 kilotons, 30 kilotons higher than before, NASA officials said in a statement. [See video of the intense meteor explosion]

The meteor was also substantially more massive than thought as well. Initial estimated pegged the space rock's mass at about 7,000 tons. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., now say the meteor weighed about 10,000 tons and was traveling 40,000 mph (64,373 km/h) when it exploded.

"These new estimates were generated using new data that had been collected by five additional infrasound stations located around the world - the first recording of the event being in Alaska, over 6,500 kilometers away from Chelyabinsk," JPL officials explained in the statement. The infrasound stations detect low-frequency sound waves that accompany exploding meteors, known as bolides.

Eleven infrasound stations around the world recorded the meteor blast above Russian on Friday