NASA SAYS: NASA experts shaking their heads

[zorgon]

NASA SAYS: NASA experts shaking their heads

This is actually funny... Got this in the mail from NASA press releases..

What Exploded over Russia?

Feb. 26, 2013:  When the sun rose over Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday, Feb. 15th, many residents of nearby Chelyabinsk already knew that a space rock was coming. Later that day, an asteroid named 2012 DA14 would pass by Earth only 17,200 miles above Indonesia. There was no danger of a collision, NASA assured the public.

Maybe that's why, when the morning sky lit up with a second sun and a shock wave shattered windows in hundreds of buildings around Chelyabinsk, only a few people picking themselves off the ground figured it out right away. This was not a crashing plane or a rocket attack.

"It was a meteor strike--the most powerful since the Tunguska event of 1908," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

In a coincidence that still has NASA experts shaking their heads, a small asteroid completely unrelated to 2012 DA14 struck Earth only hours before the publicized event. The impactor flew out of the blue, literally from the direction of the sun where no telescope could see it, and took everyone by surprise.

"These are rare events and it is incredible to see them happening on the same day," says Paul Chodas of NASA's near-Earth Object Program at JPL.
February Fireballs (signup)

Researchers have since pieced together what happened. The most telling information came from a network of infrasound sensors operated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Their purpose is to monitor nuclear explosions.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/26feb_russianmeteor/

[burntheships]

An epic event for sure.
Found a link with some awesome photos taken
close by of the asteroid hitting, and then the contrails
lingering for a while.

This is worth the click.
http://marateaman.livejournal.com/27910.html

[starwarp2000]

Probably a 'Shepherd' Object?
Traveling along with the other Asteroid in Gravitational lock. Then when they swung by the Earth the Russian one did it's thing while the one NAZA was watching, went on it's merry way