Russian Meteor Had Nothing To Do With 2012 DA14 Asteroid Flyby

The scientific community is still following the meteor that exploded over Russia last Friday closely. The meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia at approximately 7:20 PM PST. The explosion had enough force to blow the Windows out of hundreds of buildings and cause injury to an estimated 1200 people, mostly from falling glass.

The fireball seen in the Russian skies on Friday happen to be close in time to asteroid 2012 DA14. NASA has announced that the Russian meteor was unrelated to 2012 DA14. NASA has offered some revised size estimates for the meteor that entered the atmosphere over Russia.

The original size estimates for the meteor put it at 49 feet in diameter and NASA has revised its size estimate putting the meteorite at 55 feet in diameter. NASA also increased the estimated mass of the meteorite from 7,000 tons to 10,000 tons. NASA scientists estimate that the energy released by the object was equivalent to nearly 500 kilotons of explosives on.

The new information about the meteorite was collected by five additional infrasound stations located around the world. The first recording of the event was captured in Alaska, over 6500 km from Chelyabinsk, Russia. NASA also says that with an object of this size, a large number of meteorites would be expected to reach the surface of the planet and the scientists believe in this case, there were probably some large fragments. Scientists also say that the duration of the event means that the meteor made a very shallow entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

[via NASA]