[ExI] (NASA.gov) NASA to chronicle close Earth flyby of asteroid (fwd)

[Tomasz Rola]

On Fri, 15 Feb 2013, Anders Sandberg wrote:

> And at the same time, we miss the approach of a meteor that actually manages
> to do some material damage with the sonic boom:
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/15/meteorite-explosion-shakes-russian
> http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html
> Thanks to all the dashcams we got great footage.
> 
> Looks to me like a single bolide, probably a great deal smaller than 2012 DA
> 14 but dense enough to detonate much deeper in the atmosphere. And as Phil
> Plait points out, the trajectory is very different from DA 14, so it is likely
> unrelated (many asteroids are doubles).
> 
> > The emergencies ministry described Friday's events as a "meteor shower
> > in the form of fireballs" and said background radiation levels were
> > normal.
> - which is pretty hilarious given the radioactivity in the environment around
> Chelyabinsk (Mayak/Ozersk, "The Most Contaminated
> Spot on the Planet" is 80 km north).

Very unnerving is the realisation that despite whole NEO search, this 
thing has caught the planet pants down (or I don't know how else to sum 
this up). And that it managed to cover quite huge area despite its really 
small size. But maybe the news regarding "coverage" are a bit exaggerated, 
let's wait and see what they say after a week.

On a plus side, no fatalities, AFAIK. Just injuries from broken windows, 
mostly.

On Russian news sites, the event is big but not huge, it seems. I'd say, 
just one news among many, even if on top of the list.

As of Mayak, I understand that after initial contamination, which after 
some time gets washed with rains and winds, a usual treatment with 
concrete plate makes things "normal" (until one day concrete erodes, but 
that day belongs to the future). Likewise, one can travel around Chernobyl 
as long as there is no wind (and one should also avoid driving after 
another vehicles, which rise dust from the road). At least that's what I 
have heard/read. Of course longer stay or a visit to a hotspot requires 
more precautions.

BTW, it's interesting (maybe) that what is called 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyshtym_disaster

in Russian wiki gets the name "accident". So maybe it goes similarly with 
"normal". BTW, 80 km may be enough - for comparison, Chernobyl is located 
about 100 km north from Kiev, Ukraine's capital. And I guess things are 
normal in Kiev (if officials live there, I could live there as well).

Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
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**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **