2013
By 2028, astronomers should be able to calculate the precise risk of a collision with Earth of the 400-metre-diameter (1,312-foot-daimeter) asteroid 2013 TV135, and even to identify the possible areas of its fall. As for the current danger from celestial bodies, Sergei Yolkin takes a puckish view…
17 October 2013
RIA-Novosti
On Friday, a scientist said that a huge fragment of meteorite that slammed into the Urals region in February was located on the bottom of Chebarkul Lake in Chelyabinsk Oblast. On 15 February, a meteorite landed with a massive boom that blew out windows and damaged thousands of buildings around the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,200 people in the area. The meteorite broke into approximately seven large fragments, and one of them is believed to have fallen into Chebarkul Lake, forming a hole in the ice about eight metres (26.25 feet) in diameter. In late March, a radar probe of the bottom of the lake revealed a crater possibly created by a fragment of a meteorite.
Viktor Grokhovsky, a senior researcher with Ural Federal University, was amongst the scientists who measured the magnetic field in the area where a meteorite chunk presumably fell. He said that the measurements indicated that an object, most likely a meteorite fragment about 60 centimetres (23 2/3 inches) in diameter and weighting approximately 300 kilos (661 lbs), is lying on the bottom of the Chebarkul Lake. He added that an eyewitness caught on camera how the meteorite exploded above the lake and apparently crashed through the ice, sending a massive jet of water into the air. He said, “[If] we have [a meteorite-like] substance, we have a hole in the ice, and a jet of water which was observed shortly after the explosion, what other proofs are needed? The [meteorite] fall, followed by a jet of water, was caught on camera”. The head of the Chebarkul urban area administration, Andrei Orlov, told journalists that sonar scans in the same area show an unidentified object measuring up to six metres (19.7 feet) in diameter at the bottom of the lake.
22 June 2013
RIA-Novosti
Here’s a two-and-a-half minute vid in English on the Moscow Planetarium. It has more to offer than just galaxies projected on the dome ceiling. It also has ancient star maps and a collection of rare meteorites. However, its main attraction is the night sky of the remote past and even the future.
20 May 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/video/20130520/181118282/The-Moscow-Planetariums-9000-Stars.html
On Friday, 15 February 2013, Asteroid 2012 DA14 will make its nearest approach to the Earth. Our Infographic shows the asteroids that will come closest to Earth in the next 200 years. To date, scientists have found hundreds of thousands of asteroids in the solar system. Collision of an asteroid with the Earth could cause fires, an earthquake, and/or a tsunami. According to some theories, the cause of past mass extinctions was the falling of celestial bodies on the planet.
On Friday, 15 February 2013 at 19.25 UTC (11.25 PST 14.25 EST 23.25 MSK 06.25 16 February AEST) Asteroid 2012 DA14, discovered in February 2012 by astronomers at the Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra in Spain, will make its closest approach to the Earth, 27,700 kilometres (17,200 miles) above the earth’s surface, which is much lower than geostationary satellites (35,800 kilometres (22,500 miles)). It would be the largest celestial body that has come so close to the Earth on record. The mass of the asteroid is about 190,000 tons (210,000 US tons), and the explosion that would occur in the event of its fall to Earth would be comparable to the Tunguska event.
15 February 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/infographics/20130215/179484941/Asteroids-That-Buzz-Planet-Earth.html
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