Friday's spectacular meteor impact near Chelyabinsk, Russia, prompted many people to recall that a similar (though much bigger) such incident occurred at Tunguska in Siberia just over a century ago. Another big one, though less known, occurred at a place called Sikhote-Alin, also in Russia, in 1947.
The so-called 'Tunguska event' of 1908 produced an explosion comparable to a hydrogen bomb, flattening hundreds of square miles of forest. Russia's Pravda was quick to draw comparisons with Friday's event.
In an interview with the newspaper, Maxim Shingarkin, deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Ecology, was quoted as saying the "the phenomenon that we could observe in Chelyabinsk this morning was similar, although it was of a much smaller scale than Tunguska."
So, is Russia just one giant meteor magnet?
In a way yes, says Clark Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
"The best answer is just that Russia is by far the largest land area in the world and therefore it's just a greater likelihood that it will get struck several times than any other places," he says.
Scientists tracking DA14, but didn't know about the Chelyabinsk object, Chapman says, adding that there's no connection between the two other than an "amazing coincidence" that they are happening on the same day.
The so-called 'Tunguska event' of 1908 produced an explosion comparable to a hydrogen bomb, flattening hundreds of square miles of forest. Russia's Pravda was quick to draw comparisons with Friday's event.
In an interview with the newspaper, Maxim Shingarkin, deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Ecology, was quoted as saying the "the phenomenon that we could observe in Chelyabinsk this morning was similar, although it was of a much smaller scale than Tunguska."
So, is Russia just one giant meteor magnet?
In a way yes, says Clark Chapman, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
"The best answer is just that Russia is by far the largest land area in the world and therefore it's just a greater likelihood that it will get struck several times than any other places," he says.
Scientists tracking DA14, but didn't know about the Chelyabinsk object, Chapman says, adding that there's no connection between the two other than an "amazing coincidence" that they are happening on the same day.
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And what's the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? Let's define the terms:
Asteroid : a rocky body with a regular orbit around the sun. Most commonly found in the zone between Mars & Jupiter called the Main Belt. There are asteroids in the Main Belt as large as 600 miles across.
Meteoroid : On average much smaller than asteroids. Typically the size of a pea or smaller. No regular orbit. Typically debris from a comet or asteroid.
Meteor : A shooting star. The period during which a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes. Refers to the light phenomena associated with intense heat and friction.
Meteorite : A meteoroid that survives the intense heat of passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Once a meteor touches the ground it becomes a meteorite.
So the big differences are these:
Asteroid : a rocky body with a regular orbit around the sun. Most commonly found in the zone between Mars & Jupiter called the Main Belt. There are asteroids in the Main Belt as large as 600 miles across.
Meteoroid : On average much smaller than asteroids. Typically the size of a pea or smaller. No regular orbit. Typically debris from a comet or asteroid.
Meteor : A shooting star. The period during which a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizes. Refers to the light phenomena associated with intense heat and friction.
Meteorite : A meteoroid that survives the intense heat of passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Once a meteor touches the ground it becomes a meteorite.
So the big differences are these:
- Asteroids have regular and predictable orbits.
- Meteors can come from asteroids, but also come from comets and their debris.
According
to NASA, more than 100 tons of dust and sand sized particles slam into
the Earth's atmosphere every day. Larger bodies, the size of a car, hit
the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in a bright fireball visible with the
naked eye.
Want something bigger? That's when things get scary. Every 2000 years a meteor or asteroid the size of a football field makes it through the atmosphere and causes widespread and catastrophic damage.
Over the course of a few million year extinction level events are possible. Remember dinosaurs? It is believed a meteor struck the Earth near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and wiped out most of the dinosaurs.
Did the Russian meteorite come from the asteroid DA-14 that came so close to the Earth? The European Space Agency say no. But the timing and proximity of these two space events will always be linked in our minds.
Want something bigger? That's when things get scary. Every 2000 years a meteor or asteroid the size of a football field makes it through the atmosphere and causes widespread and catastrophic damage.
Over the course of a few million year extinction level events are possible. Remember dinosaurs? It is believed a meteor struck the Earth near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and wiped out most of the dinosaurs.
Did the Russian meteorite come from the asteroid DA-14 that came so close to the Earth? The European Space Agency say no. But the timing and proximity of these two space events will always be linked in our minds.
Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc.
adapted from NPR
