On February 15th, we remember the day that a meteor with 30 times the force of the Hiroshima atomic bomb exploded over Chelyabinsk ten years ago. Then, as seen on the dashcam footage, it exploded with 30 times the force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan during World War II.
Because of the magnitude of the explosion nearby windows exploded and parts of buildings in six Russian cities were destroyed. The meteor whizzed through the night sky and into Russia’s Ural Mountains in the wee hours of the morning, seemingly without warning.
A meteor is the fragment of an asteroid that enters Earth’s atmosphere and burns up as it re-enters the atmosphere. Most asteroids crash into the ocean because Earth is composed of roughly 70% water, but Nasa has stated that the Chelyabinsk meteor was likely a once-in-a-century occurrence.
Eyewitnesses in Chelyabinsk reported that an hour after the meteor’s impact, the city’s air smelled like gunpowder and that the burning odors lingered all day. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister at the time confirmed that a meteor had struck Russia and stressed the need for improved detection methods because the entire planet is at risk from meteors.
After the asteroid hit, 1,500 people were hurt and needed medical attention. The secondary blast effects of shattered or falling glass were responsible for the majority of these injuries. About 180 people experienced discomfort in their eyes from the bright meteor. At least one person did not sadly perish.
How did RMNB Describe Chelyabinsk Meteor?
Fedor, a first commenter of RMNB said:
A day that would go down as one of the most significant in RMNB’s history occurred ten years ago. Fedor recalled seeing a tweet from Alexander Plushev (@Plushev) in Russian that said something had exploded in Chelyabinsk.
Fedor speculated that the hockey game ended at around 5:50 am Moscow time since 3 am Moscow back then was equivalent to 7 pm Eastern. For the first time in a while, Fedor noticed the sun peeking through his window.
The Second Chechen War had ended and the Moscow Metro Bombing which claimed the lives of 39 people had occurred in Russia, but that was several years ago. Despite the rarity, such widespread violence has occurred before.
After considering a military training accident, Fedor concluded that a satellite’s fall from space was the most likely explanation. Fedor’s translated news caught my attention, so I decided to take it to RMNB co-founder Peter Hassett for his opinion.
You know how Russian reports can be, so I wasn’t even sure if it was real and I really wanted to sleep, Fedor explained. Exactly how bad? We looked for posts with the Cyrillic spelling of Chelyabinsk and the city’s nickname, “Chelly” on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. We sifted through all the data being uploaded.
What did RMNB do After they Found Meteor?
Plushev forwarded a tweet from the Ural region’s Emergency Situations Ministry which suggested a scenario we hadn’t thought of. ( check out the tweet below) In spite of a meteor shower that swept through the Chelyabinsk area, no fires broke out. Explosions in Chelyabinsk; Meteor Suspected is the new title for our article.
We started getting a flood of hits. Our story on the Chelyabinsk meteor was trending at the top of Google News results after RMNB was approved as a Google News publisher earlier in the month. When we published the videos and information in English, we were the first to do so.
In those days, Google Translate wasn’t as handy or trustworthy as it is today. Fedor in Russia went to bed at 8 am, while Peter and I in the United States went to sleep at 1 am on February 15. After adding additional details and accounts, such as from Traktor Chelyabinsk goaltender Michael Garnett, we all went to bed.
Meteorite shook Chelyabinsk this morning. Shook my whole building and woke me up! #челябинск http://t.co/x3O0KEQs
— Michael Garnett (@MichaelGarnett) February 15, 2013
In this post, we provide an update on the ten-year anniversary of the Chelyabinsk meteor and additional information about how it has affected RMNB and how they gain experience with it. How about our latest post? You must tell us your response in the comments. Be sure to follow our official Twitter page to stay up-to-date on all of the latest news as it breaks.