The meteorite didn't detonate. The explosion sounds are pieces of the meteorite going supersonic/hypersonic velocities with the largest piece having the loudest initial bang.Edit: Large impact crater!
That's okay, I already saw a Russian news article claiming it was a US weapons test.
Residents of a locality 'in the central region of Cuba said they had seen an object that fell from the sky and exploded with a great noise, which shook the houses of the place: it is learned from testimonies collected by local television. In service published this morning by Rodas, town in the province of Cienfuegos, witnesses described a very bright light that has come to have large size, comparable to that of a bus, before exploding in the sky.
Clearly FUD by the Decepticons that just landed.
Quote from: JohnFornaro on 02/15/2013 02:38 pmPRI's news release inflated that estimate:Quote from: LewickiHi there, As you probably have heard, today, February 15th, a 150-foot (45 meter) asteroid is whizzing by the Earth a hair’s breath from the surface. ... -Chris LewickiPresident & Chief Asteroid MinerGood for business.This is unrelated to the meteorite that just impacted. He was talking about 2012 DA14 that is due to have its closest approach with Earth in a few hours.
PRI's news release inflated that estimate:Quote from: LewickiHi there, As you probably have heard, today, February 15th, a 150-foot (45 meter) asteroid is whizzing by the Earth a hair’s breath from the surface. ... -Chris LewickiPresident & Chief Asteroid MinerGood for business.
Hi there, As you probably have heard, today, February 15th, a 150-foot (45 meter) asteroid is whizzing by the Earth a hair’s breath from the surface. ... -Chris LewickiPresident & Chief Asteroid Miner
Hmm, it looks as if Jesse Ventura was right about Bigelow and his alien cronies. I for one welcome our new inflatable expandable overlords!
Visual distance perception of these events is clearly very unreliable. When the meteor is at its brightest, it looks as if it is going to impact very nearby, perhaps even hitting the camera. Once the fireball is over, you can see it is still quite a way off. And judging by the the dispersal of the trail left by the meteorite there must have been a large delay between the impacts and the sonic booms, so most of these clips must have been taken from many tens of kilometers away away. Still, the blast wave is enough to do serious damage.
Yeah, but that's hard to judge from these clips, since most of them show either the flash or the bang, but not both. Still, that by itself gives you a minimum distance for the flashes. For the bangs you can only to try to guess how long it took people to get outside and start filming, or you could guesstimate the delay by the dispersal of the meteorite trail.
http://attivissimo.blogspot.com/2013/02/russian-meteor-path-plotted-in-google.htmlPlot of the meteor's path over russia using weather sat images.
Quote from: kevin-rf on 02/15/2013 03:31 pmThat's okay, I already saw a Russian news article claiming it was a US weapons test.Clearly FUD by the Decepticons that just landed.The good news seems to be that no fatalities reported, and injuries are mostly cuts and bruises only!Question: if this thing would have entered in steeper angle would the damage been much greater but localized?