WOW! Just wow....
 

Obviously, the "shot down" is totally wrong... Local news coming up is going to cover the story. I haven't see anything yet about what altitude it was at.

[YOUTUBE]PXFq-RWdpnI[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]TtOL5OiWTNI[/YOUTUBE]

ETA: Local news gave it 15 seconds, and not even a tie-in with the asteroid close encounter on the morrow. :davieddy:

Allegedly this may have been a little buddy of the 50m asteroid making a close flyby [url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-07/asteroid-s-earth-fly-by-will-traverse-satellite-zone-nasa-says.html]later today[/url]. Cool stuff.


NYT breaking news piece [url=http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/02/15/world/europe/15reuters-russia-meteorite.html?ref=world&_r=0]here.[/url]

Here is a 1080p version of the first video you linked. It looks really spectacular:

[YOUTUBE]7c-0iwBEswE[/YOUTUBE]

We don't know yet, and possibly it will never be completely clear what would have happened without the intervention, but the Russian forces may have successfully prevented a much worse tragedy here than has actually occurred. If so, this is very well done.

My immediate thought is: thank goodness this didn't happen 25+ years ago when (1) the threat of rocks from outer space was not taken anything like as seriously as it is now, and (2) the Cold War was at its height and the US and Russian leaders had their itchy fingers hovering over the launch button of their nuclear warheads.

[QUOTE=schickel;329559]Obviously, the "shot down" is totally wrong... Local news coming up is going to cover the story. I haven't see anything yet about what altitude it was at.[/QUOTE]NBC's science [URL="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16969092-400-injured-as-meteor-fireball-screams-across-sky-in-russia?lite"]blog[/URL] reports the explosion as happening at 10KM (32,800 ft), along with as many as 400 injured, 3 seriously.

Check out the 4:45 YT video on the blog; some amazing footage from street level when the shockwave from the main explosion hit.....I imagine we can look forward to more being posted throughout the weekend. Will also be interesting to see if reports of debris hitting the ground are substantiated.

Livejournal [URL="http://zyalt.livejournal.com/722930.html"]page[/URL] with more videos and stills....

The Dutch news journal NOS took its time to drop the military intervention fable, but it has done now. I was going by that in my previous reaction. Presumably some reporter assumed that the rock must have been fired at since it split into fragments, not realising that the tremendous air resistance can and often does cause this to happen to impacting bolides.

here, BBC article
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21468116[/url]

How big would a meteorite have to be to make it all the way to the ground?

(Assuming it is coming straight down to minimize air resistance.)

:snake1:

[SIZE="1"][COLOR="White"]No one would have believed in the early years of the 21st century that our world was being watched by intelligences greater than our own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns, *they* observed and studied, the way a man with a microscope might scrutinize the creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency, men went to and fro about the globe, confident of our empire over this world. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded our planet with envious eyes and slowly, and surely, drew their plans against us.[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;329587]How big would a meteorite have to be to make it all the way to the ground?

(Assuming it is coming straight down to minimize air resistance.)

:snake1:[/QUOTE]
Depends on all sorts of factors, including its speed relative to the Earth, its composition (this can be hard iron or softer silicate with various gradations), and its angle of entry (affecting the distance travelled through the atmosphere.

Depends of the size you want it to touch the ground.