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A large meteor or meteors entered the atmosphere near Russia's Chelyabinsk region hours before closest approach of asteroid 2012 DA14. Initial claims are that the two are unrelated; the above link says "The European Space Agency posted a message on its Twitter account saying that there was no link between the Russian meteor and asteroid 2012 DA14."

The coincidence of what appears to be a once-in-a-few-decades meteor and the closest known passing of a significant asteroid is curious. Were there characteristics of the Russian event that definitively rule out a connection with 2012DA14?

Larry OBrien
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    Actually, it was American secret weapon. NOT KIDDING: http://www.mignews.com/news/society/world/150213_102522_30471.html (English about the same: http://rt.com/politics/zhirinovsky-meteorite-american-weapon-316/) – user5341 Feb 15 '13 at 17:12
  • what is being skeptic here? This is just a news item. They were two different objects which came around the same time. They both were coming from different direction. So not it was not fragment of DA14. – TheTechGuy Feb 15 '13 at 17:57
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    The skepticism is that the two are unrelated. If the directions are incompatible, that would be precisely the sort of thing I would accept as an answer. – Larry OBrien Feb 15 '13 at 18:38
  • @Chad Why isn't the ESA's "there was no link" a valid claim of which to be skeptical? – Larry OBrien Feb 15 '13 at 20:03
  • @Chad - Edited the question per your suggestion. – Larry OBrien Feb 15 '13 at 20:09
  • I am going to cite the ESA tweek saying no as proof of it :p – Chad Feb 15 '13 at 20:12
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    Actually in USA they believe that it's caused by global warming ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObU7awpJctQ – vartec Feb 15 '13 at 20:48
  • I'd prefer the (emerging) evidence that the Russian meteor came in from a direction incompatible with the orbit of 2012 DA14. :-) – Larry OBrien Feb 15 '13 at 20:49
  • +1 Larry, but I have heard that meteor was been crashed by a weapon during the collission. – Carlo Alterego Feb 15 '13 at 20:53
  • It has to be asked - if you don't believe the ESA, what would convince you that they are unrelated? – DJClayworth Feb 15 '13 at 21:38
  • @DJClayworth Isn't "the ESA says so" just an appeal to authority? I'm surprised that on a site devoted to skepticism there's so little interest in confirming a multi-thousand to one coincidence is just that. (To directly answer your question, I could imagine "Establish meteor entered N-S, show asteroid's orbital params are E-W" <-- I just made up these directions, but I think something like this is emerging.) – Larry OBrien Feb 15 '13 at 22:00
  • That's a good speech Larry: but who would you believe about the meteor's orbit? Or for that matter the orbit of 2012DA14? – DJClayworth Feb 16 '13 at 03:59
  • Here is some good words from an astronomer: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/18/asteroids_and_meteors_why_are_we_suddenly_seeing_so_many.html Not really and answer, but at least good info. – JasonR Feb 19 '13 at 14:45

2 Answers2

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Coincidence or related?

According to Nature a Canadian astronomer agrees with ESA's conclusions

"It was a very, very powerful event," says Margaret Campbell-Brown, an astronomer at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada, who has studied data from two infrasound stations near the impact site. Her calculations show that the meteoroid was approximately 15 metres across when it entered the atmosphere, and put its mass at around 7,000 metric tonnes. "That would make it the biggest object recorded to hit the Earth since Tunguska," she says.

...

The European Space Agency does not think that the meteor is related to a much larger asteroid known as 2012 DA14, which will be passing within about 20,000 kilometres of Earth later today. Both the timing of the meteor's appearance and its location indicate that it came from a different direction, Klinkrad says. Campbell-Brown agrees: "We happened to have close approaches to two of them, and one of them got us," she says.

(my emphasis)

NASA agree with the ESA

Editor's Note: NASA statement on Russia meteor: "According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russia meteor was significantly different than the trajectory of the asteroid 2012 DA14, making it a completely unrelated object. Information is still being collected about the Russia meteor and analysis is preliminary at this point. In videos of the meteor, it is seen to pass from left to right in front of the rising sun, which means it was traveling from north to south. Asteroid DA14's trajectory is in the opposite direction, from south to north."

What is a meteor?

A small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth's atmosphere, appearing as a streak of light.

How common are meteors?

The Chelyabinsk meteor was the largest for 104 years, but meteors in general are commonplace.

The International Meteor Organisation says

The VMDB contains about 3,000,000 meteors obtained by standardized observing methods which were collected during the last ~25 years.

RedGrittyBrick
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Chelyabinsk wasn't the only fireball reported on the same day that DA14 passed by. I don't know if I believe Frank Davis that most of them actually were related to DA14 in some way, but he has a couple possible explanations for the different trajectories. And these are supported by his computer models. If there's a chance that he's right it means that near-miss asteroids can be accompanied by such events -- meaning a serious risk when Apophis passes in 2029. If he's wrong , I'd like to see NASA or someone specifically debunk his models.

https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/rock-cloud-strike/

https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/hunting-for-che/

https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/a-different-health-risk/

-- Jim Burrill

Jim Burrill
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  • You may have a good point, but it would be helpful to include some detail from your links in your answer (eg as block quotes). this makes it easier for others to assess your argument. – matt_black Nov 23 '13 at 13:36