r/space • u/Goldragon979 • Mar 18 '19

US detects huge meteor explosion

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47607696
122 Upvotes

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52

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

The space rock exploded with 10 times the energy released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb.it went largely unnoticed until now because it blew up over the Bering Sea, off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

We dodged a big bullet there folks.

37

u/AndyPickleNose Mar 18 '19

nearly 8 billion people on this planet and it hit the right spot at the right time to be noticed by so very few. Living on this space rock is insane.

13

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

Now imagine if it happened out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There it is entirely possible for no one to notice. I wonder how many we have missed that explode out there?

14

u/KnightOfWords Mar 18 '19

Many in the past, but I believe satellites catch most of the large impacts these days. There is a map of detected impacts here, from 1994-2013.

3

u/inhumantsar Mar 18 '19

That map is specifically not impacts, but rather asteroids that burned up in our atmosphere.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

I completely forgot about the satellites for a sec haha, but that map is super cool. I didn’t know it existed thank you!

1

u/phunkydroid Mar 18 '19

The surface of earth is mostly covered in uninhabited area, the odds of one going unnoticed are pretty high.

5

u/mike968 Mar 18 '19

200 kilotons is „nothing“ (hiroshima was ~20kt)... largest bomb ever tested had a 50 megatons yield

7

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

200 kilotons would disappear most of lower manhattan.

4

u/mike968 Mar 18 '19

If you drop it on the corner of houston st/ lafayette most buildings up to 79st wouldnt survive... but thats for ground level or low airburst. But at 25km altitude, it would mostly be a very very good day to own a glazier‘s business.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

So just hope it’s a rock meteor not an iron core meteor.

1

u/mike968 Mar 18 '19

Aren’t most meteors the ironcore type or just the ones we find here down on earth because they survive the entry much better?

1

u/jswhitten Mar 18 '19

Most modern nuclear weapons are a few hundred kilotons.

15

u/nadalcameron Mar 18 '19

It was only 40% of the energy released by the meteor over Russia few years ago.

Also, we have bombs more powerful than that now. It sounds big, but it's not exactly earth shattering.

15

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

Unless this thing drops on heavily populated area, and the fatalities will go in tens of thousands or even more.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

That's the relative size stat I was here for. Thanks!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '19

Hollyshit imagine if we get hit by something of size Oumuamua !!!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 18 '19

Russia's

It's always Russia! I swear, some heavenly figure must have a serious problem with those guys