As reports come in via Twitter, it’s clear the Russian Meteor that flew over Central Russia and apparently landed not far from the town of Chelyabinsk has caused not just damage to buildings, but a injuries to a total number of people that’s grown from 100 to 550 as of this writing.
As you can see in this Zennie62 video…
…the Russian Meteor flew over Central Russia at 9:20 AM, Russian time. As it did, it left a giant vapor trail that was picked up by what the weather monitoring organization EUMETSAT calls the SEVIRI instrument aboard its Meteosat-10 geostationary satellite, and you see in the photo on the right.
The meteor is not the much-talked-about Asteroid 2012 DA14 that’s set to pass within 17,000 miles of Earth today, Friday, February 15th, but the fact that this event’s so close to that forecast date, leaves some causal observers to wonder if the two are related in some way.
While scientist sort that out, Central Russia works to recover from a terror-filled morning. Russia 24 TV reports that 297 apartment buildings were damaged in Chelyabinsk.
Rt.com reports that…
The Russian Urals region has been stricken by a sudden cosmic attack. Unidentified flying objects exploded over several major cities, including Chelyabinsk, where the blast waves blew out windows and disrupted mobile connections.
Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an evaluation of the damage caused by the Russian Meteor, so that it can lead to advance planning measures in the future.
The Russian Military Says The Russian Meteor’s crash crater Is 6 meters in diameter (18 feet), and radiation is at “normal levels” according to RT.com.
No Link With 2012 DS14
European Space Agency Operations (ESA) tweets that there’s no link between this event and the 2012 DS14 Asteroid…
ESA experts at #ESOC confirm *no* link between #meteor incidents in #Russia & #Asteroid #2012DA14 Earth flyby tonite #SSA #NEO
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) February 15, 2013