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Explosions in Chelyabinsk; Meteor Suspected (UPDATED)

By Peter Hassett

 1 Comment

February 14, 2013 12:24 am

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LATE UPDATE: No immediate confirmed reports of casualties. See the AP for more information.

We’re getting all kinds of information about explosions in Chelyabinsk, the city in the Ural region of Russia that hosts Evgeny Kuznetsov’s KHL team. Information is sparse right now, and we do not want to speculate.

Windows have been blown out. The sky is streaked with contrails. Evacuations are underway.

Michael Garnett, goalie for Chelyabinsk, is okay:

We’ll update this post when we have actual facts. For now we just hope everyone is safe.

From Phil Plait of Slate

Phil Plait of Slate published this article on his Bad Astronomy blog on Monday:

On Friday, Feb. 15, the Earth is going to get a very close shave by an asteroid*. Called 2012 DA14, this 50 meter (160 foot) rock will pass just over 27,000 kilometers (17,000 miles) from the Earth’s surface. This is closer than our geosynchronous satellites, so this really is a close pass!

But, to be very clear: This asteroid poses no threat to us right now, nor in the foreseeable future. Friday’s miss is just that: a miss. And, in fact, this is a good thing, since any time an asteroid gets close (but misses), we learn a lot, including how to find them, how to track them, and even how to talk about them to the public.

Plait responds to the news:

Plait continues to dismiss a connection to DA14. See his feed for more.

More Tweets, Images, and Links

Here’s the host of Echo on Moscow radio, Alexander Plushev. He is relaying early information from major Russian news agencies.

RMNB translation: Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ural Region: meteorite rain over Chelyabinsk Region, no fire

Voice of Russia has an item about the Chelyabinsk Event

An emergency official tells Reuters:

It was definitely not a plane. We are gathering the bits of information and have no data on the casualties so far.

UPDATE: This is a photo of a zinc plant in Chelyabinsk. There is no possibility of a zinc leak right now.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland and Fedor Fedin.

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