NASA Statement on the Russian Meteor

 According to NASA scientists, the trajectory of the Russian 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 Russian 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.

60 thoughts on “NASA Statement on the Russian Meteor”

  1. did you inform this meteorite was going to hit the Earth and damage a lot of buildings in Russia and possibly injured people?
    thank you in advance.

  2. Now was this considered a meteor, or a meteorite? I can see the chunks found on the ground being classified as meteorites, but as the trajectory was a such a shallow arch compared to the Earth’s surface, wouldn’t it be considered a meteor as it’s “life-span” would have it disintegrate before impact?

  3. Is it possible that it deviated its trajectory because of the gravitational pull of Earth and not approaching from a differrent direction as stated?

  4. windows are broken in hospitals and institutions бласт. there were many fragments of windows, and about 500-800 people ask to hospital with wounds.

  5. We heard from people on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, that the Russian meteor was seen passing over St. Lawrence Island.

  6. Hello,

    I just do not understand how this particular Asteroid went undetected? We seem to know nothing about outer-space. How do we know so much but miss this one? My answer is this Astroid came from further than we have explored. This is scary, we need to keep better visuals on our surrounding Outer space.

  7. Why did you say, that meteror went fron north to south?

    In Russia, we know, that meteor had gone from south to north!!!

    I try to find links.

  8. But if the meteor swung around the earth, it would pass in any other direction depending upon where it entered earth’s gravity field.

  9. Cuba is also reporting contact and a hit. Is there any confirmation of that? It would be interesting to know if the composition of this metorite resembles the asteroid?
    Hopefully these two events will wake up congress and expand NASAs budget for these searches.
    What a surprise! Definately can rearrange the front lawn.

  10. It wasn’t noticed until it hit the atmosphere for a combination of reasons:

    1. There is far more space to watch for incoming rocks than there is capacity to watch.
    2. Apparently it was orbiting at a high tilt from the ecliptic plane, which is unusual enough that watching that area isn’t very productive: asteroids in such orbits are relatively rare and generally smaller than the ones in “flatter” orbits.
    3. The high tilt also means that it probably spent most of its existence very far away from Earth.
    4. It was small. http://www.nature.com/news/russian-meteor-largest-in-a-century-1.12438 puts the estimate at 15 meters across and quotes the director of the Minor Planet Center as saying that it would have been impossible to see more than a couple of days away.
    5. Objects on an imminent collision path get harder to detect as such as they approach. Asteroid detection is mostly based on finding objects that have apparent motion relative to the background of stars, but that motion is a function of the angle between the vector of real motion and the direction to the observer.

  11. Is there a place to report seeing the meteor on Nasa’s site? I live in the Pacific Northwest USA and I may have seen it as it was travelling through the atmosphere towards Russia.

  12. ” Significantly different TO the trajectory” etc. It’s lucky that your expertise in telemetry exceeds your command of English, or Curiosity might still be flying….

  13. NASA need to be equipped with better equipment to be able to see this coming. I this was to hit in teh center of a big city ianywhere int eh World, the city will be devastated aned there will be tremendious amount of csualties.
    I know one thing fro sure, that if we were warned 2 month ahead of time that a big meteor was to hit the earth and destroy it completelt, this World would be a much pecaseful place. People will stop fighting and start doing the right things.

  14. can somebody tell that NASA didn’t know about it ?
    and why didn’t warning the Russian about it ?

  15. I hope those who are asking why NASA did not “see” this are very aware that the current Administration of the USA is defunding the space agency. That being said I hope they realise that we really don’t have control over Russian (or Cuban) airspace.

  16. I find it ironic and immensely frustrating that so many people within the US want to cut NASA’s budget but then complain that NASA should have warned them of this event. There is no free lunch…

    Anyway, this was a spectacularly rare event that I am grateful for having the opportunity to see it through various online sources.

  17. Does a shock wave of that size compress the atmosphere enough to cause enough precipitation for a meteorological pulse doppler radar to detect?
    Would a computer program be able to predict where this shock wave and potential meteorite would impact?
    Could it be fast enough to send an alarm to the impact area with enough time to maybe move away from the windows?

  18. Didn’t NASA’s space telescopes or the Russian radars see the meteorite that blew up over Chelyabinsk before it entered the earth’s atmosphere? They saw the asteroid 2012 DA 14 last year and estimated its fly-by to the day (02/15/2013 at 2:25 pm EST).

  19. Would a shock wave that size compress enough of the atmosphere and cause enough precipitation for a meteorological pulse doppler radar to detect?
    Could a computer program predict, from the shape and direction of the precipitation, where and when the shock wave and potential meteorite would impact?

  20. You never hear the shot that hits you.
    That said.
    This incident may, and I say may in respect to earthquakes and hurricanes, bring a little more attention to the sience.
    We can only hope.

  21. But if the meteorite that fell in Russia orbited around 2012 DA14 as a satellite, the trajectory is reversed with respect to the asteroid. This explains the relatively low rate of entry into the atmosphere.

  22. why nasa couldn’t predict this dangereous event and ask the people leave the dangereous area???

  23. How can it be determined that the meteor was an unrelated event?
    This is an event that more than likely occurred as a result of a single event out in the asteroid belt.
    I share this opinion because I think we wre rubber necking and got caught gawking at the larger object.
    If I were to put into boxing terms?
    We were watching the right hand and got hit with the left.

  24. The asteroid 2012 DA14 was expected to pass above Indian Ocean on 14 February 2013. The meteor, which fell in Russia on 13 February 2013, was not expected. Most scientists have expressed that the befallen meteor was not related to the expected asteroid and it was only a coincidence that these two events happened almost concurrently.
    If the expected asteroid 2012 DA14 were not same as the meteor fallen in Russia, scientists would have observed the asteroid somewhere nearby its expected location sometime on its expected day. However, there was no solid observation of such an event. If the meteor fallen in Russia were not same as the expected asteroid, scientists would have observed the meteor long before its falling. However, there was no observation of such an event. Based on this, it is reasonable to conjecture that the befallen meteor is same as the expected asteroid.
    The asteroid 2012 DA14 was expected to travel from north to south. The befallen meteor traveled from south to north. Based on this difference in their directions, scientists have ruled out any relation between the two. However, as explained below, this difference in their directions does not prove that they are different objects.
    Even though the asteroid was tiny and moving at a great speed, the gravitational force between the Earth and the asteroid can change the asteroid’s trajectory. The probability of such a change in the asteroid’s trajectory can be quite significant. It is likely that the duration and magnitude of such a change were too small to be picked up by today’s computational resources.
    It is possible that when the asteroid entered into the Earth’s vicinity, it got a sudden gyroscopic deflection by the Earth’s rotation and its speed. This gyroscopic deflection changed its direction, as observed in the befallen meteor.
    Because of this change in direction, the asteroid got a great frictional resistance as it moved further into the Earth’s vicinity. This friction chipped off its outer layers and reduced its size and mass. This explains why the befallen meteor was smaller than the expected asteroid.
    It was possible for the asteroid to carry some electrically charged layer and a resultant magnetism. This magnetism and the Earth’s magnetism could have created an attractive force, in addition to the gravitational drift.
    Based on this, it is logical to state that the meteor fallen in Russia was same as and/or a byproduct of the expected asteroid 2012 DA14.

  25. Why didn’t NASA or any space agency took the idea of attaching a monitor to the DA14 asteroid that flew near above Earth? It would have been great to space exploration to have a monitor attached to Asteroid DA14 as it roam around the universe.

  26. Does the date or timeline of the Feb. 15 Russian meteorite strike have any relation to previous earth strikes? In other words does it have anything to do with the 1908 strike in Russia? What was the date and time of that strike and the direction of entry? Similarly are there any parallels to previous strikes based on time and angle of decent which might indicate a cluster of debris in a specific location in earth’s orbit that could indicate a large debris cluster in a certain periodic earth orbit location? JK

  27. COULD IT B POSSIBLE SOMETHING ELSE TOOK FULL ADVANTAGE OF THIS EVENT? SOME THINGS DON,T ADD UP-THE VAPOR TRAIL LOOKS LIKE IT HAS BEEN SLOWLY DISSIPATING-AND THEN U HEAR THE SONIC BOOM-IN OTHER VIDEO THE OBJECT SPEEDS ACROSS THE SKY-LEAVING VERY LITTLE OF A VAPOR TRAIL IF NONE AT ALL!AND HOW WERE THE RUSSIANS ABLE 2 TRACK THE LANDING SO QUICKLY WHEN THEY NEVER SEEN IT COMING?-NOT 2 MENTION HOW PERFECTLY ROUND THE HOLE IN THE ICE LAKE IS?IF A METEOR BREAKS UP THERE SHOULD BE MORE EVIDENCE THAN A PERFECT -DISC SHAPED HOLE-U WOULD THINK-THIS SEEMS 2 B 2 EASILY EXPLAINED AWAY.FEEDBAK ANYONE? IF THIS COMMENT RAISES 2 MUCH CONTROVERSY-THEN I WILL NOT EXPECT IT 2 B POSTED-IN WHICH CASE U WILL HAVE ANSWERED SOME OF MY QUESTIONS-THANX

  28. Just seems odd to me that they could see one but not the other.With all this sophisticated equipment we supposedly have,doesn’t leave me with much confidence that we would even be warned of such things.Even though the path may be unpredictable exactly surely they had to have seen this.

  29. The Tunguska meteor created havoc to vegetation.
    I dont understand this one though of lesser size could not make a similar impact on lesser scale.
    It may be noted that mass of meteor has been upscaled to 10,000 tons and energy to 500 kilotons.
    If this much energy generates only shockwave amounting to breaking of glass windows, then there is nothing to worry except from meteor shower directly hitting buildings.
    Why impact of this 10,000 tons meteor is so less.. a six meter hole in ice and breaking of glass windows.
    If so, then we need not worry of grave consequences from such 1000 tons meteor at all. Is it due to low angle or airburst at remote location?

  30. “Why NASA was not aware of the Russian meteor?”
    Just a few centuries back, we believed the Earth to be flat and the center of the Universe. Our advancements of landing on the Moon, traveling to other planets, and keeping objects floating in the sky are just amazing.
    It is frustrating, but not surprising, that NASA and other space observatories could not predict the recent Russian meteor. There are too many events going on inside the space [and human bodies], but resources available to scientists [and doctors] are limited.
    Let us not forget the Uncertainty Principle. Though it works at microscopic levels, a microscopic uncertainty can amplify and manifest at macroscopic levels. Instead of saying that a space object will take a certain trajectory for sure, scientists should say that the probability of a space object taking a certain trajectory is so much.

  31. Which wavelength would be best suitable to detect cold objects in the solar system? I know RF frequencies can detect some objects but is it the best for a possible high resolution survey within a distance of, lets say, 1 light year relative to Earth’s orbit?

  32. why the Great NASA could not aware about this small object coming to the earth atmosphere. its unbelieavable.

  33. what is the name of the meteor that fell at russia lately?
    may you please put it?
    thanks, God bless you…

  34. i think nasa knew about the meteriode you have all the tecnolgy that money can buy and you can’t find that imagen if there was somthing bigger out there coming towards here and you still don’t know it i don;t fell that your putting all your efferot so if something happends to me cause of another asteroide its going to be your fault

  35. Know trajectory of the Russian meteor’s?
    No.
    Known trajectory of his fall!
    According to very preliminary and inaccurate data.
    Could he be a DA14 satellite?
    I think it should be thoroughly checked by to more complete data.

  36. Nasa why didnt u tell us this didnt happen?
    Is the world going to end?
    i want to know because i got things to go before i die so please say the truth.
    Thank you

  37. Gentlemen:

    The complete trajectories of both objects for the last two months should be correctly calculated and displayed for all the public to see.

    That will lay all these questions to rest.

    It is disappointing that NASA is apparently not able to accurately calculate and plot these trajectories.

    This to say nothing of the fact that NASA located the asteroid before its approach but could not locate the meteorite before its impact, which was one-third the size of the asteroid.

    I request that NASA prepare a detailed report comparing the two trajectories, fully explaining whether the two objects are related or not.

    Sincerely yours,
    Caleb Boone,
    Hays, Kansas.

  38. No your view optimistic my friend. Look how people act in the movies, choas. If you assume everyone would be at peace you are wrong. Some people are even atheist and believe in no god, or no after life. So how would they act? What would make them want to act right? We should be doing that anyway. I think if a major announcement came that the life would end on earth in 6 months. It would be complete and utter choas for some. Not all but some.

    In Response to Ali:
    “24 On Feb 15, 2013 03:12:34 PM Ali added a comment on your blog post.
    NASA need to be equipped with better equipment to be able to see this coming. I this was to hit in teh center of a big city ianywhere int eh World, the city will be devastated aned there will be tremendious amount of csualties.
    I know one thing fro sure, that if we were warned 2 month ahead of time that a big meteor was to hit the earth and destroy it completelt, this World would be a much pecaseful place. People will stop fighting and start doing the right things.

  39. Due to recent events for example the meteor that hit in Russia, what are NASA scientists or NASA in general doing for the future?

  40. Have these items been determined, and if so, how?

    Composition
    Original mass
    Distribution of mass and in what form.
    Rate of heating due to friction with atmosphere.
    Velocity.
    Rate of change of velocity and acceleration.

    Are there mathematical descriptions available?

    Thanks.

  41. The Russian meteorite could be a piece of debris from DA14, lazily orbiting DA14 with an orbital radius that grows with time — if for instance it happened to break off or get smacked off with sufficient escape velocity. That it would therefore hit earth from a direction different from that of DA14 in no way eliminates the possibility of a causal relation, it depends solely on the orbit of the debris about the asteroid.

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