Early this morning (February 15, 2013) a meteor estimated to weigh 10 - 11 tons broke up over a city in Russia. Over 400 people are said to be injured from this event. The injuries, however, are not the result of pieces of the meteor hitting people. The meteor broke up several miles above the ground, creating a large shock wave that caused exploding windows/glass. Most of the injuries are the secondary result of glass shards striking people. Fortunately no deaths are being reported at this time.
There is also some amazing video footage of the meteor streaking through the sky. Check it out.
Meteor Breaks up in Sky over Russia
This is an excellent opportunity to explain to your kids that sometimes "rocks" do fall from the sky. Anytime you see a shooting star in the sky, you are observing a small piece of debris entering Earth's atmosphere. Most of this debris burns up in the atmosphere and never reaches the ground. It is being reported that the meteor from this morning did not completely burn up and some pieces did reach the ground.
This is also a good opportunity to explain to your kids the importance of funding asteroid searches so that we know when something is about to hit the Earth. If we know ahead of time, there might be something we can do to deflect the asteroid before it strikes the Earth. We know that Earth has been hit by large objects in the past. We know that these large objects can destroy most life on Earth, including humans. We also know that we will be hit by a large asteroid in the future. We just don't know when that will happen.
Important!!! This meteor is NOT related to the asteroid passing within 17,000 miles of Earth today. These are two unrelated events.
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