The meteor falls

I know you've heard the news by now, but let me flesh it in a bit.  Yesterday morning a 49 ft, 10 ton meteorite exploded some 18 miles or more above the earth over the Ural area of Russia.  Was it bright, you say?



You don't need the whole thing, just scroll up to about the forty-eight second mark.  Was it powerful?  Check this one out:






Was it fatal?  Apparently not, despite almost 50 square miles of window glass being shattered and the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant being destroyed. 

Chelyabinsk news reports that 7200 territorial and another 1300 local police were dispatched to find fragments.  Despite over a thousand injuries, only around 500 required hospitalization, many of them for concussions. Later estimates of hospitalized people ran up to 725.  NASA reported a yield of 500 kilotons- or about 20 Hiroshimas.  And that from an object less than a third of the size of the smallish asteroid that just missed us.

A large hole was blown into the ice of a reservoir near Chebarkul, some fifty miles to the west, but divers were unable to locate any large surviving chunks.  The arena at Chelyabinsk, home to KHL hockey team Traktor, was damaged, but it was apparently limited (according to city officials) to non-load bearing walls and they expect the home playoff opener will be okayed when a final report on the damage is released Monday.

Speaking of which, we are closing in on the end of the KHL regular season, and Lokomotiv seems to be limping to the line after only Vitaly Vishnevsky (2) and Alexander Chernikov (9) scoring in a 5-2 home loss to the "other" Metallurg yesterday, with Vitaly Kolesnik managing only 18 saves.  Lev Prague grabbed the 7th playoff spot in the west, leaving Dinamo Minsk, Atlant, and Donbass fighting for the last spot tomorrow with Minsk holding a 71-70-70 lead and everybody playing different teams.  In the east, Neftekhimik took the last playoff spot yesterday with a 4-1 win over Vityaz.

Lokomotiv will finish second in their division as they faded just as Red Army came on.  But 24-17-10 ain't bad for a team that died in a flaming plane crash just a season ago.