Russian Meteor

[risingdawn]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21470205

 

Probably not something major to talk about, but I find science quite interesting in terms of things that we both understand and don't understand. This quite appealed to me. It's meant to be the biggest meteor to strike the earth in around a century or so. There's a video of it on the website and I'm sure you can find it on YouTube or something.

 

Anyone ever seen meteors before? In the sky or up close in personal? What do people think about the idea that aliens or something could be living in meteors? (I'm sure this isn't real but you have to admit that the films and stuff that talk about aliens/bacteria coming from meteors is intriguing!) Also, what would you do if a meteor just appeared out of the sky?

 

I personally have never seen a meteor that I can recall. No meteor showers or anything like that. Sure, I've read/heard about them in the news but not seen them with my own eyes. I also think that I would probably crap myself if I saw something like that and didn't fully understand what was going on. It's not everyday this happens and you wouldn't immediately think "HOLY HELL A METEOR"

[bobblybear]

I think it's amazing footage! I've seen a meteor shower before (can't remember which one), when it was supposed to be at it's peak, but we only saw 2 or 3 even though we were in the back garden for a good couple of hours. Apparently they are quite common but as most of them are the size of a grain of sand they never hit the ground. I know there a theory called panspermia that suggests life on Earth was seeded from life on an asteroid that may have hit, but I don't know if that has been discredited or what. I may do some reading on it later today as I find things like that so fascinating.

[Athena]

I've never seen a meteor shower. I have once seen what was I think a solar eclipse? That was quite an amazing experience.

[Argon9]

Yes. I'm happy no one died but oh, an actual meteor! The footage looks fantastic! Despite the demage I keep on thinking that meteors are absolutely awesome. Imagine standing there seeing a meteor the size of a bus comming right at you. Wow.

I've only once watched a meteor shower but I had the date wrong. So I went up the mountain near my home and looked at the winter sky until me and my friend were frozen to the bone. Just when we decided to go back home we both saw a bright flash and a streek acros the nothern sky. The daw after there was a news article in the papers saying that the russians had disposed of an old satilite and that it had burned up in the admosphere a bith north above the place where I had been looking for falling stars. So I never saw a falling star, just a falling russian satilite I've always wondered they grand wishes too.

[Athena]

Call me silly but I didn't know so many people were injured, the poor people .

 

(I assumed the article Chloe (risingdawn) linked related to another article I read, about another meteor)

[risingdawn]

Yeah, so many people got head injuries and stuff due to the impact and the shattering glass. At least nobody was actually killed, as far as I know.

[Athena]

That'd be good .

[Talisman]

I have never seen a meteor shower either - the first time I went to Egypt I spent the night in the desert and saw shooting stars which is probably (maybe not) the closest thing. I have bits of meteor at home called moldavite as part of my crystal collection. The main thing I guess, as others have said is that no one was killed.  

[ian]

The footage that I saw was jaw-dropping. It really was like watching a hollywood disaster film. I have actual seen a meteor myself. Nothing like this one, although highly impressive. I was on holiday in The Black Forest, so very dark, clear skies, when a large green streak went from one side of the sky to another. I stood there for five minutes afterwards, waiting for the bang!