1,100 injured as meteor explodes in Russia

Windows break; panic spreads

MOSCOW (AP) – With a blinding flash and a booming shock wave, a meteor blazed across the western Siberian sky Friday and exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs, injuring more than 1,000 people as it blasted out windows and spread panic in a city of 1 million.

While NASA estimated the meteor was only about the size of a bus and weighed an estimated 7,000 tons, the fireball it produced was dramatic. Video shot by startled residents of the city of Chelyabinsk showed its streaming contrails as it arced toward the horizon just after sunrise, looking like something from a world-ending science-fiction movie.

The largest recorded meteor strike in more than a century occurred hours before a 150-foot asteroid passed within about 17,000 miles of Earth. The European Space Agency said its experts had determined there was no connection between the asteroid and the Russian meteor – just cosmic coincidence.

Story Archived

Only the most recent 7 days of articles are available for free. For articles older than 7 days there is a small fee for retrieval from our archive. If you are a registered member of the site, the content is free just by signing in below.

Please sign in with your Comment Member ID and password.

Did you purchase access?

Member ID:
Password:
Forgot Your Password?
Register to comment.

Purchase Access
To allow for flexibility, we offer a variety of options for purchasing articles:
Purchase options


Having trouble?

If you have any technical difficulties, either with your username and password or with the payment options, please contact us by e-mail at archivedesk@shawmedia.com

Blogs

» Business Bits
Business Bits

Sauk Valley Bank opens new branch

STERLING – Sauk Valley Bank newest branch is open at 3319 E. Lincolnway.
» Reciprocity
Reciprocity

Drill

It was easy to get distracted by the performance of it all. The active shooter drill held by Sterling and County Police last week at the high school. The scenario; two armed shooters in the school killing students and teachers and the police and medical technician's response. It's an unfortunate drill, but a necessary one. In the hallways a Halloween mentality took over, especially when the ketchup-blood concoction was applied on the students. Small talk and "what I'm going to do" plans were passed around freely between laughs and odors of the sickly sweet blood stand-in. It was an odd contrast between real and imaginary, one I'm sure psychologists will explain to be a type of coping mechanism. I took these "portraits" of the injured and de

Reader Poll

The federal government announced that it monitors the telephone records of millions of Americans as it tries to detect terrorist plots. Do you support this program?

Yes
No