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Meteorite crash in Russia

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Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#281

Post by madaxe »

lutorm wrote: post #278
madaxe wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gazelle does at least 5.5km/s.

But how long does it take to get to that speed?

By the time its left the silo. Russians are dead keen on their one-shot silos packed to the gills with various devices (pneumatic, hydraulic, explosive) to bring a missile up to ludicrous speed very, very quickly.

Spent a very enlightening afternoon down an old bunker near pervomaisk.

Found some stats in the tourist brochure from there. 9.4m high,1.1m dia, 4km/s in 4s, which gives an acceleration if about 102g. 80-100km range. Max speed 7km/s. "directional blast" also, which is interesting.

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#282

Post by madaxe »

vitalique wrote: post #263
mietek wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A satan? Can you explain?

SS-18 'Satan' is a NATO designation for Soviet/Russian ICBM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS-18

You haven't lived until you've sat on top of one (on its side!) waving a cowboy hat. Fond memories... Although I now also remember my lunch of various animal tubes on the same day. Damnitall.

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#283

Post by [deleted] »

jlgreco wrote: post #277
madaxe wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They experimented with it, publicly declared it a success, but said they weren't going to do it, and proceeded to use the tech on the far side of the country. Pechora-Kama I think was the original project. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but the locals I've met (Kazakhstan) insist that they did.

Didn't the US experiment with it as well? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plowshare It wouldn't surprise me if the Russians were looking at the same thing, but it should leave some fairly telling clues behind. At the very least you can see plowshare craters littering Nevada on google maps (in a nice grid pattern in some areas, just search for "Sedan crater" and zoom out a little), I would expect similar to be…

[deleted]

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#284

Post by ChuckMcM »

Zancarius wrote: post #276
ChuckMcM wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And looking at the flash, and the effects (or not) that it had on the solid state imagers, I think we can rule out a nuclear intercept. My reasoning is that a 10kT nuclear detonation @ 20km would toast any unprotected CCD or CMOS image element looking at it.

I assume there would have also been a detectable gamma burst that Western satellites would've picked up if they're trained on the region.

There was an interesting (if short) conversation on another list about how the US was able to spot small scale nuclear events (even things like a criticality event in a poorly shielded reactor) The speculation revolved around some unidentified sensors that were on the GPS satellite at the San Diego Air & Space museum, since removed (the sensors not the model)) and the way in which GPS satellites could tell you where things were relative to them, just as easily as your car can figure out where it is relative to the satellite.

There are a number of monitoring systems spelled out in the various disarmament treaties, and the infrasound sensors were part of the test ban treaty, so I don't doubt that if there had been a nuclear component, someone would know about it :-)

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#285

Post by davesims »

mmastrac wrote: post #31

Here's a collection of insane videos of the event, some with the enormous sonic boom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIAm5hq8WWc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0cRHsApzt8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_mpGYSBSA Can anyone translate what they are saying in the first one? You can get a good idea of the new videos being posted using YouTube's "last hour" filter: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%D0%BC%D0%…

Wow, check out the pressure wave (I assume) that moves the camera dramatically forward just before the blast is heard. That was one big freakin bang.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np_mpGYSBSA&t=0m26s

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#286

Post by lifeisstillgood »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #204
SteveC wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be a case where the driver would be expected to take over.

Car Voice: Yebat! There's a freaking asteroid heading down the road. On the wrong side! Bloody Thrun never had a test case for this. Sod it. You drive .... :-) Thank you, I needed a good laugh Edit: I have real work I should be doing: http://i.imgur.com/usRX31z.jpg

Having now caught up on the actual damage done (500 injured, thousands without windows in a Russian winter) I regret this light-hearted take - please consider it deleted until I can find some way to actually delete it.

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#287

Post by Ingaz »

danielweber wrote: post #266
JPKab wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone please enlighten me, because I was under the impression that there is no ABM system on the planet capable of intercepting, let alone destroying, a large rock moving at 10km/second. I'm not saying its impossible, but it just seems to me that there is a lot of misinformation as to what actually happened.

I'm skeptical there exists a system to automatically fire nukes at something and it has never had a false positive. Especially (chauvinistically) under control of the Russians through the fall of the the USSR. I'm not sure a terrestrial power could do this without being way visible ahead of time.

I agree with you. Even (not chauvinistacally) under control of the USA, EU, China, Japan, India or Australia.

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#288

Post by pacomerh »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #156
pacomerh wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why some of the people are still listening to the radio and so uninterested.

The number 1 most important factor in dealing with emergencies is recognizing that an emergency is happening in the first place. It's easy to get mislead by movies and tv and the way things happen and the way people react. In reality things don't work that way. It can sometimes be difficult to tell when an emergency is happening, and a lot of people won't pay enough attention. How often do people ignore fire alarms,…

Totally agree, and also I think that we might be embarrassed to look too paranoid in case the event wasn't that alarming.

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#289

Post by mynameishere »

dredmorbius wrote: post #168
InclinedPlane wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number 1 most important factor in dealing with emergencies is recognizing that an emergency is happening in the first place. It's easy to get mislead by movies and tv and the way things happen and the way people react. In reality things don't work that way. It can sometimes be difficult to tell when an emergency is happening, and a lot of people won't pay enough attention. How often do people ignore fire alarms,…

This in spades. Emergencies aren't announced as they are in Hollywood movies with dramatic music and leading actors. The most striking thing about many disasters is how mundane they are, and how slow people, even those aware of the situation and its gravity, are to respond. Spend some time watching videos of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and what I'm most struck with is how long people act as if things are n…

What the hell are you guys talking about? The people on the ground thought a nuclear war was beginning. People in their cars probably thought a plane was crashing--no need for the driver to react.

Re: Meteorite crash in Russia

#290

Post by jacquesm »

ra wrote: post #219
madaxe wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is true, they've been lobbing nukes - their principal ABM for ICBMs/fast re-entry is the Gazelle - 10kt warhead.

I wonder if it's possible that it was an automated response? Some combination of mass and speed detected by radar (or satellite?) triggering an S2A response.

Not a chance. Taking into account:

   - the size of Russia

   - The range of surface to air missiles

   - the chance of missing an object that does not give off
     a heat signature until it is about to hit.
Any kind of suggestion that we have the tech or the means (financially) to do this for a large chunk of the planet is nonsense, and for a smaller area the odds of hitting something are probably so bad that it isn't worth it.
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