MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) – A 15-meter (approximately 50
feet) asteroid, similar to the one that exploded above Russia in
February, was detected hours before it narrowly missed the Earth over
the weekend, Russian scientists said.
Vladimir Lipunov of the Moscow State University and the Sternberg
Astronomical Institute said on Sunday a network of telescopes operated
by his team recorded a celestial body approaching the planet.
"[The asteroid] was discovered on Friday night by our station near
Lake Baikal and nine hours later it flew within 11,300 kilometers of the
Earth surface, below the orbit of geostationary satellites. It was
about 15 meters in size,” he said.
The scientists originally thought that it could be a man-made object,
such as a spent rocket booster, but rejected the idea when they
couldn’t find a match in the space junk catalogue....
I didn't know space junk had a catalog.
By Ben Sutherly
The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday September 29, 2013 8:15 AM
...“The initial trajectory (click here) suggests it passed over Columbus, Ohio, moving slightly north of west,”
Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office told
The Dispatch in an email. Cooke said there were some reports of sounds similar to sonic
booms, which suggests some of the fireball’s fragments made it to fairly low altitudes.
NASA’s meteor camera in Ohio and Pennsylvania first detected it at 67 miles up, and it began
breaking apart 41 miles above the earth. Cooke said it’s not yet certain, but it’s unlikely that
the fireball produced meteorites on the ground given the “tremendous” speed at which it was
moving....
