Meteor explodes over Russia
Object unrelated to February 15 asteroid flyby
By Andrew Grant
Mother Nature took earthlings by surprise by exploding a meteor in the skies over Russia Friday morning. The boom occurred just hours before a much larger object was scheduled to pass the planet uneventfully at a distance of about 27,000 kilometers.
The Russian meteor has no connection to the asteroid 2012 DA14, which will reach its closest point to Earth at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.
“The fireball is not related in any way to 2012 DA14,” says Paul Chodas, a planetary scientist with NASA’s Near Earth Object Program in Pasadena, Calif. He says the meteor was about a quarter the size of DA14, which is 50 meters across.