I got these panoramas of the Main Reading Room and the Great Hall:
…while Human Understanding looked down from The Dome:
The Main Reading Room was crowded with people all interested in seeing this chamber normally closed off most of the year. TV screens fed information to the general area, while a Flickr Meetup easel offered a gathering point for photographers.
The old card stacks were open to the public, too, and I found the Philippines:
Always an amazing place; it never fails to give me massive visual information overload.
A small asteroid named 2012 DA14 flew close by Earth on Friday 13 Feb 2013, flying south to north, 17,200 miles from the surface at closest approach: much closer than the moon and even within the orbits of farther-out geostationary satellites. This was going to be the live space event of the month — until it was upstaged by the unrelated Russian meteorite earlier that day.
A meteor (or bolide, the term for a bright, exploding fireball) exploded in the sky over Russia, with a bright flash of light and multiple loud bangs seen and heard in Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains. The shockwave injured people and caused light damage to structures in the city. Since dashboard cameras are so prevalent in Russia, many drivers caught the early morning fireball:
This is one of my favorites, as the split screen lets you see both the meteor and the driver’s reaction:
Rumors are flying in the early hours after the incident, but there’s some comprehensive photo and video aggregation of the fireball and its aftermath on Say26, RMNB, Zyalt LJ (some funny images towards the end of that latter post). Take with grains of salt all around. The Russian hashtag челябинск is also interesting (and occasionally hilarious) to watch.
Phil Plait (aka Bad Astronomer) has some preliminary analysis, with more media, including these clips with the sound of the explosion, and the shattering glass that followed:
Multiple sources mention that this building was a zinc factory (?) in Chelyabinsk that was struck by meteorite fragments, but I’m skeptical, seeing as how the trail went over the city. I find it more likely that the building was damaged in a fire related to the shockwave:
Coincidentally, this comes the night before Asteroid 2012 DA14 swings close by Earth, just 17,200 miles from the surface — closer than the moon and geosynchronous satellites. There’s a temptation to think of a certain asteroid movie, but this meteorite is probably an unrelated coincidence. 2012 DA14 is approaching from a complete other direction: south, and this meteor was in the northern hemisphere.
Updates:
NASA JPL analysis of the meteorite showed this was unrelated to the 2012 DA14 asteroid flyby. (Simply explained with this graphic from Alice’s Astro Info) The meteorite had an estimated size of 17 meters, mass of 7,000 to 10,000 tons, and its primary explosion in the atmosphere had an equivalent yield of about 500 kilotons.
(I was skeptical about the 500 kt energy release estimate, seeing as how the Ivy King air-detonated nuclear test was of similar yield, but Chip Legett set me right with a reminder that the explosion was much higher in the atmosphere than the Ivy King blast, and exploding meteors release energy in a different way from nuclear devices.)
@brownpau @vnangia @ageekmom 500kt is very reasonable. Remember inverse square law. I.king was near surface, not 30kft @ burst (cont.)
On Meteors and Megatons — more from Nuclear Secrecy on the problems with measuring meteorite impact events in terms of nuclear weapons yield equivalents.
From two weeks later, Additional Details on the Large Fireball Event over Russia on Feb. 15, 2013. The word “superbolide” is used. Approximate total impact energy was estimated at 440 kt, with qualifications about the difference between that and radiated energy. Based on composition and orbit the fireball was definitely not associated with 2012 DA14.
Google’s Lost Social Network. I am not on board with the term “sharebros,” but I still use Google Reader, and have found Google Plus to be mostly bitter disappointment.
America’s Real Criminal Element: Lead. Kevin Drum on the interesting correlations between criminal activity and environmental lead from gasoline emissions and paint in the 20th Century.
Rob Liefeld’s Sharper Image. His comic art has been roundlymocked for anatomical weirdness, but Rob Liefeld has made a successful business out of licensing his creations to independent artists, resulting in diverse — and sellable — superhero titles and storylines.
I took these three photos within five days of each other, from Jan 25 to Jan 30, 2013, at the outlet of Rock Creek and the C&O Canal to the Potomac River. (The outlet, a “gate to the water,” so to speak, gave rise to the name of those famous buildings in the background.)
We went from snow, to slush, to muddy thunderstorm runoff all within a week. And tonight looks like snow again. Interesting metereological diversity in a short interval.
The Potomac River was a sight to behold as well, muddy brown and rolling with whitecaps. This is the upper end of a great tidal estuary, and today its “sea” character was making itself felt in wind and waves.
NASA Wallops launched two sounding rockets last night, each releasing a cloud of red lithium vapor into the upper atmosphere to test ground-based observation techniques for space phenomena.
First real accumulating snow came late this winter, starting deep into January of 2013. We got about a half inch. The cats were quite enthralled to watch from the bedroom window.
Parts of the Georgetown waterfront were picturesque early in the day, though all the snow would melt and turn to muddied, slushy footprints later.
On the Friday before the 2013 Inauguration, NASA HQ had an Open House event in DC, and I was on a short vacation, so I took that opportunity to drop by and pick up some free copies of the book, look at the exhibits, and attend a panel.
A Eulogy for #Occupy — I found the “bullet for Ganesha” part to be an especially “Eat Pray Love” kind of moment. Make of that what you will.
Washington’s Economic Boom, Financed by You — Increased government spending, especially in defense, from the Reagan era onward, has resulted in a new wave of DC area development and gentrification.
North Korea: On the net in world’s most secretive nation — A proprietary operating system is used to access what’s effectively a countrywide intranet through a single national ISP. The actual internet is reserved for “elites.”
Roger Revelle’s Discovery — AIP Global Warming History publication on the first scientist to realize the long-term effects of greenhouse gas emissions on global temperatures.
