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CHELYABINSK, Russia (Reuters) - More than 500 people were injured when a meteorite shot across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, sending fireballs crashing to Earth, shattering windows and damaging buildings.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt a shockwave according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.

A fireball blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away in Yekaterinburg. Car alarms went off, windows shattered and mobile phone networks were interrupted.

"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it was day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.

 

I felt like I was blinded by headlights," he said.

No fatalities were reported but President Vladimir Putin, who was due to host Finance Ministry officials from the Group of 20 nations in Moscow, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were informed.

A local ministry official said such incidents were extremely rare and Friday's events might have been linked to an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool due to pass Earth at a distance of 27,520 km (17,100 miles) but this was not confirmed.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos said the meteorite was travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second and that such events were hard to predict. The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion had caused a sonic boom.

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said 514 people had sought medical help, mainly for light injuries caused by flying glass, and that 112 of those were kept in hospital. Search groups were set up to look for the remains of the meteorite.

"There have never been any cases of meteorites breaking up at such a low level over Russia before," said Yuri Burenko, head of the Chelyabinsk branch of the Emergencies Ministry.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/possible...ussia-052833588.html

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Originally Posted by ryokurin 2:

You know why a lot of people don't like conservatives?  Because any story that comes along they try to inject politics into it, and then they wish to complain that no one is paying attention to their guy or feelings.

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People don't like Republicans? Don't you mean democrats don't like Republicans? And that's the total reason democrats don't like us? Gee, and here I was thinking it was because we didn't like being robbed by democrats. As far as making everything that happens political, we could never ever hope to be as "good at it" as the democrats are.

Originally Posted by TheMeInTeam:

It's really impossible to talk about anything here, isn't it?

 

Anyway, here's a cool video of the explosion:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXT_B4kx6YA

 

And another of when the shock wave hit:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7mLUIDGqmw

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i thought it was pretty cool.. to see the videos from across the flight path.. at different times.

and yes, it is next to impossible to have a sane discussion around here.

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