All this arguing whether it's called a thing, or a thingy or a thingoid still doesn't answer my quesiton :

With all the hi-tech the russians are supposed to have (so states Pres.Putin)
why couldn't / didn't they see it in time ?

It makes you think they should have seen it in time, and that doesn't read nicely in my science scrapbook...

mpescatori wrote on 02/18/13 at 05:54:52:


Here you M ...

http://russianforces.org/did_russian_early-warning_syst.html

Thanks, Perry   it made for VERY interesting reading !

Pine, according to the article Perry earmarked,
"The meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013, was a pretty big thing - NASA estimated that it was about 15-17 meters in size and weighed 7-10 tonnes."

Long and heavy as a full size Greyhound Liner



which, IMHO, has enough cubic capacity to host enough Borgs to make me think...
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE !!!


(Especially with those curves...  )

Not quite that accurate...

According my to my own personal estimate (I hobbled out there in my PJs and measured the crater with my Playskool ruler)
the crater was 17,357 rulers across and 3667 rulers deep, +/- 50 rulers (it WAS a dark and chilly night)

Overall volume of the earth heaved is estimated to 433610607582,0775 cubic Playskool rulers, or 93659891237728,74 cu.in. ... 54201325947,75969 cu.ft. ... 54201325,94775969 cu.meters or 54 tons of dirt.

That calls for a possible impact energy of 1.1TB, where B (in Playskool metrics) is Baby's burp after his bottle.
(Sorry, had to stay consistent with my Playskool ruler metrics)

Given the size of the crater, the compactness of the dirt heaved, the estimated mass of the asteroid was... (you want it in milk bottles, cookies or burger metrics ?)