AP APTOPIX Russia Meteorite
In this photo provided by Chelyabinsk.ru a meteorite contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia’s Ural Mountains on Friday morning and exploded, injuring 1,200 people, mostly from broken glass.
AP Closest Asteroid
This image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows a simulation of asteroid 2012 DA14 approaching from the south as it passes through the Earth-moon system on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013. The 150-foot object passed within 17,000 miles of the Earth.
Posted: Friday, February 15, 2013 10:22 pm
Updated: 11:26 pm, Fri Feb 15, 2013.
WASHINGTON - It was a day when the Earth was caught in a cosmic crossfire. The big rock came from the south, the smaller one from the east. They were unrelated objects, with different orbits, one the size of an apartment building, the other slimmer but with better aim.
The larger asteroid missed by 17,000 miles, as expected, but the Russian meteor stole the show Friday, fireballing across the Ural Mountains in spectacular fashion and exploding into fragments, creating a powerful shock wave that blew out windows, collapsed roofs and injured 1,200 people, mostly from broken glass.
Friday, February 15, 2013 10:22 pm.
Updated: 11:26 pm.