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<ul><li>The <keyword id="1562308" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Chelyabinsk-Meteor">Chelyabinsk meteor</keyword> exploded over Russia with a force of 40 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. </li><li>Damage stretched for 500 square kilometers, destroying 7,200 building and injuring over 1,400 people in its wake.</li><li>But it could have been even worse had it exploded closer to earth like the Tunguska event. </li></ul>As many as 800 asteroids are hovering around Earth, posing many a risk. Some are particularly dangerous like the Apophis asteroid — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/elon-musk-says-we-have-no-defence-against-asteroid-god-of-chaos/articleshow/70748251.cms">God of Chaos</a> — that is supposed whiz past earth in 2029. There is another asteroid which is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">half the size of Mount Everest</a> and is expected to pass by the planet in less than a year. But, these are just the ones we know about. In 2013, a space object entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded with such a force — equivalent to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/russian-meteor-hit-atmosphere-with-a-force-of-40-hiroshima-bombs/articleshow/21343758.cms">440,000 tons of TNT</a> — that it damaged buildings for 500 square kilometers. And, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/The-unsettling-reasons-no-one-saw-the-Chelyabinsk-meteor-over-Russia-coming-and-why-it-could-happen-again/articleshow/51898217.cms">nobody saw it coming</a>. <div type="Youtube" id="iCawTYPtehk" title="Взрыв метеорита над Челябинском 15.02.2013.avi" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iCawTYPtehk/mqdefault.jpg"></div>

 Chelyabinsk meteor Dubbed the Chelyabinsk meteor after its point of impact in Russia, the house-sized asteroid was a ‘<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasa-chief-warns-people-need-to-take-the-threat-of-a-meteor-crashing-into-earth-much-more-seriously/articleshow/69146504.cms">cosmic wake-up call</a>’, according to NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/five-years-after-the-chelyabinsk-meteor-nasa-leads-efforts-in-planetary-defense">Lindley Johnson</a>. The meteor exploded a mere 30 kilometers from the Earth’s surface over a region that was home to around a million people. <div type="image" title="99738-790f0-64394570-m750x740-uf6c6e_edited" msid="70782724" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A picture taken of the Chelyabinsk meteor&amp;#39;s smoke trail with the double plumes visible either side.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 The explosion was so bright — even 30 times brighter than the Sun for a moment — that it could be seen from a 100 kilometers away right before windows were shattered, doors were broken, walls were brought down and even whole factories collapsed. <div type="image" title="640px-Цинковый_завод_Челябинска_edited" msid="70782795" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The shock from the meteor resulted in a roof collapse over the warehouse section of a zinc factory in Chelyabinsk&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 Over 7,200 buildings expanding across six cities in Chelyabinsk were damaged by the effects of the blast. <div type="image" title="99738-adca5-64394583-m750x740-ue53ea_edited" msid="70782851" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Leftover glass shards after windows exploded in Chelyabinsk&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 Over 1,400 people were injured in the blast according to Russian authorities. The effects of the asteroid ranged from broken spines to ultra violet burns on their skin. Some people also reported temporary flash blindness from looking directly at the meteor. The entire <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/Russians-Thought-The-Meteor-Was-A-Bomb-Or-Terrorist-Attack/The-meteor-the-largest-reported-since-one-hit-Tunguska-Siberia-1908-exploded-over-the-Russian-city-of-Chelyabinsk-on-Friday-morning-Feb-15-in-that-region-/slideshow/21335141.cms">damage to Chelyabinsk</a> in terms of monetary loss came up to around $33 million at the time, according to the oblast governor. Thrice the size, four times the damage The Chelyabinsk meteor exploded above the surface of the planet and was still able to inflict damage for miles. Had the meteor actually crashed into the Earth — the resulting destruction would have been on a much larger scale. The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/TUNGUSKA-106-Years-Ago-A-Mysterious-Explosion-1000x-More-Powerful-Than-The-Hiroshima-Bomb-Rocked-Siberia/articleshow/37532646.cms">Tunguska meteor</a> that hit the Earth in 1908 — the largest known natural object to enter the planet’s atmosphere ever — flattened 2,000 square kilometers of forest. <div type="image" title="tu" msid="70782916" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Impact of the Tunguska meteor&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 Even though the difference in size between the two meteors is only around 45 meters, the damage was much greater since Tunguska disintegrated only 10 kilometers from the planet’s surface. <div type="image" title="517px-Tunguska_and_Chelyabinsk_meteoroid_size_edited" msid="70782963" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Size comparison of the Tunguska meteor (TM) and the Chelyabinsk meteor (CM) to the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 So, instead of exploding with the energy of 440,000 tons — Tunguska dispelled around <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1983AREPS..11..461S">15 megatons</a> of TNT, which is 1,000 times the amount of energy of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima. It should be noted that there is some disagreement over the exact might of the explosion with <a href="https://share.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2007/asteroid.html">supercomputer estimates stating</a> that it was only around 3 megatons while a <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019Icar..327...83W">new study</a> published in 2019 estimates it to be around 20-30 megatons. The main difference between the two asteroid events was that with Chelyabinsk occurred in a highly populated region, the Tunguska event occurred in a sparsely populated area. Tunguska and Chelyabinsk meteors aren’t the only examples of asteroids that hit Earth — they’re only the largest and the most recent, respectively. In 1930, asteroids are said to have exploded over the Curuca River in Brazil and an iron meteorite fell on the Sikhote Alin Mountains in 1947. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">An asteroid nearly half the size of Mount Everest might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/elon-musk-says-we-have-no-defence-against-asteroid-god-of-chaos/articleshow/70748251.cms">Elon Musk says we have no defence against asteroid ‘God of Chaos'</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-happens-when-an-asteroid-actually-hits-earth/articleshow/70732006.cms">What happens when an asteroid actually hits Earth</a>

The last major asteroid to hit Earth destroyed 500 square kilometers — and it could have been much worse

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tunguska_event_fallen_trees.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>Tunguska</div>A <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fact-about-asteroid-2012-da12-2013-2">150-foot wide asteroid</a> is expected to make a record-close — but safe — flyby of Earth Friday afternoon. 
Although there is no chance that asteroid 2012 DA14 will smash into our planet (coincidentally <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/officials-russian-meteorite-not-related-to-todays-asteroid-flyby-2013-2">a meteorite exploded over Russia Friday morning</a>), scientists say it's about the same size as the one that hit Siberia more than 100 years ago on June 30, 1908. 
Tunguska 
The historic <keyword id="52285" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="explosion">explosion</keyword> happened in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Russia-CIA_WFB_Map--Tunguska.png">Tunguska</a>, a remote forest area in the middle of Siberia.
The blast had the power of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event">15 megatons of TNT</a>, roughly a thousand times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Japan. The event was so powerful that it was felt and heard a thousand miles away.
Locals believed the blast was supernatural, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXpp-i442s">caused by a god</a> that was punishing people for their wickedness.
Scientists, on the other hand, <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska/">believed it was a meteor</a>.
Here's Where It Gets Weird
Twenty years passed before the first Russian scientists went to the site to investigate.
If it was a meteor, there would be a crater and meteorite fragments.
However, there was no crater. And there were no fragments.
In fact, at the epicenter of the explosion was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXpp-i442s">a grove of untouched, fully grown trees</a>. Surrounding that tiny grove was around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event">800 square miles of leveled trees</a>.
The blast had the hallmarks of an atomic bomb-like explosion. However, no scientific progress had been made in the area of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons">nuclear weapons until the 1930s</a>, more than two decades after the event.
Two Theories
Scientists believe that a football field-sized, <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/06/30/june-30-1908-the-tunguska-event/">solid ice chunk of a comet</a> entered Earth's atmosphere. When it encountered Earth's intense atmospheric pressure, it immediately exploded miles above the forest. Because it was made of ice, it left no extraterrestrial evidence.
Others believe it was caused by something much smaller: A nuclear-powered alien spaceship that crashed into the Earth.
A hundred years later, neither side seems to have fully convinced the other camp.

THE TUNGUSKA EVENT: This Is What Would Happen If Today's Flyby Asteroid Hit Earth

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:401px"><div class="image"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tunguska_event_fallen_trees.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>Tunguska</div></div>Today is the 106th anniversary of a historic explosion that still has no clear explanation.
It happened in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Russia-CIA_WFB_Map--Tunguska.png">Tunguska</a>, a remote forest area in the middle of Siberia.
The blast had the power of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event">15 megatons of TNT</a>, roughly a thousand times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Japan. The event was so powerful that it was felt and heard a thousand miles away.
Locals believed the blast was supernatural, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXpp-i442s">caused by a god</a> that was punishing people for their wickedness.
Scientists, on the other hand, believed it was a meteor.
Here's Where It Gets Weird
20 years passed before the first Russian scientists went to the site to investigate.
If it was a meteor, there would be a crater and meteorite fragments.
However, there was no crater. And there were no fragments.
In fact, at the epicenter of the explosion was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiXpp-i442s">a grove of untouched, fully grown trees</a>. Surrounding that tiny grove was around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event">800 square miles of leveled trees</a>.
The blast had the hallmarks of an atomic bomb-like explosion. However, no scientific progress had been made in the area of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_weapons">nuclear weapons until the 1930s</a>, more than two decades after the event.
Two Theories
Scientists believe that a football field-sized, <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/2012/06/30/june-30-1908-the-tunguska-event/">solid ice chunk of a comet</a> entered the earth atmosphere. When it encountered earth's intense atmospheric pressure, it immediately exploded miles above the forest. Because it was made of ice, it left no extraterrestrial evidence.
Others believe it was caused by something much smaller: a nuclear-powered alien spaceship that crashed into the earth.
A hundred years later, neither side seems to have fully convinced the other camp.
But in today's Cashin's Comments, UBS's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/art-cashin">Art Cashin</a> pointed to a problem with the scientists' theory:
But <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> seems to miss a key point at the time. There were lots of astronomers and telescopes. They were busy finding new planets, like Pluto. Or they were plotting new comet paths and the like. If they were all so smart, how did all these clever astronomers miss something so large headed for the earth.
Mystery, unsolved.
SEE ALSO: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science">Business Insider's Brand New Science Vertical &gt;</a>

TUNGUSKA: 106 Years Ago, A Mysterious Explosion 1000x More Powerful Than The Hiroshima Bomb Rocked Siberia

<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"><a href="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16969092-nuclear-like-in-its-intensity-russian-meteor-blast-is-the-largest-since-1908?lite"></a></div>YouTiube</td></tr></table>The bus-sized <keyword id="1565035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="meteor">meteor</keyword> that streaked overhead in <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> had a blast equivalent of approximately 20 atomic bombs, injured more than 1,000 people, and struck panic throughout Moscow, a city of more than one million residents.
Here are some more stunning estimates regarding the meteor:
• The space rock struck Earth's atmosphere with a force of about 300 kilotons, or <a href="http://www.livescience.com/27201-russian-meteor-infrasound.html">25 times greater</a> than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. 
• The 55 foot-wide meteor was comprised mostly of iron, weighed about 10,000 tons, and was traveling 40,000 mph when it exploded, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/17/russian-meteor-size-blast-bigger-nasa_n_2704164.html">according to NASA</a>.
• <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/16/russian-recovery-meteor-damage/1924461/">The shock wave</a> shattered 50 acres of glass in the windows of more than 4,000 buildings in Russia's Chelyabinsk region during a frigid winter. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/17/russia-meteor-windows-replacement-injuries.html">Nearly 60 percent of the windows</a> have reportedly been replaced.
• “The impact wave and blast damaged around 297 homes, 12 schools, a number of other social facilities, and some industrial sites,” <a href="http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/5005">according to</a> Russian Minister of Civil Defence Vladimir Puchkov.
• <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/16/russian-recovery-meteor-damage/1924461/">About</a> 1,200 people were injured — largely by flying glass — and <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/17/russia-meteor-windows-replacement-injuries.html">40 were still hospitalized</a> as of Sunday.
• <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/16/russian-recovery-meteor-damage/1924461/">More than</a> 24,000 workers and volunteers — <a href="http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/5005">with</a> "3,000 pieces of equipment and 8 aircraft at their disposal" — mobilized to the region to cover windows, gather food and make other relief efforts in the face of an estimated $33 million in damages.
• The meteor reportedly left a 20-foot-wide hole <a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/meteorite-fragments-could-they-be-next-gold-rush-for-siberians-1.1160296#ixzz2LBXVcdx9">in Chebarkul Lake</a> (about 50 miles outside the city), and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/world/europe/russian-scientists-say-they-found-meteorite-fragments.html?smid=tw-nytimesglobal&amp;seid=auto&amp;_r=0">Russian scientists say they've found fragments</a> of it. 
The aftermath of the extraterrestrial rock <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2280019/The-gold-rush-begins-fragments-Russian-meteor-worth-10-000-astronomers-warn-UK-lucky-escape.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">has attracted</a> "meteor hunters" <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/russian-meteor-rushing-cash-blast/story?id=18522807">looking to cash in</a> on the "once in a lifetime event." <a href="http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/15/16969092-nuclear-like-in-its-intensity-russian-meteor-blast-is-the-largest-since-1908?lite">NASA said</a> the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-huge-meteor-just-exploded-over-russia-2013-2">meteor</a> was the largest reported fireball since <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tunguska-an-mysterious-explosion-rocked-siberia-104-years-ago-today-2013-2">the Tunguska event in 1908</a>.

BY THE NUMBERS: The Destructive Power Of The Russian Meteor

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Science/AAASThe main mass of the Chelyabinsk fall is seen at the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Local History shortly after recovery from Chebarkul Lake. </div></div>New details about the origin, structure, and impact of the <keyword id="1565035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="meteor">meteor</keyword> that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 13, 2013, are reported in three separate papers published Wednesday.
Thanks to cell phones, dashboard video cameras, and other recording devices, researchers have been able to collect a large amount of data about the <keyword id="1562308" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Chelyabinsk-Meteor">Chelyabinsk meteor</keyword> - the largest impact over land since the 1908 explosion over <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tunguska-an-mysterious-explosion-rocked-siberia-104-years-ago-today-2013-2">Tunguska</a> in Siberia. That event, believed to have been caused by a comet, was much larger but not well-observed.
Below are some of the key details from the studies. For clarity, a meteoroid is the original object (an asteroid is a larger meteoroid), a meteor is that same rock as it burns up in the atmosphere, also known as a "shooting star"; and a meteorite is the rock once it hits the ground.
Size and speed
<ul>
<li>Researchers who published their <a href="http://press.nature.com/pdf/press_files/nature/07-11-2013/nature12741_Brown.pdf" target="_blank">results in the journal Nature</a> estimate that the asteroid was originally 19 meters (62 feet) wide before it hit Earth's atmosphere and broke apart.</li>
<li>The meteoroid entered Earth's atmosphere at 19 kilometers per second (42,500 mph), which is slightly faster than previously reported, according to a <a href="http://www.sciencexpress.org." target="_blank">study in the journal Science</a>.</li>
<li>A <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12671" target="_blank">study</a> led by Jirí Borovicka from the Academy of Sciences found that the Chelyabinsk asteroid had a very similar orbit to the 1.2-mile-wide near-Earth asteroid 86039. This suggests that the two were once part of the same object.</li>
<li>The Chelyabinsk asteroid was probably ejected from asteroid 86039 when it collided with another asteroid.</li>
<li>Borovicka and colleagues believe that the asteroid broke up into small pieces between 30 and 45 kilometers (19-28 miles) above the ground, based on the timing of secondary sonic booms heard on videos.</li>
<li>The main body remained intact and quite massive at around 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds) until an altitude of 22 kilometers (13.6 miles) above the ground.</li>
<li>A large dust trail, which started at an altitude of 68 km (42.3 miles) was left in the atmosphere after the meteor passed and extended to 18 km (11.2 miles) above the ground.</li>
<li><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">Jiri BorovickaThis map shows the ground projection of the trajectory of the Chelyabinsk meteor (red - main body, orange - fragment F1) and the location of the impact hole (Crater) in the ice of Lake Chebarkul. The bright meteor moved from right to left. </div></div>When the meteoroid broke apart in the atmosphere it produced a fireball - also known as an airburst - that released about the same amount of energy as 500 kilotons of exploding TNT.</li>
<li>At its peak, the airburst appeared 30 times brighter than the sun. It was captured by more than 400 video cameras and other seismic and infrasound instruments almost 700 kilometers (430 miles) away.</li>
<li>The airburst created a shockwave - known as an airblast - that traveled down through the air and struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk below. The shockwave shattered thousands of windows and injured more than 1,000 people, mostly from flying glass.</li>
<li>The airblast that reached the city was generated around 24 to 30 kilometers (15-19 miles) above the ground.</li>
</ul>
Damage
<ul>
<li>Olga Popova of the Russian Academy of Sciences and NASA meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens visited 50 villages in the area to collect information about damage caused by the shockwave.</li>
<li>In Chelyabinsk itself, 3,613 apartment buildings (around 44%) had shattered and broken glass. The shockwave was also strong enough to blow people off their feet.</li>
<li>People also found it painful to look at the fireball. In an Internet survey of 1,113 people who were outside at the time, 25 were sunburned (2.2%), 315 felt hot (28%), and 415 warm (37%).</li>
</ul>
Meteorite Recovery
<ul>
<li>Scientists found fewer fragments larger than 100 grams (0.22 pounds) than they expected.</li>
<li>However, a 7-8 meter (23-36 feet)-sized hole was discovered in 70-cm (2.3 feet) thick ice on Lake Chebarkul, 43 miles west of Chelyabinsk. A security video camera at the site also recorded the impact.</li>
<li>Researchers estimate that 76% of the meteoroid evaporated, and much of the remaining mass was turned into dust. Only 0.03-0.05% of the initial mass survived. </li>
<li>Jenniskens and colleagues believe that "shock veins" in the original asteroid caused by an impact hundreds of millions of years ago probably weakened the asteroid and caused it to break up easily.</li>
<li>This team also found that the Chelyabinsk asteroid belongs to a common type of meteorite known as LL chondrite. It was 4.452 billion years old.</li>
<li>The Chelyabinsk asteroid was possibly once part of a bigger "rubble pile" asteroid that broke apart 1.2 million years ago, according to Jenniskens.</li>
<li>Peter from from the University of Western Ontario and colleagues believes that hazards from small-sized meteoroids (those comparable to Chelyabinsk) are greater than previously thought. </li>
</ul>
Detection
<ul>
<li>In its aftermath, many people wondered why scientists had not detected the meteor ahead of time. A <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12671" target="_blank">study</a> led by Borovicka reports that before impact, the asteroid had spent at least six weeks within a region of sky that could not be seen by Earth-based telescopes. Before that, it was too faint to be seen.</li>
</ul>

Stunning New Details From The Largest Asteroid Impact In A Century

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Atomic_bombing_of_Japan.jpg">Wikipedia</a>Hiroshima bomb</div>The <keyword id="1565035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="meteor">meteor</keyword> that streaked across the skies over <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> in a blinding fireball on Friday struck Earth's atmosphere with a force about 40 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb, Nasa scientists have said.
The 17 metre rock, said by Nasa to have a mass of 10,000 tonnes, plunged to Earth in the Urals region on Friday morning, causing shockwaves that injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes in an event unprecedented in modern times.
Nasa estimate that the energy released by the meteor's impact with the atmosphere was 500 kilotonnes, around 40 times the force of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.
Divers were this morning searching the Chelyabinsk region's frozen Lake Chebarkul for a fragment of the meteorite. No fragments have been found in the region so far - despite some 20,000 rescuers and recovery workers being dispatched to help the hundreds of people injured.
Scientists from Nasa, the US space agency, estimated that the amount of energy released from impact with the atmosphere was about 30 times greater than the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.
"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of Nasa's Near-Earth Object Program Office.
"When you have a fireball of this size we would expect a large number of meteorites to reach the surface and in this case there were probably some large ones," he said in a statement published on the Nasa website.
The strike brought traffic to a halt in the industrial city of Chelyabinsk as residents poured out on the streets to watch the light show before hovering for safety as a sonic boom shattered glass and set off car alarms. Most of the injuries were caused by glass.
"We have a special team working... that is now assessing the seismic stability of buildings," Vladimir Puchkov, the Emergencies Minister, told residents as he inspected the damage in the city.
"We will be especially careful about switching the gas back on," he said in televised remarks.
The meteor explosion appears to be one of the most stunning cosmic events above Russia since the 1908 Tunguska Event in which a massive blast most scientists blame on an asteroid or a comet ripped through Siberia.
The drama in Russia developed just hours before an asteroid - a space object similar to a tiny planet orbiting the sun - whizzed safely past Earth at the unprecedented distance of 17,200 miles.
That put it closer to the ground then some distant satellites and sent off alarm bells ringing in some Russian circles about this being the time for joint global action on the space safety front.
"Instead of fighting on Earth, people should be creating a joint system of asteroid defence," the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee chief Alexei Pushkov wrote on his Twitter account late Friday.
"Instead of creating a (military) European space defence system, the United States should join us and China in creating the AADS - the Anti-Asteroid Defence System," the close ally of President Vladimir Putin wrote.
The US space agency said the 2012 DA 14 asteroid's passing was "the closest-ever predicted approach to Earth for an object this large."
Nasa estimated that a smallish asteroid such as the 2012 DA 14 flies close to Earth every 40 years on average while only hitting the planet once every 1,200 years.
Astronomers have detected some 9,500 celestial bodies of various sizes that pass near Earth.
Source: AFP

Russian Meteor Hit Atmosphere With A Force Of 40 Hiroshima Bombs

<div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div>APIn this frame grab made from a video done with a dashboard camera, on a highway from Kostanai, Kazakhstan, to Chelyabinsk region, <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword>, provided by Nasha Gazeta newspaper, on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 a meteorite contrail is seen. A meteor streaked across the sky of Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and reportedly injuring around 100 people, including many hurt by broken glass. (AP Photo/Nasha gazeta, www.ng.kz)</div>
It was an incredible day for near-Earth objects, with two rare cosmic events occurring on the same day. 
First, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-huge-meteor-just-exploded-over-russia-2013-2">a tiny asteroid actually hit Earth, creating a significant explosion over eastern Russia</a> around 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 15 in that part of the world. 
Less than 24 hours later, a larger <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword>, 2012 DA14, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/live-building-sized-asteroid-nears-earth-2013-2">passed safely above Earth at a distance of around 17,200 miles</a>, the closest an object of that size has come to our planet since scientists began monitoring the skies. Astronomers had been tracking that asteroid for about a year and knew that it posed no danger of colliding with Earth. 
<keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword> held a teleconference this afternoon to discuss both events.
Here's what they know so far:
The Russia meteor is estimated to have been about 50 feet in diameter, which is considered a tiny asteroid, according to meteor expert Bill Cooke. 
Scientists say they did not detect the asteroid because it came out of the daytime sky. These are nearly impossible to find ahead of time because telescopes can only spot asteroids during the night. 
The small asteroid hit the atmosphere moving at a blistering 40,000 miles per hour. That's more than twice as fast as asteroid 2012 DA12 is moving. The <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock lasted about 30 seconds in the atmosphere before breaking apart 12 to 15 miles above Earth's surface. 
When the asteroid broke apart it produced an explosion that created a shockwave, which struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk below.
In order for a tiny asteroid to slow down, the atmosphere will absorb that energy and emit it as heat and light.
"The event must have been brighter than the sun if you were there to watch it," said Paul Chodas, research scientist in NASA's Near Earth Object Program Office.
The shockwave caused windows to break and walls to collapse, injuring hundreds of people as a result. No injuries were caused by fragments falling from the sky. There are undoubtedly pieces of rock on the ground, but none have been verified with certainty yet. 
The energy released by the event was 500 kilotons, according to Cooke, leaving a trail in the sky about 300 miles long. This is the largest recorded meteorite impact <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tunguska-an-mysterious-explosion-rocked-siberia-104-years-ago-today-2013-2">since the Tunguska explosion in 1908</a>.
Scientists also verified that the Russia meteor is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14 in any way. They know this because asteroid 2012 DA14 is about three times bigger, at 150 feet in diameter, and it was traveling in a different direction, from south to north. 
Fortunately both asteroids were relatively small in nature. Tiny asteroids like the one that exploded over Russia hit the Earth on average about once every 100 years, Chodas said. Although it is an incredible coincidence that both phenomenons happened on the same day. 
The bigger threat to Earth is large asteroids, like the <a href="http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/02/07/new-evidence-comet-or-asteroid-impact-was-last-straw-for-dinosaurs/">one that ultimately wiped out the dinosaurs</a>. NASA, the lead agency in worldwide asteroid tracking, says it has found about 95 percent of large near-Earth asteroids, asteroids that are close enough and big enough to pose a hazard to Earth, though not necessarily headed in our planet's direction. 
<h3>Now Watch: 5 Ways The World Is Going To End, According To The Mayan And Other Calendars </h3>

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Here's Why Astronomers Did Not Detect The Russia Meteor Ahead Of Time

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<pre>WATCH: 5 Ways The World Will End (according to the Mayan calendar and any other) </pre>
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A <keyword id="1565035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="meteor">meteor</keyword> scientists believe weighed up to 11 tons streaked through the Russian dawn Friday morning at supersonic speeds. Reports of a 150 mile sonic boom were reported blowing out windows in cars, and houses with glass causing a number of injuries.
The Russian Academy of Sciences believes the meteor entered the earth's atmosphere over Chelyabinsk at speeds of up to 54,000 miles per hour, before shattering between 18 and 32 miles above the ground.
<a href="http://www.chron.com/news/bizarre/article/10-ton-meteor-hurts-34-in-Russia-video-4281219.php">The Houston Chronicle has a report from Moscow</a>:
"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region.
"We saw a big burst of light then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone. Another Chelyabinsk resident, Valya Kazakov, said some elderly women in his neighborhood started crying out that the world was ending.
Some fragments fell in a reservoir outside the town of Cherbakul, the regional governor's office said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. It was not immediately clear if any people were struck by fragments. The agency also cited military spokesman Yarslavl Roshupkin as saying that a six-meter-wide (20-foot-wide) crater was found in the same area which could be the result of fragments striking the ground.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/officials-russian-meteorite-not-related-to-todays-asteroid-flyby-2013-2">Despite assurances by NASA</a> and other officials, <a href="https://twitter.com/voiceofrussia/status/302393679354667008">The Voice of Russia</a> reports that St. Petersburg astronomers believe this meteor is linked to today's approaching 2012DA14 asteroid.

 
Here's what the scene looks like in the aftermath:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The scene on the ground in the Urals after the <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23RussianMeteorite">#RussianMeteorite</a> hit <a href="http://t.co/4DSnJuxc" title="http://twitter.com/moonbird/status/302312549884497921/photo/1">twitter.com/moonbird/statu…</a>
— moonbird (@moonbird) <a href="https://twitter.com/moonbird/status/302312549884497921">February 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
<a href="http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-urals-chelyabinsk-283/">RT.com reports:</a>
Lifenews tabloid said that at least one piece of the fallen object caused damage on the ground in Chelyabinsk. According to preliminary reports, it crashed into a wall near a zinc factory, disrupting the city's Internet and mobile service.
Witnesses said the <keyword id="52285" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="explosion">explosion</keyword> was so loud that it seemed like an earthquake and thunder had struck at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.It made a bright streak through the sky and a huge boom when it exploded. Here's a stunning video of it shining bright as it falls through the atmosphere:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W90i4nZZAQ">There's a ton more videos on YouTube.</a> This <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Omh7_I8vI">compilation video is pretty great</a>. 
Officials told Reuters that the object exploded at about <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/us-russia-meteorite-idUSBRE91E05Z20130215">32,000 feet above the Earth. </a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/badastronomer/">The BadAstronomer</a>, aka Phil Plait, warns that these things get faked all the time, but he seems convinced that this is for real. We agree, seeing so many different videos of the event that all look the same.
He says it's most likely unrelated to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fact-about-asteroid-2012-da12-2013-2">asteroid DA14 that will pass by Earth tomorrow.</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I don’t *think* this meteor is related to <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%232012DA14">#2012DA14</a>; a solid 12+ hours ahead; DA14 is still pretty far out. Coincidence?
— Phil Plait (@BadAstronomer) <a href="https://twitter.com/BadAstronomer/status/302291208330436609">February 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
This video shows a shockwave about 20 seconds in, which <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/15/breaking_huge_meteor_explodes_over_russia.html">Plait says is from the meteoroid hitting Earth's atmosphere</a>, not the actual explosion:


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEIC shows no earthquakes in that area of <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword>, so this did not hit the ground. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23RussianMeteor">#RussianMeteor</a>
— Adam (@mycroft16) <a href="https://twitter.com/mycroft16/status/302308013203660800">February 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
And one note for those perusing the YouTube videos. A video of a burning crater is making the rounds, but that's actually from the "Door To Hell" in Turkmenistan. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/turkmenistan-darvaza-gas-crater-2012-10">Here's a whole gallery of images of the burning crater.</a> It is totally unrelated to today's meteor.
It was right about the same time of day <a href="http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska/">105 years ago near the Tunguska River</a> in Siberia when a 330 foot meteor seared through the sky and leveled 80 million trees over 800 square miles.
That asteroid was believed to have been 1,000 times more destructive than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
<table class="image-container" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Tunguska_Ereignis.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>Tunguska after a 1908 meter 330 feet wide passed overhead in Siberia</td></tr></table>

A Giant Meteor Exploded Over Russia, Injuring Hundreds Of People [VIDEO]

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists found strange patches of black and green glass in the Chilean desert.</li><li>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1130/G49426.1">new study</a> attributes the glass to an exploding <keyword id="12475266" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="comet" source="Orion">comet</keyword> or comet-like object roughly 12,000 years ago.</li></ul>At first glance, the Atacama Desert in northern <keyword id="12085673" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="chile" source="Orion">Chile</keyword> looks like a forgotten wasteland. It's one of the driest places on Earth, with a climate so arid that few animal species can survive. Humans are scarce, too - the area is peppered with ghost towns. And one swath of the desert is brimming with clues about a disaster that may have occurred roughly 12,000 years ago.About a decade ago, scientists detected scattered plots of black and green glass along a 47-mile corridor. Their origin was mysterious, but some researchers surmised that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012821X17301887">a fire had melted the soil</a>, fusing and hardening the <keyword id="12475267" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="minerals" source="Orion">minerals</keyword>.Peter Schultz, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University, wasn't convinced by that theory when he visited the site in 2018. In addition to being scorched, the glass was twisted, folded, and sheared."These samples look like somebody was out there - some sort of cosmic God - simply folding over glasses to make some bread," Schultz told Insider. "It was one of those things that made my hair stand on end."In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1130/G49426.1">a study</a> published this week in the journal Geology, Schultz and his research team determined that an exploding comet or comet-like object fused the soil, leading to the formation of giant glass chunks. The researchers estimated that the <keyword id="11955830" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="explosion" source="Orion">explosion</keyword> took place roughly 11,500 to 12,300 years ago, around the time when hunter-gatherers inhabited the region and large animals, or megafauna, disappeared from South America.Schultz said his team is now investigating whether there's a correlation between the animals' disappearance and the ancient explosion. "We have the evidence," he said. "We don't have the smoking gun."<h2>Extreme heat and heavy winds probably folded and twisted the glass</h2><div type="image" title="comet glass explosion" height="1086" width="1536" msid="87540507" hostid="261"></div>The researchers behind the study said they found "innumerable patches" of folded, twisted glass. Schultz estimated that each patch is nearly 2 miles long and 0.6 miles wide (3 by 1 kilometers). The chunks of glass are also large: up to 50 centimeters across."Our truck got caught and we had to use slabs of glass just to get us out," Schultz said. "That's how much glass there is - we put it under the wheels of the tire so we could get our truck out."Based on the size of the patches, he added, the explosion was probably capable of widespread destruction."We can just imagine this thing coming down," Schultz said. "I think we would have seen multiple small bodies, comets, coming in. Then they hit in different locations all about the same time, within minutes."Schultz thinks the explosion took place within a mile of Earth, but never struck its surface, which is why it didn't form a crater. Instead, it probably ushered in enough extreme heat to melt the soil, he said, plus a tornado of heavy winds - likely above 100 miles per hour. Schultz compared the pressure to holding a watering hose to the ground. High winds would have lifted the glass, kicked it around, and folded it over several times.It's unclear whether the explosion wiped out any large animals, but the researchers wagered that hunter-gatherers who settled in the high plains would have borne witness to the disaster."If this had occurred in an overpopulated area, I think there would have been tens of thousands of deaths," Schultz said. "It makes Chelyabinsk look like a runny nose and Tunguska like a sneeze," he added, referring to two meteor blasts, in 2013 and 1908, respectively. The blasts released significantly more energy than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.<h2>The glass contained minerals found in <keyword id="12346140" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="meteorites" source="Orion">meteorites</keyword></h2><div type="image" title="comet illustration" height="3780" width="2934" msid="87540510" hostid="261"></div>Schultz said his team is confident that an explosion formed the glass patches in the Atacama Desert. A regular fire couldn't have warped the soil to that extent, or on such a massive scale, he said. His study also showed that minerals in the glass were exposed to much higher temperatures than fire can reach. After examining the glass under a microscope, his team found evidence of decomposed gems called zircons."That's a telltale signature of extremely high temperatures, probably above 1,700 degrees Celsius," Schultz said. The glass also contained minerals commonly associated with meteorites, such as the samples brought back from a comet during the 2006 NASA Stardust mission."We found material in there that looked just like the stuff from the Stardust mission," Schultz said.

Mysterious patches of glass scattered across the Chilean desert are likely the products of an ancient exploding comet

<ul><li>All it would take is an asteroid as big as a house travelling at 48,000 kilometers an hour colliding into Earth to have an impact equivalent to the Hiroshima nuclear bomb blast.</li><li>Any asteroid larger than one kilometer in diameter would push up so much dust and debris that it could block out the Sun and initiate another Ice Age.</li><li>Space agencies are keeping an eye on <keyword id="3106647" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="near-earth-objects">Near Earth Objects</keyword> passing close to Earth but even their methods aren’t full proof.</li></ul>Movies like Deep Impact, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/RANKED-The-10-movies-that-are-going-to-dominate-the-box-office-this-summer/articleshow/52226358.cms">Armageddon</a>, and even the animated The Good Dinosaur paint a vivid picture of what it would be like if an asteroid actually hit Earth. And, while the movies might be fictional — the reality of hundreds of asteroids whizzing past the planet is not. The reports of asteroids bigger than the Pyramid of Giza and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">half the size of Everest</a> passing by awfully close to Earth has gotten some scientists thinking that it’s only a matter of time before an asteroid will collide with the planet’s surface. And it only seems more likely since, despite the Center of Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) and the Near Earth Object Coordination Center (NEOCC), recently illustrated how their methodology isn’t full proof. An <a href="https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/">undetected asteroid</a> dubbed 2019 OK missed crashing into Earth by a mere 73,000 kilometers on July 26 and space agencies didn’t know of it until the asteroid had already come and gone. 
 <div type="Youtube" id="Of3PK1O-6O0" title="What will happen if asteroids hit Earth" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Of3PK1O-6O0/mqdefault.jpg"></div>



 Size does matter All it would take is an asteroid that’s as big as a house travelling at 48,000 kilometers per hour to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">release the amount of energy</a> equivalent to the Hiroshima nuclear bomb blast. That means concrete buildings for at least half a mile around the impact site would be flattened and any city would face a grim fate. Increase the size of an asteroid to a 20 story building, the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Russian-Meteor-Hit-Atmosphere-With-A-Force-Of-40-Hiroshima-Bombs/articleshow/21343758.cms">resulting impact </a>would be anywhere from 25 megatons to 50 megatons — the same as the largest nuclear bombs that in existence today. 
 <div type="image" title="2013_Chelyabinsk_meteor_trace" msid="70732061" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Chelyabinsk meteor that entered Earth&amp;#39;s atmosphere over Russia on 15 February 2013 had the explosive energy of 200 kilotonnes of TNT &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



 Any asteroid that spans <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/how-large-asteroids-must-be-to-destroy-a-city-state-country-or-the-planet/articleshow/64806829.cms">more than a kilometer</a> in diameter can’t be comparable to any weapon that humans have created. The one million megatons of energy that would strike Earth will result in 10 times the damage from Hiroshima. And, like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, the dust and debris thrown back in the atmosphere would block out the sun. In case the asteroid lands in water instead of on land, the result wouldn’t be every different with tidal waves hundreds of feet high submerging whole coastlines. ‘The city killer’ asteroids The asteroid that snuck past Earth, 2019 OK, is between 57 to 130 meters in diameter making it as big as a second tallest statue in the world — the Spring Temple Buddha in China. And, it was travelling at a speed of 86,905 kilometers per hour when it whizzed past Earth. If the asteroid would have collided with Earth, it would have gone off like a nuclear weapon with the force of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/07/26/it-snuck-up-us-city-killer-asteroid-just-missed-earth-scientists-almost-didnt-detect-it-time/">10 megatons</a> of TNT. When an asteroid of about the same size fell to Earth in 1908 — known as the <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/30jun_tunguska">Tunguska Impact</a> — it leveled 2,000 square kilometers of forest in Siberia. 
 <div type="image" title="tunguska_kulik_strip" msid="70732018" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Trees felled by the Tunguska explosion&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



 ‘Planet killer’ asteroids The biggest of asteroid to ever hit Earth 65 million years ago was so devastating that it wiped out all the dinosaurs. Not because the asteroid literally landed on them but because it threw up so much moisture and dust into the atmosphere that sunlight was nowhere to be found. No sunlight meant no heat. The resulting drop in temperatures brought on the ice age and the dinosaurs were driven to extinction. As of now, the CNEOS and the NEOCC, don’t have any asteroid that’s quite as big on their radars on a collision course for Earth — but they do know that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/a-huge-asteroid-just-flew-past-earth-it-didnt-hit-us-but-others-might/These-space-rocks-are-leftovers-from-the-solar-systems-formation-some-4-6-billion-years-ago-A-big-one-slamming-into-Earth-could-mean-our-end-/articleshow/51336184.cms?format=slideshow">they’re out there</a>, like the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">1998 OR2 that’s meant to pass by Earth in less than a year.</a> See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/the-10-biggest-asteroids-that-could-crash-into-earth-this-year/articleshow/70686096.cms">The 10 biggest asteroids that could crash into Earth in 2019</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/what-is-asteroid-meteorite-and-meteor/articleshow/70654013.cms">An asteroid only turns into a meteor if it falls to Earth</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/an-asteroid-nearly-half-the-size-of-mount-everest-might-be-on-a-collision-course-for-earth-in-less-than-a-year/articleshow/70698774.cms">An asteroid nearly half the size of Mount Everest might be on a collision course for Earth in less than a year</a>

What happens when an asteroid actually hits Earth

A "small" <keyword id="6549794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="asteroid">asteroid</keyword> will make a record close approach to Earth next week, coming inside the earth-centric orbit of most man-made satellites. 
<keyword id="6360409" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="NASA">NASA</keyword> scientists at the near-Earth object program are monitoring asteroid 2012 DA14 closely and say there is absolutely no chance that the <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> rock will smash into our planet this time around.
There is a very slight chance that it will hit the Earth when it flies by again in 2110. It was discovered just one year ago.
The asteroid, about half the size of a football field (150 feet in diameter), will however, only be 17,200 miles above Earth's surface when it whips past the eastern Indian Ocean, off Sumatra, around 2:24 p.m. East Coast time on Feb 15. It won't be visible with the naked eye, but could be seen with binoculars.
Most weather and communication satellites circle Earth at a distance of around 22,000 miles — so that's a pretty close shave. 
"The flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 is the closest ever predicted Earth approach for an object this large," <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html">NASA said</a> in a press release. 
Asteroid 2012 DA 14 is hurtling toward Earth at 17,460 miles per hour and weighs almost 287,000,000 pounds. 
Even in the improbable scenario that 2012 DA 14 did smack into Earth, the piece of space debris wouldn't destroy our planet. It would be similar to the Tunguska asteroid, which hit Siberia in 1908, though if it hit a city or an ocean it could create a fair bit of destruction.
<a href="http://myfox8.com/2013/02/05/an-asteroid-is-coming-and-scientists-are-excited-fear-not-earth-is-safe/">NASA's </a><a href="http://myfox8.com/2013/02/05/an-asteroid-is-coming-and-scientists-are-excited-fear-not-earth-is-safe/">Don Yeomans tells CNN</a> that 2012 DA14 is likely made of stone, which would be less damaging than the asteroid made of metal that "collided with Earth 50,000 years ago, creating the mile wide Meteor Crater' in Arizona and obliterating everything for 50 miles around." 
Here's more on the asteroid from NASA:

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