Multiple reports say there’s been a major meteorite impact in Chelyabinsk Russia. Videos and more after the jump.
At first I thought this might be a hoax. But there are now multiple news reports and some pretty striking amateur videos.
This one has what seems pretty clearly to be the sound of impact.
This video seems to show the impact of a second or possibly several more meteorites. Note the streak in the sky from the first meteorite already seems a little old when another impact is heard.
Update 12:57: RT.com is now reporting a breaking news flash that “Urals meteorite shot down by Russian air defense — military source.” That makes no sense to me at all. I suppose you could blow up a careening meteorite. But there’s nothing to shoot down with a meteorite. It’s falling. And it’s moving so incredibly fast that I doubt very much you could shoot it down, in the improbable case that you scrambled a plane quickly enough to intercept it. We’ll have to wait to hear more on this. And I’m not much of an expert on air defense meteorite intercepts. But it sounds weird.
Update 1:06 PM: There are conflicting reports about injuries. But as of yet there are no reports of fatalities.