I heard that theory, and this video looks convincing:
It appears as if the meteorite was intercepted by some small, fast moving thing. Also, isn’t Russia likely to have anti-missile defense systems? Would they work against meteorites?
I’m also holding out hope it could be Iron Man.
No.
So the thing was just a fragment that happened to pass in front / behind of the meteorite just as the meteorite exploded?
It’s just an Internet video.
And, everyone knows how trustworthy they are…
No, that certainly was not an interceptor. For one thing, it appears in the tail of the meteor, indicating that if it exists at all, it came off the meteor.
For another thing, it comes from behind. IF it was possible to intercept a meteor on re-entry, a tail chase would be the worst possible way to do it. The initial estimates I’ve seen for the meteor’s speed were around 57,000-60,000 miles an hour; overtaking would be a ridiculous track to intercept.
Lastly, there’s the issue of surprise. It takes time to track and intercept anything. Year ago, I worked with a technical program that used meteor trails in the ionosphere specifically because their appearance is random and cannot be predicted. I seriously doubt that in this case, where the object was not seen in advance, anyone could have responded in time to launch an interceptor.
Even if you could intercept it, then what? AAMs and SAMs are designed to destroy aircraft, which are relatively delicate machines, not blast solid chunks of rock apart.
Aaron, was this ‘intercept’ apparent on any of the many other videos of the meteor? I wonder if this object is real or if it’s not some reflected or refracted light artifact.
That didn’t last long.
Video has been taken down - that PROVES whatever it showed must be damning.
No, it is not likely. In fact, it’s highly unlikely:
-Nobody was aware of this meteor until it had entered our atmosphere. That leaves about ten seconds from initial glow to terminal glow for intercept to occur. An earth-launched missile isn’t going to get very high up (or achieve much speed) in that short time. Even if you assume your missile impossibly achieves Mach 5 instantaneously upon launch, it’ll still take 14 seconds to reach the reported 12-mile altitude at which the meteor was making most of its smoke trail.
Add in the time required to make a decision on whether to launch an interceptor missile, and it becomes pretty obvious that nothing manmade was going to deliberately intercept this thing before it tore itself apart.
But it’s been replaced by a schematic showing the meteorite beginning to separate and the missile streaking towards an intercept. It’s still just as accurate as the video and our conclusions from it will be just as valid.
Wow that was fast. I knew that would happen, so I saved it! Muahahaha.
But I found this video which shows the original video was edited: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7w-F2Sfibw
Those who missed it, you can see what the original video showed here.
Looking at the times needed, it doesn’t seem possible to intercept a Mach 50+ object. In my defense, that was my initial response too when I was first shown the video.
Mach 50? Bah! Lasers travel at close to Mach 1 Million. Piece of cake.
Is there any audio on that? I’m not sure what the video highlighting is supposed to prove, but to me the extra streaks of light just look like refractions in a scratched/smeary car windscreen.
Cool footage though. I wonder why the person had a camera going on their dashboard. Based on the number of Russian car crash videos on YouTube, probably hoping to catch some kind of traffic-based stupidity…
I’m not sure what exactly would constitute “shooting down” a meteor. It has a boatload of kinetic energy, the equivalent of several nuclear weapons, and that energy has to go somewhere. If you can’t deflect the thing before it gets into the earth’s atmosphere, the only effect you can have is to change the altitude at which it blows up: higher is better, to disperse the energy over a wider area.
My understanding is that corruption is rampant in Russia, and full-time dashboard cams have become an economically viable way to protect oneself from fraud in the event of an accident (or in the event of someone hitting you on purpose and claiming you hit them). This (i.e. the fact that there are so many dashboard cams always capturing video) is why there are so many clips on YouTube of bizarre traffic accidents in Russia, like this living beef tsunami.
Yes, there is audio in which he points out the differences between the original and ‘doctored’ video, namely that of a shopped object coming in from the left to impact the meteor.
And again, yes, apparently intentional accidents for the purpose of insurance fraud are pervasive in Russia, hence the large number of dashcam videos of this single event.
FWIW, one of the early breaking news banner headlines on the Russia Today website in the initial hours of the incident was “Urals meteorite shot down by Russian air defense”. At least they didn’t claim that President Putin shot down the meteor personally. I have no doubt the meteor was picked up by Russian defense systems though, but there’s likely no way they could have pulled together a reaction to it. It’s a damn good thing this meteor didn’t land on India or Pakistan…
Or North Korea …
I’m just glad they shot it down! Who wants a meteor flying around our cities and buzzing our naval air traffic control towers and impinging upon our personal freedoms!!