Divers scoured the bottom of a Russian lake on Saturday for fragments of a meteorite that plunged to Earth in a blinding fireball whose shockwaves injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes.
The 10-tonnes meteor streaked across the sky in the Urals region on Friday morning just as the world braced for a close encounter with a large asteroid that left some Russian officials calling for the creation of a global system of space object defence.
The unpredicted meteor 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. The shattered glass injured most of the people.
"We have a special team working... that is now assessing the seismic stability of buildings," Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov told residents as he inspected the damage in the central Russian city.
"We will be especially careful about switching the gas back on," he said in televised remarks.
A fragment of the meteor -- called a meteorite once it hits the ground -- was believed to have plunged into the Chelyabinsk region's frozen Lake Chebarkul.
"A group of six divers will inspect the waters for the presence of pieces of a meteorite," an emergencies ministry spokeswoman told Russian news agencies moments before the start of the operation.
But Puchkov stressed that no fragments had been discovered anywhere in the region so far despite some 20,000 rescuers and recovery workers being dispatched to the region on Friday.
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.
Scientists at the US space agency NASA estimated that the amount of energy released from impact with the atmosphere was about 30 times greater than the force of 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 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 (27,000 kilometers).
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 estimates 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.
AFP
Sat Feb 16 2013
AWANI 7:45 [27/04/2024] - Siasatan sama ada Tun M salah guna kuasa | Jangkaan persaingan sengit | FFC umum tangguh misi | Mesyuarat khas dua hari
#AWANI745 malam ini bersama Dzulfitri Yusof;
1. Mokhzani dan Mirzan nafi disiasat SPRM
2. Pertandingan empat penjuru, PRK Kuala Kubu Baharu
3. Freedom Flotilla To Gaza ditangguh, delegasi dunia pulang
4. Mesyuarat Khas WEF berlangsung di Arab Saudi, ketika suhu geopolitik semakin panas
1. Mokhzani dan Mirzan nafi disiasat SPRM
2. Pertandingan empat penjuru, PRK Kuala Kubu Baharu
3. Freedom Flotilla To Gaza ditangguh, delegasi dunia pulang
4. Mesyuarat Khas WEF berlangsung di Arab Saudi, ketika suhu geopolitik semakin panas
Budak lima tahun cedera jatuh dari tingkat tiga flat
Seorang kanak-kanak perempuan berusia lima tahun cedera selepas dipercayai terjatuh dari tingkat tiga rumahnya di Flat Taman College Height pada Sabtu.
AWANI Ringkas: Kasino di Forest City
Ikuti rangkuman berita utama yang menjadi tumpuan sepanjang hari di Astro AWANI menerusi AWANI Ringkas.
Hamas sudah terima maklum balas Israel mengenai cadangan gencatan senjata
Gesaan dari seluruh dunia untuk satu gencatan senjata semakin meningkat dengan serangan ke atas Gaza kini memasuki bulan ketujuh.
World Economic Forum berbeza dari kelaziman
Lazimnya World Economic Forum (WEF) akan berlangsung setiap musim sejuk di Davos, Switzerland, lokasi lahirnya forum berprestij dunia ini sejak lebih lebih dekad lalu.
Dalam tempoh kira-kira tiga bulan, WEF keluar dari kelazimannya dengan menganjurkan mesyuarat khas dua hari, 28 hingga 29 April 2024 di Riyadh, Arab Saudi.
Ia memberi isyarat, kepentingan kestabilan rantau Asia Barat atau timur tengah ini, bukan perakara main-main.
#AWANI745
Dalam tempoh kira-kira tiga bulan, WEF keluar dari kelazimannya dengan menganjurkan mesyuarat khas dua hari, 28 hingga 29 April 2024 di Riyadh, Arab Saudi.
Ia memberi isyarat, kepentingan kestabilan rantau Asia Barat atau timur tengah ini, bukan perakara main-main.
#AWANI745
Pemain Astro Kem Badminton 2024 berpeluang berlatih di bawah jurulatih BAM
Wan Wah menjelaskan pemain-pemain yang dipilih akan menjalani latihan intensif itu di Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM).
#AWANI745
#AWANI745
PRK Kuala Kubu Baharu: Pengundi perlu pilih kestabilan - Fadillah
Fadillah berkata beliau percaya pengundi di kawasan tersebut, boleh membuat keputusan terbaik untuk menentukan calon paling layak untuk mewakili mereka.
Liga Parlimen Al-Quds: Malaysia gesa satu resolusi penyelesaian isu Palestin dapat dicapai
Malaysia antara lain mendesak Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (PBB) meluluskan resolusi menghantar tentera pengaman ke Palestin.
Palestin perlukan 14 tahun untuk dibangunkan semula
Jumlah besar runtuhan akibat serangan dilakukan tentera Israel di Semenanjung Gaza mengambil tempoh sekurang-kurangnya 14 tahun untuk dibersihkan.
#AWANI745
#AWANI745
Delegasi seluruh dunia pulang selepas misi ditangguh
Delegasi seluruh dunia dan Malaysia dijangka bergerak pulang ke negara masing-masing dalam waktu terdekat.
Ia selepas Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) mengumumkan penangguhan terbaharu misi Break the Siege Freedom Flotilla to Gaza pada Sabtu.
Rakan setugas Syaff Shukri dan jurukamera Ab Uzza Ab Latiff ada perinciannya.
#AWANI745
Ia selepas Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) mengumumkan penangguhan terbaharu misi Break the Siege Freedom Flotilla to Gaza pada Sabtu.
Rakan setugas Syaff Shukri dan jurukamera Ab Uzza Ab Latiff ada perinciannya.
#AWANI745