Russian Meteor: NASA Says DA14 Asteroid Not Causing Russia Meteorites

The Russian meteor shower peppering Russia with meteorites is not being caused by the DA14 asteroid according to NASA experts. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, around 2:24 PM EST asteroid DA14 is expected to fly by Earth today by only 17,200 miles, which is 5,000 miles closer to Earth than the communications satellites circling the planet in geosynchronous orbits.

NASA asteroid expert Don Yeomans, head of the agency’s Near-Earth Object Program Office, told SPACE.com that the “Russian meteor” which exploded over a thinly inhabited stretch of eastern Europe today was most likely an exploding fireball known as a bolide:

“If the reports of ground damage can be verified, it might suggest an object whose original size was several meters in extent before entering the atmosphere, fragmenting and exploding due to the unequal pressure on the leading side vs the trailing side (it pancaked and exploded). It is far too early to provide estimates of the energy released or provide a reliable estimate of the original size.”

Asteroid DA14 would be worth billions of dollars if we could catch it. But it’s trajectory is another reason why NASA knows that the Russian meteor shower has a different cause:

“The asteroid will travel south to north. The bolide trail was not south to north and the separation in time between the fireball and 2012 DA14 close approach is significant.”

According to the New York Times, Russians recorded video of bright objects, apparently debris from a Russian meteor, “streaking through the sky in western Siberia early on Friday, accompanied by a boom that damaged buildings across a vast area of territory.”

People around the world are using the Twitter hash tag #RussianMeteor to communicate more information about the Russian meteor. Hundreds of injuries were reported, mainly from breaking glass.

Were you worried that the Russian meteor might entail a devastating impact from asteroid DA14?