Falling Stars

Wed 16 February 2011

Falling Stars

Filed under: #satscene —— Sylvia @ 23:02

On the 12th of February in 1947, one of the largest meteor showers in recent history took place in a small mountain range called the Sikhote-Alin.

This mountain range in the Russian Far East is “one of the most extraordinary temperate zones in the world” and the host to reindeer, bears, boars, Manchurian moose, leopards and tigers. Apparently, wolves are scarce because the tigers keep killing them to get rid of competition.

On the 12th of February in an isolated area of Sikhote-Alin, a large meteorite streaked across the sky, brighter than the sun and visible for miles around. It exploded at around 5 km altitude and a hundred tons of of meteorite iron crashed to the ground. The site is the largest crater field known, with over 106 impact craters. The largest crater is 28m in diameter and 6m deep.

Eyewitness Korney Shvets described the impact.

Sikhote-Alin Revisited

“I saw blue flame sparkling in the sky because the meteorite was burning, and there were little fires trailing behind the main body. The windows of the bakery where I was working with my mother and brother trembled. A metal door of the oven flew open, and several hot charcoals fell out onto the floor. I was only 17 at the time, and I was scared because we thought it was an atomic bomb from the Americans. It was soon after the bomb fell on Hiroshima.”

The fragments of the meteorites are scattered, some are in Russian museums, others have been found on the Russian market (sold illegally) for up to eight dollars a gram. It is believed that there are still some 70 tons of meteorite iron buried in the earth at the crash site.

And on 12th of February in 2011 these twenty-seven sexy people sent gorgeous photographs like blazing meteors through the Twittersphere.

I’m not exaggerating, take a look!