Well, Surprise!

It represents an astronomical event of worldwide fixation. We have been assured time after time that there may come a day when a large space object hurtling in a trajectory that brings it very close to Earth may some day on one of its returns, make contact with us. And then, it is quite possible, the impact will be of such a magnitude that its effects would destroy life within an impressive radius, the collision would send up a particulate cloud sheltering the Earth from the life-giving rays of the sun, and disaster will follow.


There are enough hypotheses relating to the manner in which the dinosaurs preceding humankind vanished from the face of an Earth they occupied for aeons, and most of those revolve around a heavenly body catapulting itself in a route that Earth's magnetic field would attract. And we would not live to tell the tale, or more accurately, record it for the posterity of the historic geological and astronomical record.

Precisely this is what may have occurred elsewhere in the Universe, and frequently. Where other forms of life may have existed, and possibly far more advanced in intelligence and social communion that we Earthlings who continue to make such a mess of our co-existence. We may some day know, and alternately we may never know. Which hasn't stopped us from sending out those radio signals over long periods of time and endless space.

Russia owns an immense geography, similar in size to Canada's, with remote territories and little-to-no human habitation in places clearly environmentally and geologically alien to human survival. Because those areas are so vast, it is more than likely there have been cataclysmic but limited touch-downs of meteors in the past. Some of these occurrences we know of as historical incidents that left their ancient impact craters on Earth's crust.

And on Friday, February 15, at 9:20 in the morning local time, a massive explosion frightened people living in Chelyabinsk, after a blinding flash of light and tremendous rumbling overhead, causing a shock wave, as a meteor of about 10 tons entered Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speed, shattering several dozen miles above ground, in its turn shattering a million square feet of glass in buildings below, injuring over one thousand people.

Seismic stations across Asia recorded something unusual. Meteorologists in Britain detected a peculiar alteration in atmospheric pressure. A blueish light in the sky, a massive flash and concussive energy. A space rock weighing in at around 7,000 tonnes, hitting the atmosphere of the Earth at over 50,000 km/hr. With the ferocity of a nuclear explosion. The intense heat and atmospheric pressure caused the fireball explosion and shock wave.

It has happened before, it will happen again. Somewhere on Earth.

Meteor causes massive explosions