Before exploding, the meteor was about 15 meters (50 feet) in diameter - the size of a large house - and weighed roughly 7,000 metric tons (15.4 million pounds), which is about 34 times the Statue of Liberty. Now, various sources report that the Russian Academy of Science has offered a drastically different estimate (10 metric tons), but that seems to have been the very first preliminary estimate.
3. Composition.
This is not yet known to any degree of certainty, but the fact that it fragmented before reaching the ground is indicative of a stony rather than metallic asteroid.
4. Power of the explosion.
The meteor expert interviewed by Scientific American places the power of the airburst at around 300 kilotons TNT equivalent - about 20 times the power of the Hiroshima bombing (~15 kt). Given how high in the atmosphere the explosion occurred, and the angle of entry, this would seem reasonably consistent with the relatively modest damage that occurred. It is the most powerful airburst recorded since the Tunguska event in 1908, which also occurred in Russia.
5. Speed of entry.
It was traveling at 65,000 km/h (40,000 mph), which we are told is a typical speed, and lasted only 30 seconds in the atmosphere. This is why hoax claims to the effect that the meteor was shot down by Russian missiles are easily dismissed - no existing weapons system is capable of detecting an atmospheric entry, launching a missile, and delivering the missile to a high altitude in front of an object traveling that fast within that short a period of time. And even if they could, it's doubtful that available conventional warheads would make a dent in an object that massive. There has no been no motivation to develop such a defensive system because ICBM payloads move much more slowly and are much less massive.
6. Altitude of the explosion.
Apparently the meteor burst between 50-20 km high (160,000 ft - 66,000 ft), which is roughly where weather balloons fly and between twice and six times the height of Mt. Everest. There's not much air up there, but to an object traveling that fast, even tenuous atmosphere is basically solid. The smoke trail you see in some of the videos may seem little different from something a low-flying plane that exploded might leave behind, but in fact it is HUGE. The fact that it looks so big from so high in altitude means that it's probably several miles wide.
Having two rare but related 'near misses' on the same day should focus more attention on coordinating the various NEO searches. Only a matter of days before 'Armageddon' gets another rerun...
It is not a crator. This factory roof collapsed and it is believed to be caused by a sonic wave. This factory can be 100 years old so nothing strange :-)
The TV channel belongs to Kremlin and they often lie . It is the case now as it has nothing to do with the recent meteor. It is a gas crater in Turkmenistan and you can see it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FGcuHTsiiA
