Chelyabinsk Russia Hit By Meteor

Phil Plait wrote and updated BREAKING: Huge Meteor Explodes Over Russia..

"Apparently, at about 09:30 local time, a very big meteor burned up over Chelyabinsk, a city in Russia just east of the Ural mountains, and about 1500 kilometers east of Moscow. The fireball was incredibly bright, rivaling the Sun! There was a pretty big sonic boom from the fireball, which set off car alarms and shattered windows. I’m seeing some reports of many people injured (by shattered glass blown out by the shock wave). I’m also seeing reports that some pieces have fallen to the ground, but again as I write this those are unconfirmed."

He embeds several YouTube clips that are pretty amazing. The Verge's Russia rocked by meteor explosion has a few more.

Nature says Russian meteor largest in a century. "A meteor that exploded over Russia this morning was the largest recorded object to strike the Earth in more than a century, scientists say. Infrasound data collected by a network designed to watch for nuclear weapons testing suggests that today's blast released hundreds of kilotonnes of energy. That would make it far more powerful than the nuclear weapon tested by North Korea just days ago and the largest rock crashing onto the planet since a meteor broke up over Siberia's Tunguska river in 1908."

Breaking News has various reports.

Here's what I think is a report from the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the English Google Translation. There are photos of large holes made in ice from apparently from meteorite impacts.

Spencer Ackerman, who normally covers the defense industry for Wired, wrote There Is No Way to Stop Space Rocks from Hurtling to Earth and Killing You. "All the advanced air defenses that humanity has invested in? The interceptor missile that are (sometimes) able to stop an adversary missile from impacting? The early-warning monitoring systems that are supposed to give humanity enough time to plan a response? They are useless, useless against a meteorite onslaught."

But I think my favorite thing I've seen about this is his tweet: "Now Putin has baby Kal-El. You didn't think about that but Mark Millar called this." He's referring to Superman: Red Son which was a great idea and pretty good read.