[meteorite-list] FWD: News on the Vitim bolide

From: Pekka Savolainen <pekka.savolainen_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:08 2004
Message-ID: <3F23049F.4040905_at_dlc.fi>

Just wondering that tritium...anybody asked, has the army
any missiles missing...? It was some 20 years ago the russian
missile was crashed on the ice of lake Inari in the finnish
Lappland...fortunately not a nuclear one...;-

couldnīt help myself...

pekka

Robert Verish wrote:

>------------- Forward Message ----------------
>meteorobs-digest Saturday, July 26 2003
>Volume 04 : Number 1192
>
>(meteorobs) News on the Vitim bolide
>(meteorobs) The Vitim bolide in English
>(meteorobs) On the Vitim bolide in English
>(meteorobs) A small addition
>
>--------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 17:43:16 +0400
>From: "Andrei Ol'khovatov" <olkhov_at_mail.ru>
>Subject: (meteorobs) News on the Vitim bolide
>
>Dear All,
>
>Here are some news regarding the September 24/25, 2002
>Vitim bolide in Russia.
>It is in Russian from a press-conference which I
>attended:
>http://www.rian.ru/rian/intro.cfm?nws_id=411872
>(some pictures from an expedition to the "Vitim
>bolide" can be seen here:
>http://www.neplaneta.ru/press_konf_aif.shtml )
>I think that soon the news will appear in English.
>Those who wants to read them right now could read my
>impressions of the press-conference at my www-page:
>
>http://olkhov.narod.ru/news1999.htm
>
>Best wishes,
>Andrei Ol'khovatov
>Russia, Moscow
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 09:13:31 +0400
>From: "Andrei" <fromme_at_newmail.ru>
>Subject: (meteorobs) The Vitim bolide in English
>
>Dear All,
>
>The news info on the Vitim bolide in English have
>appeared! The first one is from France-Press:
>============
>MOSCOW, July 25 (AFP) - A giant meteorite that struck
>the Irkutsk region of Siberia last September had the
>force of a nuclear bomb of medium power and devastated
>a huge area of taiga, Russian scientists reported
>Friday.
> A 10-strong expedition of scientists and doctors
>was unable to identify and reach the place where the
>meteorite landed until mid-May. It was finally located
>in the very remote, wooded semi-mountainous region of
>Bodaibo, northeast of Irkutsk and Lake Baikal.
> "Over an area of 100 square kilometres (40 square
>miles) trees were smashed in a pattern characteristic
>of very powerful blast effects," expedition leader
>Vadim Chernobrov told a news conference.
> He said that the meteorite had disintegrated before
>hitting the ground and had left about 20 craters, up
>to 20 metres (nearly 70 feet) in diameter, with an
>explosion "equivalent to the power of an atomic bomb
>of medium size".
> A video made by the expedition and shown to
>reporters showed shattered and sometimes burnt tree
>stumps, charred by the high temperatures released by
>the explosion.
> Meteorites are large rocks which tumble through
>space and then get caught in the Earth's gravity,
>becoming red-hot with the heat of the atmosphere.
> Unlike meteors, which burn up completely as they
>fall and are occasionally visible in the night sky as
>shooting stars, meteorites are rocks which are so big
>they make it all the way to the ground.
> The brighest such phenomenon ever recorded during
>human history also happened over Siberia. In 1908 a
>meteorite hit the Tunguska region, devastating the
>forest over an area of some 2,000 square kilometers
>(770 square miles).
> Many scientists also believe that in prehistoric
>times a massive meteorite that hit what is now Central
>America may have caused the disappearance of the
>dinosaurs.
>=========
>And much more detailed article from RIA-NOVOSTI:
>=========
><http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=3345630&startrow=1&date=2003-07-25&do_alert=0>
>
>VITIM METEORITE WAS PROBABLY A COMET
>Russian Information Agency Novosti
>July 25, 2003
>
>MOSCOW - Russian scientists who have investigated the
>place where the so-called Vitim meteorite fell presume
>that what hit the taiga was a small comet.
>The object concerned was a large celestial body with a
>supposed weight of about 100 tons, which at the end of
>September of last year fell into the basin of the
>Vitim River in Eastern Siberia. Witnesses claim that
>they saw a glowing object hurtle through the air and
>break up into small pieces and then heard a powerful
>explosion. A fire started in the place of the fall,
>within a radius of 3 kilometres. Because these
>localities are hard to reach, the investigators did
>not arrive there until this summer.
>Members of the Russian expedition said they failed to
>discover metal remnants in the place of the fall.
>Besides, the character of damage and the radiation
>background at the explosion epicentre are
>substantially different from the aftereffects of the
>fall of a meteorite, believe the scientists.
>The meteorite version is also disproved by the fact
>that edges of meteorites are usually fused,
>and fragments of the celestial body have a dense
>metallic structure.
>The fragments found by the scientists resemble
>sandstone and "crumble in hands", one of the
>expedition participants Vadim Chernobrov, head of the
>Kosmopoisk research association, told RIA Novosti.
>According to him, some data, however, fail to confirm
>the comet theory.
>"The local water was found to contain tritium, a
>special kind of radioactive hydrogen, and that is
>rather strange for comets," thinks Chernobrov.
>Although near midnight on September 24, 2002, the
>flying object above Eastern Siberia was registered,
>according to the US Defence Department, by an American
>military satellite, members of the Russian expedition
>do not rule out that they deal with a rare natural
>phenomenon - a giant ball lightning or an ejection of
>special subterranean minerals that disintegrate into
>water and gas.
>Final conclusions will be made later.
>The investigations on the site of the blast are
>continuing.
>As estimated by specialists, it was an explosion of
>such a force that if the supposed fire-ball had fallen
>on Moscow, half of the Russian capital would have
>turned into desert, and the other half into ruins.
>===========
>
>Best wishes,
>Andrei Ol'khovatov
>Moscow, Russia
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 10:13:46 +0400
>From: "Andrei Ol'khovatov" <olkhov_at_mail.ru>
>Subject: (meteorobs) A small addition
>
>Dear All,
>
>First - please, excuse me for posting a duplicate
>message by a mistake.
>Second - please, pay attention that most of the data
>on the Vitim event is so sparsely, that it is too
>early for any solid conclusion. And those who have
>access to commercial satellite pictures of the region
>could help in research - just look for images of the
>forest fall, and determine, when (on the pictures) did
>it appear. I would be glad to cooperate.
>
>Best wishes,
>Andrei Ol'khovatov
>Russia, Moscow
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of meteorobs-digest V4 #1192
>********************************
>
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
>http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
>______________________________________________
>Meteorite-list mailing list
>Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>

-- 
Pekka Savolainen
Jokiharjuntie 4
FIN-71330 Rasala
FINLAND
+ 358 400 818 912
Group Home Page: http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/eurocoin
Group Email Address: eurocoin_at_smartgroups.com

Received on Sat 26 Jul 2003 06:45:51 PM PDT