[meteorite-list] Russian meteor: Stefan Geens' research updates

[Robin Whittle]

Here are some of the more interesting updates for this page (I get them
by email):


http://ogleearth.com/2013/02/reconstructing-the-chelyabinsk-meteors-path-with-google-earth-youtube-and-high-school-math/

The Korkino video:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odKjwrjIM-k

is taken from approximately this location (according to my
interpretation of comments on the above site, and a less precise
location) in the town's marketplace, looking towards the building with a
red roof:


https://maps.google.com/maps?q=54.890978,61.399411&hl=en&ll=54.890707,61.399833&spn=0.001192,0.002124&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=53.212719,37.265625&t=h&z=19

A 2 minute 58 second video taken from Miass:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-BoS_YEhfg

is looking along the smoke trail from the west, from where it appears to
be a compact cloud, with a dark band further to the west.  This is
presumably the shadow of the smoke.

By coincidence the smoke trail seems to line up pretty much exactly with
the sun.  Therefore, the path of the remains of the bolide probably
followed a path like this, which would be just to the north of where
this video was taken.

Other videos show an incandescent object continuing in an area where no
smoke trail seems to have been left behind.  That makes me think that at
least one compact, largish (a metre or so??) object did continue in a
reasonably straight line, though it would surely have slowed down and
fallen more rapidly as it got into denser air.  If there had been two or
more compact objects, I would have thought that they would separate due
to their shock-waves, but whether that separation in terms of side to
side, up or down or forwards or backwards displacement would be visible
in these videos, I don't know.  I would expect two objects to have quite
different air resistances and so to travel at different speeds.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCawTYPtehk

I am astounded the pedestrians keep on walking as if nothing much has
happened!!!


Someone linked to another map with a purple area which, I guess, is
where they predict the fragments may have fallen:


https://maps.google.ee/maps/ms?msid=216221265233140305376.0004d5da6860954d651ba&msa=0&ll=55.013851,61.333923&spn=0.872465,2.458191

Links to some other videos:

  http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=20130

  - Robin