Early Friday Feb. 15, morning, a stream of fire and a tale of smoke caught the eyes of many Russians who were on their way to work. The unusual sight ended up being a meteor about the size of a bus, weighing an estimated 7,000 tons, according to NASA.
Amateur videos from dash-cams and cell phones caught the hurling meteor as it streamed across the Ural Mountains and eventually impacted earth releasing 300-500 kilotons of energy, NASA said; many are comparing the meteor’s impact to the effect of about the 20 atom bombs; 10 times of what was dropped on Japan.
Meteorite crash in Russia: Video of meteorite explosion that stirred panic in Urals region from RussiaToday on Youtube.
NASA is reporting that the meteor was traveling up to 40,000 mph when it entered Earth’s atmosphere at 9:20 a.m.
The rare glimpse and impact of a meteor was accompanied by immediate panic, according to government officials in Russia. Nobody was warned and had no clue what was happening until news sites were able to confirm it was a meteor strike.
The Huffington Post’s coverage mentions a man who believes the meteor was just a ‘cover up’- it was actually the U.S. testing a bomb aimed at Russia.
This conspiracy theory might have made more sense in 1983 at the height of the Cold War.
Now? Maybe not so much.
The meteor flew over the sky on Feb. 15 injured at least 1,000 people. Photo courtesy of www.universetoday.com
Sure, the U.S. and Russia still have their fair share of disagreements, like nuclear defense, capitalism and democracy; you know, the usual stuff.
But is it enough for the U.S. to launch a missile and blame it on an absurdly large chunk of space rock?
It would be as if the U.S. had nothing better to do. No national security threats (North Korea), no debt crisis ($16 trillion), no political battles to fight (gun legislation).
Russia is pesky, but not missile worthy.
Even with friendlier relations with the Russians now, there still remains some hostility. Nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky also told reporters that the meteor was actually a missile from the U.S.
Some speculate the Chinese launched the missile.
Crews sent by the Russian government to clean up the site are reporting zero evidence of a meteor impacting Earth, another factor fueling another conspiracy.
A Russian news site first reported that the meteor was shot down so it wouldn’t cause more damage than it did.
A rocket shooting down a 7,000-ton meteor traveling at 40,000 mph? Right.
Even if it was just a meteor that hit the earth and there was no hero, the situation is kind of odd. Almost too odd to believe it was just a meteor big enough to cause a sonic boom and leave no evidence.
Conspiracy theories almost make sense when it’s a terrorist attack or a war or a moon landing, there has to be some insane justification for those kinds of events.
Reasoning a meteor strike is not a usual occurrence for most people, so it makes sense that maybe there is a different story.
After all, this never happens.
If this is a cover up, the U.S. and China are going to have to outdo themselves next time. It doesn’t get much crazier than a missile disguised as a meteor.
Also, the Russians seem to be onto the attack plan so maybe next time, just take aim at their more fragile economy instead.
And if the Russian government really did shoot down the meteor, they should probably make it known. You know, to lessen the fears of an attack from the U.S.