200 square meters of glass shattered in the city of Chelyabinsk * A senior member of the European Space Agency: apparently it is a small asteroid

The Russian government will meet today to discuss the consequences of the meteor explosion over the South Ural region on Friday and to recommend that other countries join the "Needle Point" project

"On Friday, at 03:15 GMT, 09:15 local time, a space object exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia.

The size, mass and composition of the object are still unknown, but from the video clips, in which a fireball and an explosion are seen, a scientist at the European Space Agency estimates that it is a rock with a diameter of several meters that exploded less than 10 kilometers above the ground."

Says Detlef Koschny from the Office of the Near Earth Object Awareness Program in the Space Events Awareness Program (SSA) of the European Space Agency.

The South Ural district authorities report enormous damages as a result of the shock wave created by the meteor, and just as one example of the extent of the damage - the area of ​​windows that must now be provided to the residents in place of those that were shattered is estimated to be 200 square meters.
"In this type of event, if the height of the explosion is less than 10 km, the shock wave created in it can cause damage in the field, such as shattering windows. Remains of the bone will be found later.

"According to the current information, which is not yet complete or confirmed, it is a small asteroid" says Kucheni. "There is no way to predict the approach of such an object with the technological means we have today." He adds and emphasizes what NASA also said, that there is no connection between the meteor or the meteorite in Russia and the asteroid 2012 DA14 that approached the Earth on Friday evening, about 15 hours later (19:27 GMT)."

Detecting near-Earth objects that are large enough to cause damage if they enter the atmosphere is the main mission of the European Space Agency's SSA program. In addition to scanning the sky using the European Space Agency's optical ground station in Tenerife, Spain, SSA collaborates with other existing European and international asteroid survey activities. The program also sponsors groups of astronomers in Europe, who assist in scanning with equipment or allotment of observing time at the telescope in Tenerife. The office also provides access to route forecasts, approach flight details and other data via Its technical website .

"Friday's event is an important reminder of why we need the ongoing efforts to survey and identify near-Earth objects," said Thomas Reiter, director of the Space Launch and Manned Missions Department at the European Space Agency. "The SSA program is developing a system of automated optical telescopes that will be able to detect asteroids and other objects orbiting the Sun."

The goal of the European Space Agency, together with its partners all over the world, is to identify near-Earth objects that are larger than 40 meters in diameter, at least three weeks before they reach the closest point to Earth. To achieve this, the agency, the European space industry and other organizations have developed a system of automatic telescopes, each one meter in diameter, capable of scanning the entire sky in one night.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on his Twitter account that, on Monday, February 18 (today), the government headed by Dmitry Medvedev "intends to present an objective picture of what happened in the Ural Mountains and to offer other countries to participate in the "Needle Tip" project in order to prevent future harm from bodies from space the outside".

to the announcement of the European Space Agency

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