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[Rajack]

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/15aug_russianmeteorplume/

August 15, 2013: Atmospheric physicist Nick Gorkavyi missed witnessing an event of the century last winter when a meteor exploded over his hometown of Chelyabinsk, Russia. From Greenbelt, Md., however, NASA's Gorkavyi and colleagues witnessed the atmospheric aftermath. The explosion created a never-before-seen belt of "meteor dust" that circulated through the stratosphere for at least three months.
Shortly after dawn on Feb. 15, 2013, the meteor, or bolide, measuring 18 meters across and weighing 11,000 metric tons, screamed into Earth's atmosphere at 18.6 km/s (41,600 mph). Burning from the friction with Earth's thin air, the space rock exploded 23 km above Chelyabinsk, releasing more than 30 times the energy from the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Some of the surviving pieces of the Chelyabinsk bolide fell to the ground. But the explosion also deposited hundreds of tons of dust up in the stratosphere, allowing the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite to make unprecedented measurements of how the material formed a thin but cohesive and persistent stratospheric dust belt.

"We wanted to know if our satellite could detect the meteor dust," said Gorkavyi, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who led the study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. "Indeed, we saw the formation of a new dust belt in Earth's stratosphere, and achieved the first space-based observation of the long-term evolution of a bolide plume."

Gorkavyi and colleagues combined a series of satellite measurements with atmospheric models to simulate how the plume from the bolide explosion evolved as the stratospheric jet stream carried it around the Northern Hemisphere.

About 3.5 hours after the initial explosion, the Ozone Mapping Profiling Suite instrument’s Limb Profiler on Suomi detected the plume high in the atmosphere at an altitude of about 40 km, quickly moving east at about 300 kph (190 mph).

The day after the explosion, the satellite detected the plume continuing its eastward flow in the jet and reaching the Aleutian Islands. Larger, heavier particles began to lose altitude and speed, while their smaller, lighter counterparts stayed aloft and retained speed – consistent with wind speed variations at the different altitudes.

By Feb. 19, four days after the explosion, the faster, higher portion of the plume had snaked its way entirely around the Northern Hemisphere and back to Chelyabinsk. But the plume’s evolution continued: At least three months later, a detectable belt of bolide dust persisted around the planet.

I have to admit, this is pretty cool.

 

[Zapages]

it'll be cool that the ring becomes something jupiter or saturn-lite...

 

[Woorloog]

it'll be cool that the ring becomes something jupiter or saturn-lite...

Nope, because it ain't in space, unlike rings of Saturn or Uranus or Jupiter.

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Neat.

 

[Clydefrog]

aw yiss

motha
fuckin
meteor crumbs

 

[Ferrio]

it'll be cool that the ring becomes something jupiter or saturn-lite...

That'd be pretty terrible actually. We'd be fucked hardcore.

 

[JWong]

We're doomed!

 

[Foffy]

We're doomed!

In order for us to be doomed, we have to be in a position of true safety. We aren't.

 

[Winterfang]

it'll be cool that the ring becomes something jupiter or saturn-lite...

I though it was Uranus the other one with rings.

 

[Woorloog]

I though it was Uranus the other one with rings.

Jupiter has rings too but they ain't really visible. Doesn't seem to be common knowledge...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_jupiter

 

[Huevos de Oro]

I though it was Uranus the other one with rings.

I'd have to take a look at Uranus again to make sure. Can't remember.

 

[televator]

It'd be cool if they were visible...

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

I'd have to take a look at Uranus again to make sure. Can't remember.

It's too dark to see the ring.

 

[Archaeopteryx]

I though it was Uranus the other one with rings.

All the gas giants have ring systems.

This is cool, reminds me of the pictures that went around showing what it would be like on earth if we had a Saturn like ring system.

 

[Woorloog]

It'd be cool if they were visible...

For the ring to be visible, they'd have to be in space (this dust ring is in stratosphere, not actually in space...) and consist relatively large objects (Saturn's rings consist objects from 1cm (or less) to 10 meters in diameter), and quite a lot of them (ie making a wide ring or thick ring).

 

[Lamel]

An 18 meter meteor is able to do this. With enough energy as 30x atom bombs.

Imagine something bigger.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Speaking of rings, imagine how fucking cool it would be to just be on a spaceship passing Saturn. Like I can't even conceive of an object that large.

 

[Woorloog]

An 18 meter meteor is able to do this. With enough energy as 30x atom bombs.

Imagine something bigger.

Hmm. A giant crater in place of some city. A giant crater in place of a continent. A collection of rocks in place of a planet... a ring around the sun in place of a planet...

 

[British Monsoon]

Sounds like the perfect delivery system for an alien virus. Just a standard meteor exploding as it impacts with our atmosphere, the scientists say, unaware that the remains of the xeno-engineered asteroid are infecting our very planet.

 

[Clydefrog]

An 18 meter meteor is able to do this. With enough energy as 30x atom bombs.

Imagine something bigger.

a couple of years ago, that one Icelandic volcano made air travel impossible across all of Europe for a week. before we worry about shit hitting earth, we gotta worry about earth shitting itself

 

[UraMallas]

a couple of years ago, that one Icelandic volcano made air travel impossible across all of Europe for a week. before we worry about shit hitting earth, we gotta worry about earth shitting itself

Not at all. The chances of an Earth-wide cataclysmic event form beneath us much smaller than from above.

 

[Burt]

Imagine if that thing hit the ground. Jesus.