Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin Saturday proposed establishing a common defense system to counter space threats, one day after a meteorite explosion injured some 1,200 people in the Chelyabinsk region in Russia’s Urals region.
Photo taken on Feb. 16, 2013 shows a factory building damaged by the shockwave of the meteorite fall in Russia’s Ural city of Chelyabinsk. Some 1,200 people have been injured and many houses damaged as a meteorite struck Russia’s Urals region on Friday.
“Humankind must create a system to identify and neutralize objects that pose a danger to the Earth,” the official wrote on his Twitter account.
Rogozin said he would present Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Monday with proposals on how to tackle similar incidents in the future.
Local experts also advocated for the building of a common space threat monitoring and warning system.
Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos, told local media that strategic planetary defense should be a “priority” for Russia. He called for a special federal program on neutralizing space threats.
The damage caused by the meteorite strike in the Urals region is estimated to exceed 1 billion rubles (about 30 million U.S. dollars), Governor Mikhail Yurevich told reporters, adding the number may increase.
According to NASA data, the diameter of “space comer” was about 15 meters and it came across the atmosphere at a speed of 64,000 km per hour. The energy shockwave was equal to about 300 kilotons of TNT.
Last October, Russian rocket and space corporation Energia vowed to build a space rocket capable of destroying asteroids threatening the Earth.
The largest-ever meteorite impact with the Earth in written history occurred in 1908 in Russia’s Siberia over Tunguska River, when a forest area was flattened by a slightly smaller asteroid, which exploded about five miles above ground.
Meteorite damage exceeds 30 mln USD: Russian governor
The damage caused by the meteorite strike in Russia’s Urals region is estimated to exceed 1 billion rubles (about 30 million U.S. dollars), a local official said Saturday.
A woman replaces a window damaged by the shockwave of the meteorite fall in Chelyabinsk, Russia, Feb. 16, 2013. Life in Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region returns to normal after Friday’s meteorite explosion as residents start to cover smashed windows with Cellophane sheets to keep warm. About 1,200 people have been known injured and many buildings damaged since a meteor exploded on Friday morning, raining fireballs over Russia’s central Urals region, the Interior Ministry said.
The number may increase, Governor Mikhail Yurevich told reporters, noting that many buildings were affected and the Ice Palace in Chelyabinsk was seriously damaged.
Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov earlier put the loss at over 400 million rubles (13 million dollars). He said Chelyabinsk and Kopeisk were among the worst-hit cities by the meteoritic debris.
Emergency authorities have been accessing the damaged houses, schools, kindergartens and other public facilities, he said.
Meanwhile, Puchkov said there was no proof that meteoritic fragments have been found.
Earlier reports said the fragments might have fallen into Lake Chebarkul. According to Puchkov, it was only one of the hypotheses, and the fragments could fall in others sites.
On Saturday morning, a plane with the Emergency Situations Ministry carried a severely injured woman from Chelyabinsk to Moscow.
The woman suffered a spinal compression fracture as a result of the meteorite incident, the ministry said.
Source: Xinhuanet