MOSCOW (AP) --
A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains with the power of an atomic bomb Friday, its sonic blasts shattering countless windows and injuring nearly 1,000 people.
The spectacle deeply frightened many Russians, with some elderly women declaring that the world was coming to an end.
The meteor - estimated to be about 10 tons - entered the Earth's atmosphere at a hypersonic speed of at least 54,000 kph (33,000 mph) and shattered into pieces about 30-50 kilometers (18-32 miles) above the ground, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time, just after sunrise, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.
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Meteor falls in Russia
Comes as DA14 comes close to Earth later in the day today.
on.rt.com "If it were to hit the Earth, it could blast a crater with a force equivalent to hundreds of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima.
The last time an object of a size similar to DA14 hit the earth was also in Russia, in what is known as the Tunguska event.
However, both objects pale in comparison to the 6-mile-wide asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago."
Check out Asteroid 2012 DA14 LIVE from Samford Valley Observatory in Australia here
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2