2002 Vitim event

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Vitim bolide impact site

The 2002 Vitim event or Bodaybo event is believed to be an impact by a bolide (fireball) in the Vitim River basin. It occurred near the town of Bodaybo in the Mamsko-Chuisky district of Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, Russia on September 25, 2002 at approximately 22:00 (local time, UTC/GMT +9 hours: ISO 8601 format 2002-09-25T13:00Z). The event was detected by a US military missile-defense satellite.^[1]

Analysis[]

Attempts were made to define the magnitude of the explosion. U.S. military analysts calculated it was around 0.86 terajoules (0.21 kilotonnes of TNT).^[1] Peter Brown estimates the total yield of both Bodiabo and Tagish Lake at about 2 kilotons—a factor of roughly 10,000 less than the Tunguska event.^[1] Russian physicist Andrey Olkhovatov estimates it at 4–5 kilotons.^{[citation needed]}

Information about the event appeared in the mass media and among scientists after only a week. A small expedition, sent by the Institute of Sun–Earth Physics (Irkutsk), tried to find a meteorite within about 10 km from Bodaybo town (people told them– "it has fallen beyond the nearest mountain").

Expeditions[]

• 1st - Russian MChS (Emergency Rescue) team tried to find an object near Bodaybo.
• 2nd - October, 2002 expedition of Irkutsk State University (leader S. Yazev).

Official expeditions in 2002–2003 never reached the impact site, situated in remote Siberian taiga.

Kosmopoisk expedition[]

As reported by the ufology organization Kosmopoisk, in May 2003 an expedition, performed by Kosmopoisk (leader — Vadim Chernobrov) reached a presumed impact point (about 50 km from Vitimsky settle point). The situation there looked similar to that of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River after the Tunguska event in 1908.^{[citation needed][dubious – discuss]} Snow and water samples were analyzed and found to contain an abnormal amount of tritium, as well as radioactive isotopes of cobalt and caesium.^{[citation needed]} Chernobrov suggested that the Vitim event could be caused by a low density comet nucleus with a diameter of about 30–100 meters.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• List of meteor air bursts
• Eastern Mediterranean event

References[]

External links[]

• The Vitim bolide at Meteorites Australia (Meteorites.com.au) (latest update 26 March 2006)
• CCNet bulletin 50/2003 (7 June 2003), Cambridge Conference Network archive
• CCNet bulletin 55/2003 (10 July 2003), Cambridge Conference Network archive
• Whitehouse, David (8 October 2002). "Cash plea for space impact study". BBC News. Retrieved 3 April 2014.
• Shepherd, Robin (June 7, 2003). "Siberia meteorite flattens 40 sq miles". timesonline.co.uk. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007.
• Kasatkina, E.A. & Shumilov, O.I. (2005). Some atmospheric and magnetospheric effects possibly related to the Vitim bolide impact. Retrieved June 24, 2005. [1]
• Chernobrov, Vadim & Soleny, Alexander & Lawrence, Maria (2003). Results from the VITIM-2003 expedition [2]

Coordinates: 58°16′16″N 113°27′13″E / 58.271016°N 113.453579°E / 58.271016; 113.453579