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February 15, 2013
Russian Meteor Strike, Close Asteroid Flyby to Boost Asteroid Research Efforts
 By Doug Mohney, Contributing Editor
Timing, as they say, is everything. A meteor hit in the Russian Urals region Friday morning, February 15, 2012, in combination with the a close flyby of a near-Earth asteroid on the same day is trigging a wave of awareness that should prove beneficial to NASA, not-for-profit and commercial efforts to learn more about the rocks that crowd our skies.
Hundreds of people have been hurt and thousands of buildings have been damaged in this morning's meteor fall in central Russia, reports RIA Novosti. As of late afternoon local time, around 1,000 people had been reported injured. The majority of those had suffered cuts from broken glass, with a government official calling two-thirds of the injuries "very light."
Russian officials immediately mobilized 20,000 emergency workers and were monitoring radiation levels, a concern due to the number of nuclear facilities in the area including the country's largest nuclear fuel-processing plant... Read More
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