Winning a gold medal is one of the highest achievements in sports, the beautiful round medallion rewards years of hard work and confirms an athlete’s status as the very best. Russia is going to sweeten the deal a bit in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (no, they’re not wrapping chocolate inside), with extra medals that have pieces of the meteorite that crashed in Russia earlier this year will be given to the gold medal winners.
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After you’re done devouring your planetary chocolates, all that remains are meteorites. At least that’s how I think the guys at L’eclat chocolates came up with these chocolate meteorite candies.
Each of these candies is made to look like a specific meteorite, such as the Henbury, the Orgueil or the Pallsovka. They even have one called the Tatahouine, named after the meteorite that fell in the Tunisian desert that served as the set for Tatooine in Star Wars. Instead of tasting like burnt up space rocks, these come in flavors like white chocolate with grapefruit and earl grey tea, and bitter chocolate with hazelnut praline.
A set of eight meteorite chocolates sells for ¥3000 (~$30 USD) in Japan, but check with White Rabbit Express for a quote to get them shipped stateside.
At around 8 o’clock tonight, a meteor that’s been described as “huuuuge green” and “very bright” and “blueish” and “glowing green” and “pretty big” and “very slow and bright green” was spotted across the east coast of the United States from NYC to DC to Baltimore to West Virginia to Boston and basically any big city where millions of people live. But unlike the Russian meteor that exploded over the sky, no one has a freaking picture of this American space rock. More »
Imagine going about your day like the people in Russia only to be smacked against a wall by a meteorite’s shockwave. That’s already crazy. But imaging being in your home, napping on your couch and actually getting hit by an actual meteorite. That actually happened to Ann Hodges in 1954. She survived. More »
As we get to know more and more about how powerful the meteorite that exploded over Russia really was, something still gets lost in translation. This video makes it abundantly clear how strong the blast was. The footage is collected from different locations throughout the Chelyabinsk city and shows how it really felt on the ground. The boom is pretty freaking scary. More »
As you all know, last Friday a massive meteor entered the atmosphere over the Chelyabinsk Region of Russia. The meteor was large enough that scientists believe significant chunks reached the surface of the Earth. The meteor also caused quite a fireball in the sky and several explosions that shattered glass and injured over 1000 citizens in the area.
Russian citizens in the area are now trying to make a little bit of money by selling fragments that they claim to be from the meteorite online. However, Russian police are having none of that and have stepped in and begun to confiscate supposed meteorite fragments listed online. Russian police officials say that they confiscated about 60g of a substance claimed to be meteorite fragments from a Chelyabinsk resident.
Russian police say that they will send the material to be analyzed to determine its composition and determine if it poses any health risks. Officials are asking people not to buy the meteorite fragments because they are being sold without permits or certification. Fragments have turned up online selling for 10,000 to 500,000 rubles (~$330 to $16,600 USD.)
[via Ria.ru]
Following last week’s meteorite explosion, scientists have finally had chance to sit down and figure out exactly what happened—and the results help explain why it shook Russia so hard. More »
If we somehow get lucky and don’t kill ourselves first, we’re probably all going to die when a gigantic meteorite slams the crap out of our blue marble. Meteorites hit Earth more than you think! Since 2300 BC, you can see all the meteorites that have pockmarked Earth. More »
A big ol’ meteroite exploded over Russia last Friday, and while the shock waves that shot across the Internet were definitely strong, the ones that shot through the atmosphere were pretty impressive too. The blast was loud enough for infrasound sensors as far as half-a-world away to hear. More »
Today, we dealt with an asteroid and a meteor. The 2012 DA14 asteroid zipped passed Earth today and a meteor exploded over Russia. What the heck is the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? And a meteorite? And a meteoroid? Not too much, apparently! More »
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