JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A meteor weighing 10 tons, roughly the weight of five elephants, exploded as it entered the earth's atmosphere over Russia.
The surprise encounter caused panic when its powerful shock wave shattered glass and injured more than 1,000 people.
Just 16 hours later, an asteroid called 2012 DA14, the size of half a football field, hurtled 17,200 miles away from Earth. TIt was the closest ever predicted approach for an object this large.
According to the planetarium director at the Museum of Science and History, this is just an cosmic coincidence.
"I don't think people need to read in to it any more than it being an interesting coincidence. These fireballs, these types of meteors that we've seen over Russia this morning and all this great footage that came out of it they are neat but I don't want to say that they're rare," said Thomas Webber, Museum of Science and History.
According to Webber, these types of impacts have happened before.
"The moon is a great history of how many impacts there have been, on earth with weather the craters disappear," said Webber.
The events peaked the curiosity of those visiting the Museum of Science and History.
"I think we should be better prepared and know a lot more about these kinds of events so that we can predict them," said visitor Cheryl Hawkins.
According to Webber, it's nearly impossible to monitor every cubic meter in space. Which is why some asteroids may go undetected.
But thanks to advancements in technology we can better prepare for other threats.
"There is something called the Torino Scale that measures the possibility of a threat. There are some big asteroids, Apophis right now is the big one in 2029 its going to be very close and then again in 2036," said Webber.
He now hopes these two events will get more people interested in science.
"Lets take advantage of this not to become scared and panicked but lets learn from it," said Webber.
Parts of the meteor that disintegrated over Russia reportedly fell into a lake. Scientist will attempt to recover these pieces to study them.
While the 2012 DA14 asteroid was only visible with good binoculars in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia it was close enough to bounce radar off it and obtain infrared images for further research.
