Thursday,  Nov. 07, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 114 • 19 of 32

(Continued from page 18)

• The studies said the Chelyabinsk meteor probably split off from a much bigger space rock.
• What happened in the Russian city of 1 million people is altering how astronomers look at a space rocks. With first-of-its-kind video, photos, satellite imagery and the broken-up rock, scientists have been able to piece together the best picture yet of what happens when an asteroid careens into Earth's atmosphere. It's not pretty.
• "I certainly never expected to see something of this scale or this magnitude," said University of Western Ontario physicist Peter Brown, lead author of one study. "It's certainly scary."
• Scientists said the unusually shallow entry of the space rock spread out its powerful explosion, limiting its worst damage but making a wider area feel the effects. When it burst it released 500 kilotons of energy, scientists calculated.
• "We were lucky. This could have easily gone the other way. It was really dangerous," said NASA meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens, co-author of one of the papers. "This was clearly extraordinary. Just stunning."
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US Mint releases new Mount Rushmore quarter

• CUSTER, S.D. (AP) -- The U.S. Mint has released a coin featuring Mount Rushmore National Memorial in western South Dakota's Black Hills.
• The coin is part of the America the Beautiful quarter program, which depicts a national park or other national site in each state, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.
• Mount Rushmore is a mountain-side carving of the faces of presidents Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. The South Dakota quarter features two workers putting the final touches on Washington and Jefferson.
• South Dakota's state quarter, released in 2006, featured a completed carving of Mount Rushmore.

Obama to host Native American tribes in Washington

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Native Americans from around the country plan to meet with President Barack Obama next week.
• He'll host the White House Tribal Nations Conference at the Department of the Interior on Nov. 13.

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