Russia suffered a terrifying phenomenon early this Friday morning, February 15th. Around 9:20 a.m., a meteor entered the Earth's atmosphere and streaked through the skies leaving bright contrails of burning flames in its path.  It eventually exploded in mid-air which sent an incredible shock wave through the streets of the Chelyabinsk region in Russia.  The damage was severe, and many most likely thought that it was some sort of crazy space attack that you'd only expect to see in movies.  Some probably thought that an alien invasion had begun or the 2012 Apocalypse just took a little longer to happen than was predicted.  

Loads of amateur footage captured the extraordinarily rare event that has left at least 1,000 injured, according to various reports covering the incident.  CNN reported that a spokesperson from the Emergency Ministry for the Chelyabinsk region initially told them that 524 people were injured and 34 were hospitalized, but the number has now risen to over 1,000 people injured.  Out of the 1,000 people hurt, over 200 were young children, according to the Interior Ministry.  An estimate of around 3,000 buildings sustained damage, mostly due to broken glass which is what caused many of the injuries.

There is apparently a separate asteroid in space approaching our planet, but according to the manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Don Yeomans, "No Earth impact is possible."  They estimate that this particular asteroid will come no closer than 17,100 miles to our planet's surface.

And now, watch the video above to see the tragic, yet incredible footage of the rare meteor exploding over the skies of Russia.  Much of the footage certainly looks like a scene out of a movie.

Source: CNN.com