When a 65-foot-wide meteor exploded in the sky on Feb. 15, 2013 with the power of 20 atomic bombs, Vladimir Petrov was 20 miles directly below it, standing on a snowy street in Korkino, Russia, by the coal mine where he worked. It was 9:20am on a Friday and most of the town was just waking up or heading to work. It was around 0°F (-18°C), frigid but not unusual for February in the small town between the Ural Mountains and Siberia.
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