BERLIN: A meteor exploded in the sky above Russia’s Ural Mountains Friday, causing a shockwave that blew out countless windows and injured hundreds of people with shattered glass. Here’s a look at those objects in the sky:

Q: What’s the difference between a meteor and a meteorite?

A: Meteors are pieces of space rock, usually from larger comets or asteroids, which enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Many are burned up by friction and the heat of the atmosphere, but those that survive and strike the Earth are called meteorites. They often hit the ground at tremendous speed – up to 30,000 km an hour – releasing a huge amount of energy, according to the European Space Agency.

Q: How common are meteorite strikes?

A: Experts say smaller strikes happen five to 10 times a year. Large impacts such as the one in Russia Friday are rarer but still occur about every five years, according to Addi Bischoff, a mineralogist at the University of Muenster in Germany. Most of these strikes happen in uninhabited areas where they don’t injure humans.

Q: How big was Friday’s bang in Russia, and why did it cause so many injuries?

A: Alan Harris, a senior scientist at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin, said most of the damage would have been caused by the blast – or blasts – as the meteor broke up in the atmosphere. The meteor’s rapid deceleration released a huge amount of energy that would have been heard and felt many miles away. Witnesses say it shattered windows and sent loose objects flying through the air.

While estimates of the mass of the meteor range from 10-100 tons, and it is still unclear if it was made of rock or iron, “the explosive force of the airburst might have been some 10 kilotons of TNT,” said Harris. But he noted that since the blast occurred several miles above the Earth, the damage would be much less than if it had happened on Earth’s surface.

By comparison, the U.S. bomb dropped over Hiroshima during World War II had an explosive force of about 15 kilotons, but it detonated just 2,000 ft above a densely populated city.

Q: Is there any link between this meteor and the asteroid fly-by taking place later Friday?

A: No, it’s just cosmic coincidence. Asteroid 2012DA14 is completely unrelated to the meteorite strike in Russia, says European Space Agency spokesman Bernhard von Weyhe.

Q: When was the last comparable meteorite strike?

A: In 2008, astronomers spotted a meteor heading toward Earth about 20 hours before it entered the atmosphere. It exploded over the vast African nation of Sudan, causing no known injuries.

The largest known meteorite strike in recent times was the “Tunguska event” that hit Russia in 1908. Even that strike, which was far bigger than the one that happened over Russia Friday, didn’t injure anyone.

Scientists believe that an even larger meteorite strike on what today is Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula may have been responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.

According to that theory, the impact would have thrown up vast amounts of dust that blanketed the sky for decades and altered the climate on Earth.

Q: What can scientists learn from Friday’s strike?

A: Bischoff says scientists and treasure hunters are probably already racing to find pieces of the meteorite. Some meteorites can be very valuable, selling for up to $670 per gram, depending on their origin and composition.

As meteors have remained largely unchanged for billions of years – unlike rocks on Earth that have been affected by erosion and volcanic outbreaks – scientists will study the fragments to learn more about the early universe.

Harris, of the German Aerospace Center, says some meteorites are also believed to carry organic material and may have influenced the development of life on Earth.

Q: What would happen if a meteorite hit a major city?

A: Scientists hope never to find out, but they have been trying to prepare for such an event anyway. Von Weyhe, the European Space Agency spokesman, says experts from Europe, the United States and Russia are already discussing how to spot potential threats sooner and avert them.

But don’t expect a Hollywood-style mission to fly a nuclear bomb into space and blow up the asteroid, like in the movie “Armageddon.”

“It’s a global challenge and we need to find a solution together,” he said. “But one thing’s for sure, the Bruce Willis ‘Armageddon’ method won’t work.”