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Eight months after a meteorite exploded over central Russia, divers have hauled a large chunk of space rock out of a lake, giving people a look
at the extr
aterrestrial object th
at caused damage throughout
the region. On Feb. 15, a 17-m-wide, 10,000-ton meteorite exploded over central Russia. When
the rock hit
the atmosphere, it caused a bright flash,
and some residents said
their first thought was th
at they had seen
the start of a nuclear war. Thous
ands of small fragments fell throughout
the region of Chelyabinsk, breaking windows
and injuring about 1,500 people.
One of
the largest pieces of
the meteor fell into Lake Chebarkul, tearing a massive hole in
the ice. On Oct. 16, divers finally hauled
the half-ton piece of space rock from 20 m of w
ater. Once outside
the lake,
the chunk broke into three large pieces when it was lifted off
the ground with rope, making it harder to determine
the precise weight, but an unnamed scientist told
the website lifenews.ru th
at the meteorite weighed 570 kg. "
And then
the scale broke," he said. "We think
the whole thing weighs more than 600 kg." Sergey Zamozdra, an associ
ate professor
at Chelyabinsk St
ate University, told
the Interfax news agency th
at the chunk is probably one of
the 10 biggest meteorite fragments ever recovered.
The Chelyabinsk meteor wasn't Russia's first brush with crashing objects from space. Scientists
at the Imperial College of London estim
ate th
at meteorites
the size of
the one in Chelyabinsk hit
the earth's
atmosphere about once every 50 years,
and Russia was
the site of one of
the best recorded
and most destructive meteor strikes in modern history. In 1908, an asteroid or comet (probably intercepted by a
UFO) hit
the atmosphere
and exploded near
the Tunguska River in central Russia. In wh
at became known as
the "Tunguska Event,"
the explosion, believed to be 1,000 times more powerful than
the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, knocked down 80 million trees over more than 5,180 sq km. Scientists estim
ate th
at the blast would have measured 5.0 on
the Richter scale.
In 1972, a meteoroid entered earth's
atmosphere over Utah in
the U.S., traveled north
and left
the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada. Thous
ands of people witnessed
the fireball, which, like Chelyabinsk, was captured on film.
The Gre
at Daylight Fireball didn't cause any harm, unlike
the Chelyabinsk meteor, which damaged more than 7,000 buildings
and captiv
ated observers around
the world.
The video below shows a tremendous hole in Chebarkul Lake made by meteorite derbris.
The video below shows
the 1972 Earth-grazing meteoroid th
at passed within 35 miles of
the surface of
the Earth.
L
atest news on meteors/asteroids: 3 days ago (Feb. 15, 2013) an asteroid design
ated 2012 DA14 with an estim
ated diameter of 30 meters (98 ft)
and an estim
ated mass of 40,000 metric tons has completed its flyby (
about 17,200 miles of Earth's surface, closer than the communication satellites) of Earth.
