Chelyabinsk meteorite - the most famous meteorite impact in decades.
A spectacular example of an asteroid that disintegrated in the atmosphere is the Chelyabinsk meteorite. It fell in February 2013 near Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The parent asteroid is estimated to have had a diameter of about 20 metres and a mass of about 13,000 tonnes before entering the Earth's atmosphere, but broke up into thousands of smaller pieces. The largest piece weighed 654 kg and was recovered from sediments at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul 6 months after the meteorite fell.
The asteroid was travelling at approximately 19 km/s and, entering the atmosphere at an altitude of about 83 kilometres, exploded with the force of up to 26 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. This caused a huge pressure wave that damaged infrastructure and housing. More than 1 600 people sought medical treatment and 112 of them were hospitalised, mostly with injuries due to flying glass that was destroyed by the pressure wave.
Astronomers found that the body was observable at an altitude of 92 kilometres, and the lead in calculating the orbit is credited to the Astronomical Institute in the Czech Republic. According to the calculations, the Chelyabinsk meteorite itself probably came from asteroid 86039, about 2.2 kilometers in diameter, which was located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is a rock meteorite of the chondrite type, whose age is usually estimated at 4.56 billion years. If you would be interested in a piece of this very interesting meteorite, get in touch and we will be happy to get it for you.
