Chelyabinsk meteorite

The impact of the Russian meteorite in Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013 is the most violent meteorite impact in the past 100 years. 1200 people were injured, mainly by flying glass, as a result of a huge explosion.

Mega impact

The Russian meteorite is in fact an asteroid. These are fragments that, like planets, revolve around the earth in their own circle. The size of the asteroid when it entered the atmosphere was about 19 meters. Three-quarters of its mass has burned up in the atmosphere. An explosion with a force of 500 kilotons of TNT followed at an altitude of about 30 kilometers (for comparison the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons). The shock wave circled the Earth twice. In the end, only 0.05% of its original mass hit Earth as a meteorite, which still amounts to about 5,000 kilograms.

Classification

The Russian meteorite is a Chondrite or stone meteorite. We made several display boxes with images of the meteorite impact as seen on the news at the time. Choose your own meteorite image or collect them all!