When the Chelyabinsk fell. The place where the meteorite fell near Chelyabinsk

The Ural meteorite for some time distracted scientists from another space object - an asteroid, which is approaching the Earth at this moment. According to calculations, for minimum distance it will approach our planet at 23:20 Moscow time. This unique event will be broadcast live on the NASA website. The asteroid will be visible to residents of Asia and Australia, as well as, possibly, some regions. of Eastern Europe.

In a little more than 2 hours, the DA14 object will pass the Earth at a distance of 28 thousand kilometers - this is closer than some satellites fly. If this asteroid weighing 130 tons and 45 meters in diameter collided with our planet, the explosion would be equal to one thousand Hiroshima. There was even an assumption that the meteorite that fell in the Urals could be part of this space monster and that other, larger ones would follow it. However, most scientists do not see a connection with the DA14 asteroid and the Ural meteorite.

"As for whether Armageddon threatens us or not. It is already known for certain. All asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter, which bring such a catastrophe to the Earth large scale, they are all known and have well-known orbits, they are all cataloged and observed. There is no danger from them," Lidia Rykhlova, head of the department of space astrometry at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, assured.

While watching a large asteroid, the meteorite that fell in the Urals was overlooked. However, it was practically impossible to see it before entering the atmosphere - neither civilian observatories nor missile defense radars can do this - the size is too small and the speed is high. The military says that even if such a meteorite is found, destroying such objects modern systems Air defense is not yet under force. Already in hindsight, scientists deduced the data of a celestial body that had already fallen in the Urals - a mass of several tons, a speed of 15 kilometers per second, an angle of incidence of 45 degrees, and a shock wave power of several kilotons. At an altitude of 50 kilometers, the object collapsed into 3 parts and almost completely burned out in the atmosphere.

"No more than 10 meters in diameter, it flew at supersonic speed and therefore gave rise to a shock wave. This shock wave caused all these destructions, people were injured not by fragments of a meteorite, but by a shock wave. Now, if a supersonic plane would pass on the same altitude, for example, God forbid over Moscow, the destruction would have been the same,” said the deputy director of the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg Sergei Lamzin.

Any space object that has reached the Earth's atmosphere and left a trace in it is called a meteorite by scientists. As a rule, they are small in size and, moving in the air at a speed of several kilometers per second, completely burn out. And yet, about 5 tons of cosmic matter falls to Earth every day in the form of dust and fine grains of sand. Almost all space guests come to us from the so-called asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

"Some garbage solar system where all clastic material is concentrated. Collisions between asteroids occur in this belt. As a result, some fragments are formed that can acquire an orbit that intersects the Earth's orbit," said Mikhail Nazarov.

However, some scientists believe that it was not a meteorite that fell near Chelyabinsk at all. They are sure that no one will find any wreckage, just as they did not find the wreckage Tunguska meteorite. We are most likely talking about a cooled comet, which consists of frozen gases.

"If the nucleus of a first generation comet invades the Earth, then it almost completely burns up in the Earth's atmosphere, and it is impossible to find any remnants on the surface. This is similar to the Tunguska phenomenon, when no remnants of the body were found, but there was a large fall of forest over a large area and the trees were all heavily charred," said Vladislav Leonov, a researcher at the Department of Space Astrometry at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Nevertheless, the search for the remains of a meteorite near Chelyabinsk continues. At the same time, not only rescuers and scientists are looking for, now dozens of meteorite hunters have already rushed to the area of ​​​​the alleged fall. The price of some of them on the black market can reach up to several thousand rubles per gram.

I deliberately paused so as not to produce myths and riddles without having more or less reliable facts. Now that such facts already exist, it is time to systematize the information.

Where did the meteorite fall?

So, on the morning of February 15, 2013 at 9.20 local time (at 7.20 Moscow time) under a very acute angle a meteoroid entered the surface of the Earth - that is, a celestial body, inferior in size to an asteroid. If such a body reaches the surface of the planet, then it is called a meteorite, and if it burns up in the dense layers of the atmosphere, it is called a meteorite. AT this case the meteoroid exploded in the air at an altitude of approximately 15 to 25 km and its numerous fragments reached the Earth. The largest fragment allegedly fell into Lake Chebarkul, which is located one kilometer from the city of the same name in Chelyabinsk region(78 km west of Chelyabinsk). The weight of this fragment is estimated to be between 200 and 500 kg. In addition, the very next day, enthusiasts of the Ural Federal meteorite expedition began to collect small fragments of the heavenly guest. The total of the collected fragments is on this moment about 3 kg. In addition to the vicinity of Lake Chebarkul, fragments were found in the southern suburbs of Chelyabinsk - Pervomaisky, Emanzhelinka, Deputatsky. Scientists also suggest the possibility of finding fragments also in the area of ​​​​the village of Shchapino and the village of Travniki.

Consequences of a meteorite fall

The meteoroid explosion in the atmosphere caused numerous destructions in Chelyabinsk and its environs. Fortunately, there are no deaths, but many people were injured by the windows shattered by the shock wave. More than 1,600 people received various injuries, of which 69 were so serious that hospitalization was required. At the moment, all the victims have already been discharged from hospitals.

Most of the damage is associated with broken glass (windows of about 3,000 houses were damaged to one degree or another), but the destruction of the Chelyabinsk zinc plant turned out to be more serious - the roof was destroyed and some walls of buildings were damaged. In the very first information that began to come in immediately after the disaster, it was this plant that was called the place where the meteorite fell. But now it is already safe to say that the destruction was caused by a shock wave from an explosion equivalent to 100-200 kilotons of TNT. For comparison, the energy of the first atomic bomb, blown up over Hiroshima, was no more than 18 kilotons.

The diameter of the meteoroid at the time of the explosion was approximately 17 m, the weight was about 10 tons, and the speed was 18 km/s.

Immediately after the disaster, they began to calculate the damage, which multiplied exponentially. It came to anecdotal situations when people themselves broke glass in their homes, having heard about compensation to victims of the explosion.

In addition, proposals for the sale of meteorite fragments immediately began to appear on the Internet, and the total weight of these “finds” exceeded not only the weight of the meteorite already found at that time, but the entire meteorite.

Previously, the meteorite was proposed to be called "Chebarkul", but subsequently settled on the name "Chelyabinsk".

After the fall of the Tunguska meteorite in 1908 on the territory of our country, I only once encountered a phenomenon of this magnitude - in 1947 in Primorsky Krai on Far East a meteorite with a total mass of about 23 tons fell in the Sikhote-Alin mountains. According to the name of the area, he received the name Sikhote-Alinsky.

Clipping from video taken by eyewitnesses.

On February 15, 2013, a meteor shower hit the Chelyabinsk region. At 9:20 local time, a meteorite exploded in the sky, 30-50 km from Earth. The shock wave knocked out windows in houses, hospitals, kindergartens, schools. Shop windows burst. Fragments of the meteorite damaged buildings.

More than 1,000 people turned to hospitals with cuts and bruises, some of them were hospitalized in serious condition. According to the stories of the inhabitants, at first a trace appeared in the sky, as if from a jet plane, and then “the sun shone”.

“I taught a physical education lesson in kindergarten and saw a white streak in the sky in the window, and then there was a bright flash, - Lyudmila Belkova, a resident of Chelyabinsk, told Gazeta.Ru. —

I shouted to the children: lie down on the floor! Close your eyes! And then another five or six explosions. One of the kids looked up, but I yelled for them to close their eyes.”

The shock wave was very hot, residents said. And in the mouth, even a few hours after the explosion, there was a metallic taste. Although the explosion occurred over the Chelyabinsk region, it was so bright that it was visible from the Sverdlovsk region and even from the Tyumen region. Part of the fragments of the meteorite fell on Chelyabinsk. The zinc plant was damaged - a fragment fell on its roof, broke it. Pieces of bricks littered the roadway.

Photo report: 5 years of the Chelyabinsk meteorite

Is_photorep_included11650867: 1

In total, almost 7 thousand people were affected in the Chelyabinsk region. apartment buildings, 740 schools, 290 hospitals and clinics, 69 cultural and sports buildings. The head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov estimated the damage from the fall of the meteorite at almost half a billion rubles.

To search for fragments of the meteorite, there were about 20 thousand rescuers. Soon, fragments of a meteorite were found, two in the Chebarkulsky district of the Chelyabinsk region, and one more in Zlatoustovsky. At the site of the alleged fall of a meteorite fragment near Lake Chebarkul, in the vicinity of the city of the same name, about 80 km from Chelyabinsk, the military discovered a funnel with a diameter of about six meters. The radiation background at the funnel was normal.

When it became known that the funnel was not dangerous, local residents moved towards it en masse.

Many of them went for fragments as a keepsake, fragments of a meteorite were put up for sale at online auctions at a price of up to 100 thousand rubles per fragment. To avoid the export of fragments from the country, I even had to connect.

Even the Chelyabinsk CJSC Patent Group tried to make money on the meteor by submitting applications to Rospatent for the registration of the trademarks Mysterious meteorite, Ural meteorite and Chebarkul meteorite.

An online survey of the population was conducted for this purpose. Thousands of people have described what they saw and heard when the meteorite appeared.

“Already intermediate processing gave new facts that eluded numerous photo and video cameras: several dozen independent witnesses indicated that during the flight of the car they heard a hiss, often comparing it with sparklers, and more than fifty people simply reported sounds without detailed description. It was a few minutes before the arrival of the shock wave,” one of the organizers of the survey, astronomer Stanislav Korotkiy, told Gazeta.Ru. - Because sound waves cannot travel distances of tens of kilometers in a fraction of a second, then this phenomenon must have a different nature.”

A little more than a week later, 2/3 of the damaged buildings were restored - glass was inserted, the walls were restored. And new fragments of the meteorite continued to be found. There were also large pieces, the size of a fist, but mostly small ones. During the first month, we managed to collect about 3.5 kg of fragments. But the biggest find was yet to come.

In the autumn of 2013, it was lifted from Lake Chebarkul with a mass of 654 kg.

When lifting from the lake and weighing, it split into several parts, as a result, it was decided to consider the largest surviving fragment weighing 540 kg as the main fragment. Subsequently, scientists clarified that it actually is 473 kg.

Analysis of the fragments showed that the meteorite belongs to the class of ordinary chondrites LL5 (the least common group of ordinary chondrites, with a total iron content of 19-22% and only 0.3-3% of metallic iron), is characterized by the shock fraction S4 (traces of moderate impact of shock waves) and degree of weathering W0 (no visible traces of oxidation). With the help of isotopic analysis, it was possible to find out that it is almost the same age as the Universe, its age was 4.56 billion years.

Czech scientists calculated that it was 500 kilotons of TNT, which is 12 times more powerful than the atomic bomb explosion over Hiroshima. They also believe that it was once one with the 2.2-kilometer near-Earth asteroid 999NC43, and then broke away from it.

British researchers determined that at the time of the flyby, the meteorite reached its peak brightness, 30 times the brightness of the Sun. Moreover, in their opinion, the number of meteorites potentially dangerous for the Earth, like Chelyabinsk, is actually 10 times higher than previously thought.

And Olga Popova, a senior researcher at the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and her colleagues found that the speed of the meteorite was 19 kilometers per second, its size was 18-20 meters, and its mass was 1.3 * 10 7 kilograms.

In the scientific community, interest in the event was enormous: the conference hall of the Sternberg State Astronomical Institute, where the first scientific reports on the meteorite were listened to, experienced such a stir for last years except perhaps only in the summer of 2012 at a report on the discovery of the Higgs boson.

In Russia, the Chelyabinsk meteorite has become a household name - many people compare it with it. celestial bodies approaching the earth. In 2014, he was dedicated to "The Universe with a light touch ...", released by the Chelyabinsk Museum of Local Lore, and a triptych by the Ural painter. Numerous recordings of the meteorite fall, made by video recorders, spread over the Internet and gave rise to many jokes and questions abroad about why so many Russians have cameras in their cars.

Fragments of the meteorite are stored in the Chelyabinsk Museum of Local Lore. According to the head of the Department of Theoretical Physics of the Chelyabinsk State University (ChelSU) Alexander Dudorov, today it is known that up to 95% of the meteorite fragments found on earth, "went around," including foreigners, which complicates their study.

Chelyabinsk is a large city of the Russian Federation, a scientific, industrial and cultural center of the Urals. This is a city of working people, famous for its industrial power and industrial records. But on February 15, 2013, the city became famous all over the world after a meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk.

What really happened?

At about 9:30 local time, residents of not only Chelyabinsk, but also remote areas observed in the sky the rapid flight of a brightly glowing unidentified object, behind which stretched a powerful jet trail. Then a shock wave swept, bringing a lot of destruction, from which more than 1,500 residents of the city suffered.

A state of emergency has been declared in the city, the forces of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, soldiers, and police have been sent to the alleged site of the fall of an unknown body. Scientists and curious people also moved there. Each channel of the Russian media sent its reporters to the scene, everyone wanted to get pictures and fragments of a celestial body.

This event shocked not only local residents. NASA was worried, astronomers from the Czech Republic, Sweden, France, Great Britain, Canada, and America became interested in the Event. A whole year has passed, but the truth about the Chelyabinsk meteorite continues to disturb both the population and scientific minds.

Restoring the chronicle of events

The winter morning began as usual. People went to work, having identified children in schools and kindergartens, students went to study.

In the sky at 09:23, residents of Chelyabinsk noticed a strange flash and unusual stripes, like from a jet plane. After a couple of minutes, each person felt the trembling of the soil, the whole of Chelyabinsk shuddered. The explosion of the meteorite caused a shock wave that swept over a radius of several kilometers. Trees toppled, windows shattered in buildings, car alarms went off, and a wall near a zinc plant was blown off.

Guess and truth

Versions of the phenomenon were different, sometimes fantastic. Someone decided that these were enemy missiles, some suggested the fall of the plane, there were those who believed in an attack on the planet by aliens.

In fact, a large meteorite fell to the ground near the city of Chelyabinsk, the second largest after the Tunguska meteorite that fell in Eastern Siberia in June 1908.

February 2013 - "space guest" entered the planet's atmosphere at an acute angle of about 20°. According to experts, at an altitude of about 20-25 km, the meteorite broke into pieces. The debris hit the ground with great speed.

Physical characteristics of the "guest from space"

According to experts, including NASA specialists, the Chelyabinsk meteorite weighed 10 tons and had a diameter of at least 17 m, entered the Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 18 km/h.

The flight of the meteorite after entering our atmosphere lasted no more than 40 seconds. The explosion began at an altitude of 20 kilometers. From the explosion with a capacity of about 470 kilotons (this is 30 times more than during the explosion of the bomb in Hiroshima), numerous fragments and pieces were formed, which rapidly crashed into the Chelyabinsk lands. The bright light from the fall was visible over long distances. It was observed in the Kurgan, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen regions, in Kazakhstan and Bashkortostan. The farthest point where traces of the flight of the meteorite were visible was the Samara region, located 750 km from Chelyabinsk.

Consequences of a meteorite fall

When a meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk, it caused a series of shock waves. Many trees were felled in the city, about 3,000 buildings and structures were damaged. In many houses, windows were shattered by the shock wave, communication was lost for a while. Most swipe fell on the Satka district. A zinc plant was partially destroyed there.

Many people asked where the meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk and how dangerous it is. The city announced emergency, all units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were sent to the scene. A conversation was held with the population, panic was suppressed, and they tried to keep the situation under control.

In addition to Chelyabinsk, the following districts of the region suffered: Korkino, Yemanzhelinsk, Yuzhnouralsk, Kopeysk and the village of Etkul.

According to scientists, if the meteorite had exploded 5-6 km below, the consequences would have been much more sad.

Place of fall

Each is of great interest from a scientific point of view. To study the nature of the origin of the meteorite, its chemical composition, it was necessary to find as much as possible large quantity fragments and pieces of a celestial body. For this, it was important to establish the exact place where the meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk.

Two main parts were quickly found in the Chebarkul region. The third main fragment was found in the Zlatoust region. But the fourth had to be looked for. It was believed that he fell in the area. Local residents, who were fishing in the lake in the morning, confirmed that there was a space stone, and fell into the lake itself. Eyewitnesses said that the impact caused a huge wave. The water rose by 3-4 meters.

Name choice

After the fall of the meteorite, 2 variants of its name were proposed - Chebarkulsky or Chelyabinsk. In favor of the first name, arguments were made that the main fragment fell into Lake Chebarkul near locality Chebarkul. However, supporters of the name "Chelyabinsk" said that the meteorite brought the greatest destruction to the regional center. As a revenge, it should be named Chelyabinsk.

Academician E. Galimov, head of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, announced that the meteorite would be included in the International Catalog under the name "Chelyabinsk".

Collecting Meteorite Parts

Hundreds of small fragments were found at the impact sites. Special expeditions were sent out to search. Only near Lake Chebarkul, three kilograms of meteorite stones were collected. The search continued for more than six months. In August, news was received that a local resident had found a piece weighing 3.5 kg near the village of Timiryazevsky.

But the biggest interest was the huge piece that fell into the lake. Its weight, according to preliminary estimates, was 300-400 kg, it went deep into the bottom silt. Local authorities allocated 3 million rubles for its raising.

A huge piece in August 2013 was removed from the bottom of the lake. His weight was 600 kg. After examination by scientists and a verdict on radioactive and chemical safety, the fragment of the meteorite was transferred to the local museum of local lore.

Mineral composition

After a while, the researchers explained which meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk. The space object is an ordinary chondrite. Olivine, iron, sulfites, magnetic pyrites and other complex minerals were found in its composition. The Chelyabinsk meteorite contains traces of titanic iron ore and inclusions of native copper, which is unusual for chondrites. The cracks in the body are filled with a vitreous substance with an admixture of silicates. The thickness of the melting crust is 1 mm.

Scientists have established that the age of the parent body, from which a piece broke off, which later became the Chelyabinsk meteorite, is at least 4 billion (!) Years. "Our" piece, before falling to Earth, wandered in outer space for some time, colliding with other cosmic bodies ...

Scary? Anxious...

Scientists around the world to this day diligently study the presented material. Many knowledgeable experts have suggested that this is not just a meteorite, but a harbinger of an asteroid. Some even believed that a large asteroid would soon arrive on Earth, and then the destruction would be catastrophic. But Anatoly Zaitsev, director of the Center for Planetary Protection of the Earth from Asteroids, explained that this was just a theory. And he assured that nothing threatens the population of the planet, and the celestial bodies flying by are closely watched.

Life after the meteorite fall

The meteorite that fell in Chelyabinsk attracted the attention of the masses, caused a lot of controversy and conjecture. Conversations and rumors around the event do not subside to this day. The city near Chebarkul Lake became known to the whole world. Scientists went here: geochemists, physicists, astronomers. Everyone wanted to see with their own eyes a messenger from space.

The fall of the meteorite in Chelyabinsk has become profitable in terms of tourism. The owner of a large travel agency says that shortly after the event, calls began to arrive from America and Japan. Someone wanted an individual tour, many wanted to organize a group trip to the place where the famous meteorite fell.

Demand gives rise to an invitation, which is why all the guidebooks have added to the significant places of the Chelyabinsk region and a zone called "Chebarkul meteorite". The price for a hike to the now historic lake varies from 5,000 to 20,000 rubles.

There is no silver lining: at the official level

Chelyabinsk authorities decided to go down in history with the help of the event of February 15, 2013 Olympic Games. They created several precious metal medals with meteorite inserts. Such an award will be received by each athlete who takes a prize-winning place in competitions held on February 15th. Everything that remains unused from the fragments found will be distributed to Russian museums and private collections.

Some especially large exhibits were collected and the corresponding documentation was prepared. With this material, a tour of museums will be made Russian Federation. Every inhabitant of the country should see a piece of a meteorite. In Moscow, the demonstration took place on January 17, 2014. Many materials will replenish the collection of the famous Moscow planetarium. Several thematic stands and posters were developed for this event.

Birth of brands

While the rescuers were clearing up the consequences of the catastrophe caused by the meteorite that fell in Chelyabinsk, many entrepreneurs did not waste time and actively used the fall of the celestial body for commercial purposes. Andrey Orlov, the mayor of the Chebarkul city district, distinguished himself with an excellent reaction in this area. Here with his light hand A competition for the most interesting brand name was organized. The winner was promised a piece of a meteorite as a prize. Under interesting names, such as "Chebarkul meteor", "Ural meteorite", "Chelyabinsk - the capital in Chelyabinsk" and "Che!", confectionery and alcoholic beverages began to be produced.

Strike while the iron is hot

Various companies began to produce clothes with the appropriate print, mugs, plates and even puzzles. First, among the locals, and then among the inhabitants of all Russia, T-shirts with a comic inscription became popular: "Nothing invigorates so much as a meteorite in the morning!" It is worth noting very original idea Chelyabinsk perfumery company. She decided to create an unusual perfume called the Chebarkul meteorite. Perfumers say that the fragrance of this "cosmic object" will include stone and metal components.

Ordinary residents of the Urals also showed entrepreneurial spirit. The meteorite in Chelyabinsk did its job. Photos of him scattered with great speed on the Internet. Thousands of requests per minute testified to how many people there are who want to see the crash site and the celestial object itself. One resourceful resident of the Ural town sold a microwave oven on the Internet market, which burned out under the influence of a shock wave. An unknown American bought such a strange thing, but for this purchase he asked to send a couple of local newspapers with news about the meteorite fall in Chelyabinsk. Some exhibited shards of glass that exploded from the explosion when they fell. And all these things were snapped up by strange collectors. Pieces of the meteorite itself were especially prized. The most low price for a fragment it started from 10,000 rubles, the highest was 10,000,000 rubles. The police encountered real scammers who passed off ordinary stones as a celestial object.

"Healing" properties of the meteorite

Hundreds of residents came to Chebarkul Lake and dreamed of finding not only an expensive stone, but also a “healing” stone. Charlatans - magicians and sorcerers - with the help of such fragments removed damage and treated for the most terrible diseases, cast out evil spirits. Entire legends and myths were invented about the influence of the "cosmic guest" on a person, depending on the sign of the zodiac. And how many amulets with a piece of this body have already spread all over the world! The meteorite was credited with simply magical properties, although in reality it does not have any healing power.

Interesting facts about the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite

A meteorite fell in Chelyabinsk, which made a lot of noise all over the world. Scientists managed to once again study the cosmic body, and someone just made good money on this event. It is worth noting some interesting moments and facts about the Chelyabinsk meteorite:

• The largest piece of the meteorite fell to the bottom of Lake Chebarkul.
• The Russian Emergencies Ministry claimed to have informed residents of the upcoming event via SMS, but this turned out to be a lie.
• Many TV channels showed not a funnel from a meteorite fall, but gas crater in Turkmenistan.
• Many residents of Chelyabinsk deliberately broke their windows, simulating the effects of a blast wave. They wanted new plastic windows from the state as financial assistance injured.
• The diameter of the funnel from the fall of the meteorite was 6 meters.
• 470 kilotons of energy were released during the explosion of a celestial body.
• Scientists have calculated that a meteorite of this magnitude falls to Earth once every hundred years.
• It is believed that the meteorite went unnoticed due to the fact that it was flying from the side of the sun. That is why the telescopes did not record the approaching celestial body.

5 years ago, on February 15, 2013 at 9:20 (7:20 Moscow time), residents of Chelyabinsk, as well as Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Tyumen regions, part of northern Kazakhstan, witnessed a rare astronomical phenomenon - the appearance of a bright superbolide (a very bright large meteor - a fragment space object) moving in westbound. The movement of the fireball was accompanied by several flashes (perceived by eyewitnesses as explosions, due to strong pops heard after a while), the brightest of which lasted from one to five seconds, according to various sources, while it felt hot, stronger than from the Sun during the day.

Later, witnesses of the event said that it was painful for them to look at the car. About 25 people out of 1.1 thousand respondents reported that they received burns, 315 felt hot, and 415 felt heat from the radiation of the fireball. One of the local residents received such severe burns on his face that his skin began to peel off, as if from an extremely strong sunburn.

A meteorite (a space object that flew through the atmosphere and fell to the ground), later called "Chelyabinsk", turned out to be "sounding": witnesses heard electrophonic sounds - this is the name for strange crackles that are sometimes heard during the flight of the fireball. Such sounds cannot come from the cosmic body itself, scientists believe that they are provoked electromagnetic fields arising during its flight.

Numerous fragments of the meteorite fell over a large area - almost the entire Chelyabinsk, together with the suburbs, fell into the zone of their fall.

The shock wave in Chelyabinsk shattered windows, doors, the blow fell on the ventilation systems of houses, part of the wall of the building collapsed on the territory of the zinc plant. The Ural Lightning Ice Palace, the buildings of the Yuzhno-Uralsky state university. The band of impact of the shock wave on the surface was about 130 kilometers long and 50 kilometers wide.

On the map of the village and the city, where the windows were shattered by the shock wave, they formed a characteristic "butterfly", the wings of which were deployed perpendicular to the bolide's flight path. Approximately the same "butterfly" on the map of the fall of the forest almost a hundred years ago was found by the researchers of the Tunguska event. After the Tunguska meteorite, this is the first time in Russia when the fireball's intrusion into the atmosphere was accompanied by destruction.

The incident did not cause any casualties, but more than 1.6 thousand people were injured, mainly due to cuts from glass of broken windows.

The economic damage from the fall of a meteorite in the Chelyabinsk region exceeded 1.2 billion rubles.

The fall of a meteorite was captured for the first time in history. The proof is a large number of eyewitnesses, video, photographic materials and instrumental data collected by the expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An unprecedentedly fast and fairly complete scientific analysis events, including their accompanying effects.

According to NASA, on February 15 at 9:20.20 local time, the meteorite entered the Earth's atmosphere near the border between Russia and Kazakhstan. It moved from the side of the Sun in a westerly direction. Due to the small angle with respect to the Sun (about 15 degrees), the meteorite was not detected by asteroid observing systems. In addition, modern telescopes are focused on searching for asteroids (inert cosmic stone bodies) more than 100 meters in diameter (according to modern ideas, starting from this size, space bodies can cause catastrophic destruction on Earth), and according to scientists, the initial size of the Chelyabinsk meteorite was less than 20 meters, and therefore the penetration of this space object into the atmosphere went unnoticed.

13 seconds later, the meteorite, which by this time had turned into a bright fireball, reached the peak of its luminosity at an altitude of 23.3 kilometers, practically ceasing to exist. On Earth, this event was observed as a powerful explosion, after which the fireball continued its movement, but significantly weakened the brightness and disappeared completely after a few seconds.

The moment of the explosion of the body was recorded by American seismologists - a shock of magnitude 4.0 was observed about a kilometer southwest of the center of Chelyabinsk. Russian seismic stations recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.2 accompanying the explosion near Yemanzhelinsk, located 50 kilometers from Chelyabinsk. For comparison, the fall of the Tunguska meteorite caused an earthquake, the magnitude of which is estimated at 5.0.

The first estimates of the explosion power near Chelyabinsk, obtained from the infrasound stations of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization, gave a value of about 470 kilotons of TNT, later data from infrasound stations in Russia and Kazakhstan - 570 kilotons. At the same time, data from optical and infrared observations from satellites showed that an energy equivalent to 90 kilotons was “revealed” only in the form of radiation, which corresponds to a total explosion energy of 590 kilotons (plus or minus 50).

The fireball began to glow at an altitude of 97.1 kilometers when it entered the atmosphere at a speed of 19.16 kilometers per second. It reached its highest brightness at an altitude of 29.7 kilometers - at that moment its brightness reached a magnitude of minus 27.3, despite the fact that magnitude The sun is minus 26.7, which means that the fireball shone about 30 times brighter.

Scientists estimated the mass of the object before entering the atmosphere at 13,000 tons, and its transverse size at 19.8 meters (according to other estimates, from 16 to 19 meters).

Only 4-6 tons of meteorite matter flew to the ground, which is 0.03-0.05% of the initial mass, while 76% of the substance evaporated, and the rest turned into dust. The explosion of the fireball led to the appearance of a giant dust ring in upper layers atmosphere that circled the entire northern hemisphere of the Earth and remained in the stratosphere for at least three months after this event.

The largest piece of a meteorite weighing 654 kilograms was raised in the fall of 2013 from Lake Chebarkul (Chelyabinsk region) from a depth of 20 meters. When weighed, it split, a fragment weighing 540 kilograms was transferred to the Chelyabinsk State Museum of Local Lore. Later, his weight began to decrease due to the evaporation of water that got into him while in the lake. In 2015, he weighed 503.3 kilograms. Another fragment of the meteorite became an exhibit of the National Museum of Natural History of France.

Studies of fragments of a celestial body have shown that this is an ordinary chondrite of the LL5 type - one of the types of stone meteorites. Its age is about 4.45 billion years. Approximately 290 million years ago, the Chelyabinsk meteorite experienced a major catastrophe - a collision with another cosmic body. This is evidenced dark veins in its thickness there are traces of melting of the substance during a powerful impact. At the same time, scientists believe that it was a very "fast" process. Traces of cosmic particles - tracks of iron nuclei - did not have time to melt, which means that the “accident” itself lasted no more than a few minutes. At the same time, it is possible that traces of melting could have occurred during a too close approach of the asteroid to the Sun, scientists from the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy (IGM) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences believe.

Scientists at the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences stated that the space object once broke away from a relatively large asteroid.

Chemical analysis showed that traces of organic compounds containing sulfur and oxygen remained in the meteorite. After the outbreak of the fireball, the residents smelled sulfur or the smell of burning for a whole day, which appeared an hour after the explosion.

Scientists have calculated that the Chelyabinsk cosmic body was in the main asteroid belt of the solar system, the region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, where the trajectories of many small bodies pass. The orbits of some of them, in particular, the asteroids of the Apollo or Aten group, are elongated and can cross the earth's orbit.

The Chelyabinsk meteorite turned out to be the largest known celestial body that fell to Earth after the Tunguska meteorite in 1908. Such an event occurs on average once every 100 years, and according to some sources, even more often, up to five times a century.

After the fall of a meteorite in the Chelyabinsk region, the "space threat" worries specialists more and more. Scientists have found that small asteroids about one meter in size enter the Earth's atmosphere and break up there about once every two weeks. Humanity is not yet able to oppose anything to larger space objects. Scientists also emphasize that space bodies coming from the daytime sky cannot be detected in a timely manner using any ground-based means.

For this reason, NASA, Roskosmos and other space agencies are actively working on the development of asteroid detection systems even before approaching the Earth, and are thinking about creating "space defense" means.

The first product of this kind was the Scout system, developed by NASA and successfully tested in the fall of 2016. She discovered an asteroid with a diameter of five to 25 meters and determined the distance at which he would approach the Earth, five days before his approach to the planet. In 2018, NASA plans to launch a whole brood of NEA Scout microsatellites into orbit to help the ground scout fill gaps in knowledge about asteroids like Chelyabinsk. When such an object approaches the Earth, one of the probes will fly up to it, take detailed pictures of its surface, and also "feel" it to study the structure of the bowels and chemical composition.

In Russia in 2016, the Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences approved the parameters of the project to create a monitoring system space bodies. The research projects are called "Daytime Asteroid Detection System" (SODA) and "SODA-detection". The system will allow detecting celestial bodies with a diameter of more than ten meters four hours before the expected time of entry into the atmosphere. The SODA project provides for the construction spacecraft, which will be sent to one of the Lagrange points - L1, located at a distance of one and a half million kilometers from the Earth. It is planned to place a telescope there, which will examine the space around the Earth.

At the beginning of 2018, scientists reported that Russia began to develop a tracking system for dangerous asteroids "Nebosvod", consisting of two constellations of satellites - in earth and solar orbits. It is being developed by the Russian corporation Kometa.

So far, no country is technically capable of destroying space objects like the Chelyabinsk meteorite in the atmosphere.