The first firm details of the 15 February asteroid impact in Russia, the largest in more than a century, are becoming clear. ESA is carefully assessing the information as crucial input for developing the Agencys asteroid-hunting effort. At 03:20 GMT on 15 February, a natural object entered the atmosphere and disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia. Extensive video records indicate a northeast to southwest path at a shallow angle of 30° above the horizontal. The entry speed is estimated at around 18 km/s - more than 64 000 km/h. Read more
Ed ~ The total kinetic energy is simply ½mv² (ie mass = ~10000 tonnes, Velocity = ~18km/sec)
Scores of online bargain deals have spawned all over the Internet following the Friday meteorite crash in central Russias Chelyabinsk, with many opportunities grabbing at the change of making easy profits from auctioning off what they claim to be fragments of the genuine meteor. Read more
Meteorite fragments found in Russia's Urals region
Fragments from a meteorite have been found in Russia's Urals region where it struck on Friday, injuring some 1,200 people, Russian scientists say. The fragments were detected around a frozen lake near Chebarkul, a town in the Chelyabinsk region, where the meteorite is believed to have landed. Viktor Grohovsky, of the Urals Federal University, told Russian media that the material contained about 10% iron. Read more
Meteorite Fragments Found in Icy Urals Lake - Scientists
The fragments of a meteorite that hit Russias Urals on Friday, injuring more than 1,000 people in the area, have been found by scientists in Lake Chebarkul, in the Chelyabinsk Region. Read more
Divers Search Frozen Russian Lake For Meteorite Fragments
Divers scoured the bottom of a Russian lake on Saturday for fragments of a meteorite that plunged to Earth in a blinding fireball whose shockwaves injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes. Read more
The biggest impact reportedly left a crater measuring around six meters across on the edge of a frozen lake, 80 kilometres west of Chelyabinsk city. Drivers spent three hours scouring the bottom of Lake Chebarkul looking for fragments which were believed to have plunged into the waters, but were unsuccessful. Read more
NASA has revised their size and energy estimates for the Russia meteor upon review of further data. Scientists now believe the small asteroid was about 17 meters, or 55 feet, in diameter and had a mass of 10,000 tons. The revised estimate of energy unleashed by the meteor is about 500 kilotons, more than 30 times the blast yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Read more
Russian meteor exploded with force of 30 Hiroshima bombs
The 55 foot wide rock, said by Nasa to have a mass of 10,000 tonnes, lit up the sky above the Urals region on Friday morning, causing shockwaves that injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes in an event unprecedented in modern times. Read more