by Yossra Hamza
Russia's chelyabinsk meteor
Where were you on the 15th of February 2013? On that very day, I was at home watching television, when suddenly reports of a meteor explosion in the sky above Chelyabinsk, Russia occurred. In a matter of minutes, videos were being published on YouTube of the meteor explosion. I sat there in awe and shock as I repeated the video over and over again. It’s been reported that the Chelyabinsk meteor is the largest event ever known to man since the meteor strike near Tunguska (a river in Russia) in 1908 (Conners). This event has startled many scientists as they study the remnants of the meteor and the impact it had. Many scientists are also attempting to understand the origins of this meteor. Luckily enough in September, they found the largest remnant from the meteor under the Lake of Chebarkul (“Chelyabinsk meteor…”). This remnant is critical for scientists because they use it for sampling and analysis for studies. One of the many discoveries made about this specific meteorite is that it had “shock veins”, which will be discussed later in this article.
In order to fully understand the extent of the explosion, one can compare the Chelyabinsk explosion to the energy of twelve Hiroshima bombs. More so, as most images show, the explosion over Chelyabinsk was extremely bright and many scientists argue that the extent of the brightness was similar to the brightness of thirty suns (Conners; Chan). Clearly, this energy would have caused greater damage to Russia had it landed in are habited by a larger population. Nonetheless, this meteor still did affect the people of Russia since there were 7,000 buildings damaged and 1,500 people injured (Conners). People in Russia were largely affected by this event and are in fear that this may occur again. Question is where did this meteor come from?
The answer to where the meteor came from is still unknown to scientists and researchers. However, more agree that it most likely came from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Recent studies show that from analysis of the remaining fragments, the Chelyabinsk meteor was approximately 4.5 billion years old (“Chelyabinsk meteor…”). More so, it took 1.2 million years to reach Earth. It was found that approximately 76% of the meteor evaporated leaving only 0.05% of the fragments from the original meteor to be found on Earth (Szondy). Nonetheless, despite the fact that most of the meteor was evaporated the remaining fragments have allowed scientists and researchers to study it and collect data. In fact, one of the most interesting discoveries made about this meteor is the “shock veins” found from the fragments.
Shock veins are formed when collisions occur in space, most likely from asteroid impacts around 4.4 billion years ago (Conners). Surprisingly enough, scientists found that these meteorite fragments are weak due to the cracks from the shock veins. This explains why the meteoroid’s explosion was not as devastating as expected when it reached Earth’s ground (Conners; Chan).
Clearly, there still so much to learn about this meteoroid and it’s origins. So far has been discovered such as where it could have possibly originated from, how long it has been traveling to earth, the presence of shock veins and why it evaporated when it reached earth. Scientists are currently busy at work trying to understand this phenomenon, and hopefully as time goes by all will be revealed.
Chan, Shireen. "Chelyabinsk Meteor Explosion a 'Wake-up Call', Scientists Warn (Op-Ed)." LiveScience.com. N.p., 6 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. <http://www.livescience.com/41014-chelyabinsk-meteor-explosion-a-wake-up-call-scientists-warn.html>.
Conners, Deanna. "Shock veins in Russian meteorite helped break it up." EarthSky. N.p., 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. <http://earthsky.org/earth/shock-veins-russian-meteorite-helped-it-break-up>.
Szondy, David. "NASA team uncovers new data on Chelyabinsk meteoroid." Gizmag. N.p., 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. <http://www.gizmag.com/chelyabinsk-results/29687/>.
Voice of Russia. "Chelyabinsk meteor had flown to Earth for over 1.2 mln years - researchers." Voice of Russia. N.p., 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. <http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_05/Chelyabinsk-meteor-had-flown-to-Earth-for-over-1-2-mln-years-researchers-4853/>.
Credit to Qing-zhu Yin, UC Davis.