What happened to the meteorite. The largest meteorites that fell to earth

The Ural meteorite distracted scientists for some time from another space object - an asteroid, which is approaching the Earth at these moments. According to calculations, it will approach its minimum distance to our planet at 23:20 Moscow time. This unique event will be broadcast live on NASA's website. Residents of Asia and Australia, as well as possibly some areas of Eastern Europe, will be able to see the asteroid.

In a little more than 2 hours, the DA14 object will pass by the Earth at a distance of 28 thousand kilometers - this is closer than some satellites fly. If this asteroid weighing 130 tons and with a diameter of 45 meters collided with our planet, the explosion would be equal to one thousand Hiroshimas. 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. 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 now known for certain. All asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter that bring such a catastrophe to the Earth on a large scale, they are all known and have well-known orbits, they are all cataloged and observed There is no danger from them,” assured Lidia Rykhlova, head of the space astrometry department at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

While they were monitoring the large asteroid, they overlooked the meteorite that fell in the Urals. However, it was almost 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 too high. The military says that even if such a meteorite is discovered, modern air defense systems are not yet capable of destroying such objects. Already in retrospect, scientists derived data from a celestial body that had already fallen in the Urals - mass several tons, speed 15 kilometers per second, angle of incidence - 45 degrees, shock wave power - several kilotons. At an altitude of 50 kilometers, the object collapsed into 3 parts and almost completely burned up in the atmosphere.

“No more than 10 meters in diameter, it flew at supersonic speed and therefore generated a shock wave. This shock wave caused all this destruction, people were injured not by meteorite fragments, but by the shock wave. Now, if a supersonic plane would have passed on the same altitude, for example, God forbid above Moscow, the destruction would have been the same,” said the deputy director of the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg Sergey Lamzin.

Any space object that reaches the Earth's atmosphere and leaves 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 fall to Earth every day in the form of dust and small 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.

“A kind of trash heap of the Solar system, where all the debris is concentrated. Collisions between asteroids occur in this belt. As a result, certain debris is formed that can acquire an orbit that intersects the orbit of the Earth,” said Mikhail Nazarov.

However, some scientists believe that it was not a meteorite that fell near Chelyabinsk. They are confident that no one will ever find any debris, just as the fragments of the Tunguska meteorite were not found. 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 burns up almost completely in the Earth’s atmosphere, and it is impossible to find any remains on the surface. This is similar to the Tunguska phenomenon, when no remains 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 meteorite remains near Chelyabinsk continues. At the same time, not only rescuers and scientists are searching; now dozens of meteorite hunters have already rushed to the area of ​​​​the supposed fall. The price of some of them on the black market can reach several thousand rubles per gram.

The previous post assessed the danger of an asteroid threat from space. And here we will consider what will happen if (when) a meteorite of one or another size does fall to Earth.

The scenario and consequences of such an event as the fall of a cosmic body to Earth, of course, depends on many factors. Let's list the main ones:

Size of cosmic body

This factor, naturally, is of primary importance. Armageddon on our planet can be caused by a meteorite 20 kilometers in size, so in this post we will consider scenarios for the fall of cosmic bodies on the planet ranging in size from a speck of dust to 15-20 km. There is no point in doing more, since in this case the scenario will be simple and obvious.

Compound

Small bodies of the Solar System can have different compositions and densities. Therefore, there is a difference whether a stone or iron meteorite falls to Earth, or a loose comet core consisting of ice and snow. Accordingly, in order to cause the same destruction, the comet nucleus must be two to three times larger than an asteroid fragment (at the same falling speed).

For reference: more than 90 percent of all meteorites are stone.

Speed

Also a very important factor when bodies collide. After all, here the transition of kinetic energy of motion into heat occurs. And the speed at which cosmic bodies enter the atmosphere can vary significantly (from approximately 12 km/s to 73 km/s, for comets - even more).

The slowest meteorites are those that catch up with the Earth or are overtaken by it. Accordingly, those flying towards us will add their speed to the orbital speed of the Earth, pass through the atmosphere much faster, and the explosion from their impact on the surface will be many times more powerful.

Where will it fall

At sea or on land. It is difficult to say in which case the destruction will be greater, it will just be different.

A meteorite may fall on a nuclear weapons storage site or a nuclear power plant, then the environmental damage may be greater from radioactive contamination than from the meteorite impact (if it was relatively small).

Angle of incidence

Doesn't play a big role. At those enormous speeds at which a cosmic body crashes into a planet, it does not matter at what angle it will fall, since in any case the kinetic energy of movement will turn into thermal energy and be released in the form of an explosion. This energy does not depend on the angle of incidence, but only on mass and speed. Therefore, by the way, all craters (on the Moon, for example) have a circular shape, and there are no craters in the form of trenches drilled at an acute angle.

How do bodies of different diameters behave when falling to Earth?

Up to several centimeters

They completely burn up in the atmosphere, leaving a bright trail several tens of kilometers long (a well-known phenomenon called meteor). The largest of them reach altitudes of 40-60 km, but most of these “specks of dust” burn up at altitudes of more than 80 km.

Mass phenomenon - within just 1 hour, millions (!!) of meteors flash in the atmosphere. But, taking into account the brightness of the flashes and the observer’s viewing radius, at night in one hour you can see from several to dozens of meteors (during meteor showers - more than a hundred). Over the course of a day, the mass of dust from meteors deposited on the surface of our planet is calculated in hundreds and even thousands of tons.

From centimeters to several meters

Fireballs- the brightest meteors, the brightness of which exceeds the brightness of the planet Venus. The flash may be accompanied by noise effects, including the sound of an explosion. After this, a trail of smoke remains in the sky.

Fragments of cosmic bodies of this size reach the surface of our planet. It happens like this:

At the same time, stone meteoroids, and especially ice ones, are usually crushed into fragments due to explosion and heating. Metal ones can withstand pressure and fall onto the surface entirely:

If the speed of entry into the atmosphere was very high (oncoming trajectory), then such meteoroids have much less chance of reaching the surface, since the force of their friction with the atmosphere will be much greater. The number of fragments into which a meteoroid is fragmented can reach hundreds of thousands; the process of their fall is called meteor Rain.

Over the course of a day, several dozen small (about 100 grams) fragments of meteorites can fall to Earth in the form of cosmic fallout. Considering that most of them fall into the ocean, and in general, they are difficult to distinguish from ordinary stones, they are found quite rarely.

The number of times a meter-sized cosmic bodies enter our atmosphere is several times a year. If you are lucky and the fall of such a body is noticed, there is a chance to find decent fragments weighing hundreds of grams, or even kilograms.

17 meters - Chelyabinsk bolide

Supercar- this is what is sometimes called especially powerful meteoroid explosions, like the one that exploded in February 2013 over Chelyabinsk. The initial size of the body that then entered the atmosphere varies according to various expert estimates, on average it is estimated at 17 meters. Weight - about 10,000 tons.

The object entered the Earth's atmosphere at a very acute angle (15-20°) at a speed of about 20 km/sec. It exploded half a minute later at an altitude of about 20 km. The power of the explosion was several hundred kilotons of TNT. This is 20 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, but here the consequences were not so fatal because the explosion occurred at a high altitude and the energy was dispersed over a large area, largely away from populated areas.

Less than a tenth of the meteoroid's original mass reached Earth, that is, about a ton or less. The fragments were scattered over an area more than 100 km long and about 20 km wide. Many small fragments were found, several weighing kilograms, the largest piece weighing 650 kg was recovered from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul:

Damage: Almost 5,000 buildings were damaged (mostly broken glass and frames), and about 1.5 thousand people were injured by glass fragments.

A body of this size could easily reach the surface without breaking into fragments. This did not happen due to the too acute angle of entry, because before exploding, the meteoroid flew several hundred kilometers in the atmosphere. If the Chelyabinsk meteoroid had fallen vertically, then instead of an air shock wave breaking the glass, there would have been a powerful impact on the surface, resulting in a seismic shock, with the formation of a crater with a diameter of 200-300 meters. In this case, judge for yourself about the damage and number of victims; everything would depend on the location of the fall.

Concerning repetition rates similar events, then after the Tunguska meteorite of 1908, this is the largest celestial body to fall to Earth. That is, in one century we can expect one or several such guests from outer space.

Tens of meters - small asteroids

The children's toys are over, let's move on to more serious things.

If you read the previous post, then you know that small bodies of the solar system up to 30 meters in size are called meteoroids, more than 30 meters - asteroids.

If an asteroid, even the smallest one, meets the Earth, then it will definitely not fall apart in the atmosphere and its speed will not slow down to the speed of free fall, as happens with meteoroids. All the enormous energy of its movement will be released in the form of an explosion - that is, it will turn into thermal energy, which will melt the asteroid itself, and mechanical, which will create a crater, scatter earthly rock and fragments of the asteroid itself, and also create a seismic wave.

To quantify the scale of such a phenomenon, we can consider, for example, the asteroid crater in Arizona:

This crater was formed 50 thousand years ago by the impact of an iron asteroid with a diameter of 50-60 meters. The force of the explosion was 8000 Hiroshima, the diameter of the crater was 1.2 km, the depth was 200 meters, the edges rose 40 meters above the surrounding surface.

Another event of comparable scale is the Tunguska meteorite. The power of the explosion was 3000 Hiroshima, but here there was a fall of a small comet nucleus with a diameter of tens to hundreds of meters, according to various estimates. Comet nuclei are often compared to dirty snow cakes, so in this case no crater appeared, the comet exploded in the air and evaporated, felling a forest over an area of ​​2 thousand square kilometers. If the same comet exploded over the center of modern Moscow, it would destroy all the houses right up to the ring road.

Drop Frequency asteroids tens of meters in size - once every few centuries, hundred-meter ones - once every several thousand years.

300 meters - asteroid Apophis (the most dangerous known at the moment)

Although, according to the latest NASA data, the probability of the Apophis asteroid hitting the Earth during its flight near our planet in 2029 and then in 2036 is practically zero, we will still consider the scenario of the consequences of its possible fall, since there are many asteroids that have not yet been discovered, and such an event can still happen, if not this time, then another time.

So... the asteroid Apophis, contrary to all forecasts, falls to Earth...

The power of the explosion is 15,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. When it hits the mainland, an impact crater with a diameter of 4-5 km and a depth of 400-500 meters appears, the shock wave demolishes all brick buildings in an area with a radius of 50 km, less durable buildings, as well as trees falling at a distance of 100-150 kilometers from the place falls. A column of dust, similar to a mushroom from a nuclear explosion several kilometers high, rises into the sky, then the dust begins to spread in different directions, and within a few days it spreads evenly across the entire planet.

But, despite the greatly exaggerated horror stories that the media usually scare people with, nuclear winter and the end of the world will not come - the caliber of Apophis is not enough for this. According to the experience of powerful volcanic eruptions that took place in the not very long history, during which huge emissions of dust and ash also occur into the atmosphere, with such an explosion power the effect of “nuclear winter” will be small - a drop in the average temperature on the planet by 1-2 degrees, after For six months or a year everything returns to its place.

That is, this is a catastrophe not on a global, but on a regional scale - if Apophis gets into a small country, he will destroy it completely.

If Apophis hits the ocean, coastal areas will be affected by the tsunami. The height of the tsunami will depend on the distance to the place of impact - the initial wave will have a height of about 500 meters, but if Apophis falls into the center of the ocean, then 10-20 meter waves will reach the shores, which is also quite a lot, and the storm will last with such mega-waves. there will be waves for several hours. If the impact in the ocean occurs not far from the coast, then surfers in coastal (and not only) cities will be able to ride such a wave: (sorry for the dark humor)

Recurrence frequency events of similar magnitude in the history of the Earth are measured in tens of thousands of years.

Let's move on to global disasters...

1 kilometer

The scenario is the same as during the fall of Apophis, only the scale of the consequences is many times more serious and already reaches a low-threshold global catastrophe (the consequences are felt by all of humanity, but there is no threat of the death of civilization):

The power of the explosion in Hiroshima: 50,000, the size of the resulting crater when falling onto land: 15-20 km. Radius of the destruction zone from blast and seismic waves: up to 1000 km.

When falling into the ocean, again, everything depends on the distance to the shore, since the resulting waves will be very high (1-2 km), but not long, and such waves die out quite quickly. But in any case, the area of ​​​​flooded territories will be huge - millions of square kilometers.

The decrease in atmospheric transparency in this case from emissions of dust and ash (or water vapor falling into the ocean) will be noticeable for several years. If you enter a seismically dangerous zone, the consequences may be aggravated by earthquakes provoked by an explosion.

However, an asteroid of such diameter will not be able to tilt the Earth’s axis noticeably or affect the rotation period of our planet.

Despite the not-so-dramatic nature of this scenario, this is a fairly ordinary event for the Earth, since it has already happened thousands of times throughout its existence. Average repetition frequency- once every 200-300 thousand years.

An asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers is a global catastrophe on a planetary scale

• Hiroshima explosion power: 50 million
• The size of the resulting crater when it falls on land: 70-100 km, depth - 5-6 km.
• The depth of cracking of the earth's crust will be tens of kilometers, that is, right up to the mantle (the thickness of the earth's crust under the plains is on average 35 km). Magma will begin to emerge to the surface.
• The area of ​​the destruction zone can be several percent of the Earth's area.
• During the explosion, a cloud of dust and molten rock will rise to a height of tens of kilometers, possibly up to hundreds. The volume of ejected materials is several thousand cubic kilometers - this is enough for a light “asteroid autumn”, but not enough for an “asteroid winter” and the beginning of an ice age.
• Secondary craters and tsunamis from fragments and large pieces of ejected rock.
• A small, but by geological standards, decent tilt of the earth’s axis from the impact - up to 1/10 of a degree.
• When it hits the ocean, it results in a tsunami with kilometer-long (!!) waves that go far into the continents.
• In the event of intense eruptions of volcanic gases, acid rain is subsequently possible.

But this is not quite Armageddon yet! Our planet has already experienced even such enormous catastrophes dozens or even hundreds of times. On average this happens once once every 100 million years. If this happened at the present time, the number of victims would be unprecedented, in the worst case it could be measured in billions of people, and besides, it is unknown what kind of social upheaval this would lead to. However, despite the period of acid rain and several years of some cooling due to a decrease in the transparency of the atmosphere, in 10 years the climate and biosphere would have been completely restored.

Armageddon

For such a significant event in human history, an asteroid the size of 15-20 kilometers in quantity 1 piece.

The next ice age will come, most of the living organisms will die, but life on the planet will remain, although it will no longer be the same as before. As always, the strongest will survive...

Such events also happened repeatedly in the world. Since the emergence of life on it, Armageddons have happened at least several, and perhaps dozens of times. It is believed that the last time this happened was 65 million years ago ( Chicxulub meteorite), when dinosaurs and almost all other species of living organisms died, only 5% of the chosen ones remained, including our ancestors.

Full Armageddon

If a cosmic body the size of the state of Texas crashes into our planet, as it happened in the famous film with Bruce Willis, then even bacteria will not survive (although, who knows?), Life will have to arise and evolve anew.

Conclusion

I wanted to write a review post about meteorites, but it turned out to be an Armageddon scenario. Therefore, I want to say that all the events described, starting from Apophis (inclusive), are considered theoretically possible, since they will definitely not happen in the next hundred years at least. Why this is so is described in detail in the previous post.

I would also like to add that all the figures given here regarding the correspondence between the size of the meteorite and the consequences of its fall to Earth are very approximate. Data in different sources differ, plus the initial factors during the fall of an asteroid of the same diameter can vary greatly. For example, it is written everywhere that the size of the Chicxulub meteorite is 10 km, but in one, as it seemed to me, authoritative source, I read that a 10-kilometer stone could not have caused such troubles, so for me the Chicxulub meteorite entered the 15-20 kilometer category .

So, if suddenly Apophis still falls in the 29th or 36th year, and the radius of the affected area will be very different from what is written here - write, I’ll correct it

In recent weeks, the media has been trumpeting that the world could end on October 12th. Allegedly, a giant asteroid will fly near the Earth, which could destroy the planet.

While humanity is still alive, we decided to talk with the head of the Solar System Research Department at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Valery Shematovich, about why they constantly scare us about the end of the world and whether there is an asteroid that really threatens to destroy the Earth.

Valery Shematovich

Valery Ivanovich, you’ve definitely heard about this dangerous giant asteroid, which is supposed to cause the end of the world on October 12 - is there even a pinch of truth in this?

The asteroid actually flew past the Earth at about 7 a.m. Moscow time. He flew relatively close to the Earth, but close - that's 50 thousand kilometers. Its dimensions are about 13 meters, this asteroid was discovered back in 2014, it flew past us before, scientists are watching it and know its orbit. By and large, this is the most common event; many different small bodies fly past the Earth.

Then why did the media highlight this particular event? After all, people started talking about this asteroid almost a year before today.

Apparently the public has become excited after the summer season and is waiting for sensations. I read on the Internet, there were many messages that it would supposedly fall to Earth. As you can see, it didn’t fall - it flew past without any consequences.

Who's lying about the end of the world?

Who do you think is starting these rumors about the end of the world? The media or maybe the astronomers themselves, wanting to become famous?

There are often reports in the press that one or another huge asteroid will fall to Earth, which will cause large-scale destruction, the end of the world, and the like, but this is all a damaged phone. I don’t think this comes from astronomers - they are professionals and will not risk their reputation. This usually comes from the press, which takes information from astronomers, distorts the numbers and exaggerates the story. There is a special asteroid-rock hazard program that monitors near-Earth space and all objects flying past the Earth. If such an object comes very close to the Earth, scientists first of all warn the Ministry of Emergency Situations and residents, and do not write in the media. But usually the probability of a collision with the Earth is very small.

- Have there been cases when real danger actually arose?

Of course, the Chelyabinsk meteorite, for example. Astronomers, however, could not predict its fall. The problem is that it came from the direction of the Sun, and it shines so brightly that it is quite difficult to observe the sky in the direction of the Sun. But astronomers are now busy developing systems that would warn of the approach of such objects from the direction of the Sun. Today's asteroid was not coming from the direction of the Sun, so we knew its orbit well.

When will the world really end?

- Are there any asteroids that could fall to Earth in the coming months or years?

Yes, they fall quite often, but these are mostly small objects that either completely or almost completely burn up in the atmosphere. These beautiful “shooting stars” are precisely a consequence of their entry into the atmosphere. But objects larger than 10 meters do not have time to burn and produce a magnificent spectacle - a meteorite recently fell in Altai, in Canada. But the consequences of such explosions are negligible.

- And those that can pose a real danger to the Earth?

There is a whole catalog of objects that we know about. In the next 10 years, nothing from these objects known to us will threaten us. But we don’t know everything - there are many objects in space that have not yet been recorded. Therefore, a truly dangerous new object may appear completely unexpectedly.

- Could a collision with an asteroid even lead to the end of the world, or is this something out of science fiction?

No, this is not fantasy at all. There are objects that can be very dangerous. Scientists think about them. There is such an asteroid Apophis, and there was talk in the scientific community that in 2022 it could fly very close to Earth, and if it falls, the consequences will be fatal. But scientists have clarified its orbit and the threat of its collision with the Earth has become vanishingly small. It may someday end up in a more dangerous orbit in another 50 years, but for now we can sleep soundly.

Well, okay, but if astronomers discover a giant asteroid that will soon crash to Earth, then what to do next? How to prepare for this?

The question is how long before astronomers can find out about the collision and warn everyone. We cannot do anything with an asteroid approaching the Earth, but we can calculate approximately the region where it can fall and declare a mass evacuation. At the moment, we can warn people about where exactly a space object will fall at least 4-5 hours, or even a day before the fall. This time is quite enough to take people out.

This global question can only be answered with a stretch, and even then in the subjunctive mood: “If...”. Last year was replete with predictions from astronomers on this topic. It was planned for February by the American department NASA the fall of a giant asteroid. Probably into the ocean, because it will cause a supertsunami. And closer to Great Britain, exciting the coastal residents.

What didn't happen in 2017?

So, this “if” meant that the space alien would either miss our Planet, or the fall would destroy the city. It blew by: a terrible stone flew past. But for some reason, only NASA knew about the threat. Then they scared the earthlings in March, October and December. In March, an asteroid hundreds of times larger than Chelyabinsk is expected to land on European cities. In October, asteroid TC4 with a diameter of 10–40 meters approached. If it is smaller, it will go unnoticed, but the larger one will leave a giant crater on the surface.

Based on such bodies, astronomers give approximate sizes on which the threat to us depends. And they are not blind, because asteroids glow in flight, and this conceals their size. In the atmosphere they partially burn, losing mass.

Better fly further

But fortunately, all the asteroids and meteoroids flew past Mother Earth. Or they lost significant weight in the atmosphere, turning into meteor showers, harmless and called “falling stars”. As happened with the December meteoroid, which could have fallen somewhere in the area of ​​Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan or Samara. By the way, the infamous Chelyabinsk meteoroid (February 2013) flew almost along this trajectory, and the Yekaterinburg meteorite as well. Space rocks love this route!

Not all of them fly with a final stop on Earth, but many fly tangentially, hundreds of thousands of kilometers from it. Astronomers and astrophysicists take a close look at celestial bodies migrating throughout the Universe, because their flight orbits change. And after some time they may come to visit us.

When will a meteorite fall to Earth (video)

2018 is no exception for the fall of asteroids or meteoroids to Earth. It is difficult to predict this phenomenon in advance. As astronomers say, it is possible to accurately predict the fall when it enters the layers of the atmosphere and begins to disintegrate into meteor showers. If you look at the starfall calendar for the current year, it is no less than a year ago. Which of them will emerge from asteroids dangerous to earthlings is still only a matter of speculation.

Cosmic bodies are constantly falling onto our planet. Some of them are the size of a grain of sand, others can weigh several hundred kilograms and even tons. Canadian scientists from the Ottawa Astrophysical Institute claim that a meteorite shower with a total mass of more than 21 tons falls on Earth per year, and individual meteorites weigh from a few grams to 1 ton.

In this article we will recall the 10 largest meteorites that fell to Earth.

Sutter Mill meteorite, April 22, 2012

This meteorite, named Sutter Mill, appeared near the Earth on April 22, 2012, moving at a breakneck speed of 29 km/sec. It flew over the states of Nevada and California, scattering its hot fragments, and exploded over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT. For comparison, yesterday's power was 300 kilotons of TNT.

Scientists have found that the Sutter Mill meteorite appeared in the early days of its existence, and the progenitor cosmic body was formed over 4566.57 million years ago.

Almost a year ago, on February 11, 2012, about a hundred meteorite stones fell over an area of ​​100 km in one of the regions of China. The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg. The meteorites are believed to have come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorite from Peru, September 15, 2007

This meteorite fell in Peru near Lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia. Eyewitnesses claimed that at first there was a strong noise, similar to the sound of a falling plane, but then they saw a falling body engulfed in fire.

A bright trail from a white-hot cosmic body entering the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor.

At the site of the fall, the explosion formed a crater with a diameter of 30 and a depth of 6 meters, from which a fountain of boiling water began to flow. The meteorite probably contained toxic substances, as 1,500 people living nearby began to experience severe headaches.

By the way, most often stone meteorites (92.8%), consisting mainly of silicates, fall to Earth. , was made of iron, according to first estimates.

Kunya-Urgench meteorite from Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998

The meteorite fell near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench, hence its name. Before the fall, residents saw a bright light. The largest part of the meteorite, weighing 820 kg, fell into a cotton field, creating a crater about 5 meters.

This one, over 4 billion years old, has received a certificate from the International Meteor Society and is considered the largest among stone meteorites of all that fell in the CIS and the third in the world.

Fragment of a Turkmen meteorite:

Meteorite Sterlitamak, May 17, 1990

Iron meteorite Sterlitamak weighing 315 kg fell on a state farm field 20 km west of the city of Sterlitamak on the night of May 17-18, 1990. When a meteorite fell, a crater with a diameter of 10 meters was formed.

First, small metal fragments were found, and only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters, the largest fragment weighing 315 kg was found. Now the meteorite (0.5 x 0.4 x 0.25 meters) is in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Fragments of a meteorite. On the left is the same fragment weighing 315 kg:

Largest meteor shower, China, March 8, 1976

In March 1976, the largest meteorite rock shower in the world occurred in the Chinese province of Jilin, lasting 37 minutes. Cosmic bodies fell to the ground at a speed of 12 km/sec.

Fantasy on the theme of meteorites:

Then they found about a hundred meteorites, including the largest - the 1.7-ton Jilin (Girin) meteorite.

These are the stones that fell from the sky onto China for 37 minutes:

Meteorite Sikhote-Alin, Far East, February 12, 1947

The meteorite fell in the Far East in the Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on February 12, 1947. It fragmented in the atmosphere and fell in the form of iron rain over an area of ​​10 sq. km.

After the fall, more than 30 craters were formed with a diameter of 7 to 28 m and a depth of up to 6 meters. About 27 tons of meteorite material were collected.

Fragments of “piece of iron” that fell from the sky during a meteor shower:

Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920

Meet Goba - largest meteorite ever found! Strictly speaking, it fell approximately 80,000 years ago. This iron giant weighs about 66 tons and has a volume of 9 cubic meters. fell in prehistoric times and was found in Namibia in 1920 near Grootfontein.

The Goba meteorite is mainly composed of iron and is considered the heaviest of all celestial bodies of this kind that have ever appeared on Earth. It is preserved at a crash site in southwest Africa, Namibia, near Goba West Farm. This is also the largest piece of naturally occurring iron on Earth. Since 1920, the meteorite has shrunk slightly: erosion, scientific research and vandalism have taken their toll: the meteorite has “lost weight” to 60 tons.

The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite, 1908

On June 30, 1908, at about 07 a.m., a large fireball flew over the territory of the Yenisei basin from southeast to northwest. The flight ended with an explosion at an altitude of 7-10 km above an uninhabited taiga region. The blast wave circled the globe twice and was recorded by observatories around the world.

The power of the explosion is estimated at 40-50 megatons, which corresponds to the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb. The flight speed of the space giant was tens of kilometers per second. Weight - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons!

Podkamennaya Tunguska River area:

As a result of the explosion, trees were knocked down over an area of ​​more than 2,000 square meters. km, window glass in houses was broken several hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. The blast wave destroyed animals and injured people within a radius of about 40 km. For several days, intense sky glow and luminous clouds were observed from the Atlantic to central Siberia:

But what was it? If it was a meteorite, then a huge crater half a kilometer deep should have appeared at the site of its fall. But none of the expeditions succeeded in finding him...

The Tunguska meteorite is, on the one hand, one of the most well-studied phenomena, on the other hand, one of the most mysterious phenomena of the past century. The celestial body exploded in the air and no remains of it, except for the consequences of the explosion, were found on the ground.

Meteor shower of 1833

On the night of November 13, 1833, a meteor shower occurred over the eastern United States. It continued continuously for 10 hours! During this time, about 240,000 meteorites of various sizes fell to the Earth's surface. The source of the 1833 meteor shower was the most powerful meteor shower known. This shower is now called the Leonids after the constellation Leo, against which it is visible every year in mid-November. On a much more modest scale, of course.