In February 2013, in the sky over the Urals, the Russians saw the rarest celestial phenomenon - the flight of an asteroid.
Four years ago, thousands of Russians observed a unique natural phenomenon: a large asteroid entered the dense layers of the earth's atmosphere over the Urals.
The heavenly body exploded in the air. Most of its debris collapsed in the Chelyabinsk region, some fell in neighboring regions and in the northern part of Kazakhstan. The largest fragments fell into the waters of Lake Chebarkul.
The asteroid was given the name "Chelyabinsk" in honor of the capital of the region. As studies of the terrain and found fragments of the meteorite have shown, when entering the planet's atmosphere, the diameter of the asteroid was 19.8 meters, and its mass was about 13 thousand tons. The age of the rocks in the composition of the meteor reaches 4.5 billion years.
The flight of the meteorite in the atmosphere was accompanied by a number of dangerous anomalies.
So, Chelyabinsk residents saw a superbolide, the glow of which eclipsed the sunlight, and the destruction of the meteor was accompanied by atmospheric explosions, rain of stone fragments and shock waves, from which window panes were massively knocked out in the houses of the city and region.
The Chelyabinsk asteroid became instantly famous all over the world. Local residents posted videos of the flight of a celestial body and the consequences of the incident on the Internet, which gained over a billion views, and the most enterprising citizens began to search for and sell the found fragments to private collectors.
Promotional video:
According to various sources, as a result of the fall of the asteroid, from 400 to 1200 people suffered, the damage caused by the meteor amounted to about one billion rubles. Scientists were able to lift the largest piece of an asteroid weighing more than half a ton from the bottom of the lake almost a year later.
Russia officially included the Chelyabinsk meteorite in the list of cultural values of the country, and the fragment raised from the bottom was transferred to the State Historical Museum of the Southern Urals. Four years later, the meteor shard continues to be one of the most visited parts of the exhibition, and users of social networks still publish many photos and videos of the attraction stored in the museum.