Scientists said yesterday they had discovered fragments of the meteor that spectacularly plunged over Russia’s Ural Mountains creating a shockwave that injured 1,200 people and damaged thousands of homes.
The giant piece of space rock streaked over the city of Chelyabinsk in central Russia on Friday with the force of 30 of the nuclear bombs dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima during World War II.
It exploded a few dozen kilometers above Earth, but its pieces were widely believed to have scattered over large swathes of the industrial region.
Recovery workers scouring a small lake where at least some of the fragments were believed to have fallen were unable to discover anything in their initial search.
However, members of the Russian Academy of Sciences that conducted chemical tests on some unusual rocks on Sunday said the pieces had come from outer space.
“We confirm that the particles of a substance found by our expedition near Lake Chebarkul really do have the composition of a meteorite,” RIA Novsosti quoted Russian Academy of Sciences member Viktor Grokhovsky as saying late on Sunday.
Grokhovsky’s Urals Federal University separately posted a statement on its Web site yesterday that featured a photograph of a person holding a tiny piece of porous black rock between his index finger and thumb.
“This meteorite belongs to the class of regular chondrites,” the university statement said.
Grokhovsky said the rock in question was composed in part of metallic iron as well as chrysolite and sulfite.
Its iron content was estimated at 10 percent.
“Most likely, [the find] will be called Meteorite Chebarkul,” the university said.
The meteor’s shockwave blew out the windows of nearly 5,000 buildings and left 40 people — including three children — recovering in hospital on Sunday with cuts and more serious injuries.
About 24,000 emergency workers and volunteers were busy replacing smashed windows over the weekend in time for the resumption of school and work.
However, the elusive meteorites — meteor fragments that have hit Earth — have generated interest as well.
Russian space debris hunters have posted ads on Web sites offering as much as 300,000 rubles (US$10,000) for an authentic piece of the latest space rock to hit the planet.
Chelyabinsk authorities responded by cordoning off the area around the lake and not allowing any media or independent researchers hunting for meteorites near the hole that developed in its thick sheet of ice.
Grokhovsky said the tiny rock’s find and 50 others like it came in the snow not far away from the lake.
He also expressed confidence that a much larger meteorite was buried in its waters despite claims from the authorities that it was empty.
The lake “is still cordoned off, but it is quite clear that a meteorite is buried there,” the scientist said.
“Since we found the fragments — traces of the upper layers of the meteorite — that means that its main mass is resting in the lake,” he told the Interfax news agency yesterday.
Grokhovsky added that his research team had not been commissioned by the Russian government, but was acting on its own because the event was so rare and required immediate inspection.
“We decided to do this on our own,” he told Interfax.
“As a member of the [Russian Academy of Sciences] committee, I simply could not stand idly by. So I decided to send our guys there,” he said.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS