Security camera video showing the impact of the largest piece of the Chelyabinsk meteorite striking Lake Chebarkul on Feb. 15, 2013. Credit: Nikolaj Mel’nikov
While it may not be much to look at, the simple fact that it was recorded at all makes it an incredibly rare and invaluable document of the great Russian meteorite fall. You’ll recall that a house-sized meteoroid created a gigantic fireball over Chelyabinsk in Russia’s Ural Mountain region on Feb. 15 this year. It was probably the most photographed fireball in history thanks to all the dashcams that recorded the scene as people headed to work on that clear, cold morning.
The meteoroid or tiny asteroid that entered Earth’s atmosphere that day was the size of a five-story building, but it broke up into thousands of much smaller pieces from the pressure and shock of hitting our protective blanket of air at over 41,000 mph (66,960 km/hr) or 60 times the speed of sound.
One of those pieces – the largest found to date – punched a 20-foot-wide (6-meter) hole in Lake Chebarkul about 43 miles southwest of Chelyabinsk. No one witnessed the moment of impact, but divers using special equipment discovered a half-ton meteorite buried in the muck in the bottom of the lake. The rock was finally fished out with great effort on Oct. 16 and taken ashore to be weighed. As it was lifted in
Meteors leave brilliant trails that make a great spectacle; large ones like Chelyabinsk leave trails that linger for many minutes, providing countless opportunities for photos. But what about the stuff that survives the fiery plunge and makes it to the ground as meteorites?
Very rarely does anyone ever see a meteorite strike the ground. Video or still picture recordings are rarer still. That’s why it’s worth a minute to study the Chebarkul video to appreciate what you’re seeing. It recently popped up on Youtube as part of an online presentation on the Chelyabinsk airburst by Peter Jenniskens, noted meteorite expert and senior research scientist at the SETI Institute. You can watch Jenniskens’ full report HERE.
Biggest hunk of Chelyabinsk meteorite pulled from Lake Chebarkul
When you watch the video, make it “full-screen” and focus your attention on the area to the left of the small, rectangular ice fishing shack at the top middle of the image. In the slowed-down part of the footage you’ll see a cloud of ice and snow blow up and quickly drift to the right of the shack immediately after impact. Can you see it? If not, I grabbed the video frame showing the moment-by-moment sequence. Give this a look and watch the video again.