On Wednesday, Russian divers recovered a sunken half-tonne "suspected" meteorite that had descended from space on February 14, 2013. The shockwave induced from the meteor had affected as many as 1200-1500 people in the Urals.
Why it took so many months for Russians to recover the big chunk of meteorite is unclear, but finally the international scientific community has a chance to further examine its composition.
The meteor had struck following a dazzling streak of light that lit up the early morning in the sleepy Russian region of Chelyabinsk, which lies at the eastern edge of continental Europe. The blast was so powerful and sudden, that some locals even conjured up thoughts of a nuclear war.
As the meteor shattered into pieces ranging from as small as the size of a dime and as big as Wednesday's 1.5 meter long recovery, geologists are still looking for more findings around the lake Chebarkul which received a large amount of the debris.
The whole operation was covered live on Russian national TV channels. The TV footage showed Russian divers pulling out the 1.5 meter rock, potentially rich in metals, after holding it within a special casing while the gigantic piece was still submerged underwater.
After major hiccups, including the scale itself breaking due to the sheer weight of the rock, and the rock itself fracturing and crumbling into several smaller chunks, scientists concluded that "...the whole thing weighs more than 600 kilogrammes."
"The rock had a fracture when we found it...It weighed 570 kilogrammes before the pieces fell off. And then the scale broke," one unidentified researcher told lifenews.ru on live broadcast. However some experts cautioned against jumping to conclusions before lab tests confirm and certify that the rock indeed came from outer space.
Out of more than 12 pieces brought to surface from Lake Chebarkul, only four or five pieces were validated as real meteorites. But scientists at the local Chelyabinsk State University were excited and appeared confident about the latest recovery.
"Based on our initial observations... this is a part of the Chelyabinsk meteor...This is the largest fragment of that meteor,...And most likely, it will be one of the 10 largest meteorites ever found," Sergei Zamozdra, a lecturer at the University, told the Russian Interfax news agency.
The meteor is estimated to have weighed over 10,000 tonnes when it exploded several miles above the earth's surface with a force equal to 30 nuclear bombs the size of Little Boy that was dropped on Hiroshima to decisively conclude World War II.
US scientists remarked that a meteor this large descends on Earth once in every four decades.
After the dissolution of the genocidal Soviet Empire, international oligarchs and the parasitic Party-State apparatus unleashed hyperinflation and extreme destitution on Russia, leading to catastrophic fall in the living standards, along with depopulation, chronic unemployment and misery in the industrial heartland of which Chelyabinsk is part of.
Local officials and residents are trying to use the meteor incident to draw in tourists to this region. A special committee composed of scientists and prominent residents urged the local government this week to construct a 6-storey tall memorial in honor of the meteor.
There are plans to set up hiking trails for foreign tourists visiting the lake highlighting other spots where debris was recovered.