Consequences of falling to the ground meteorites of various diameters. The largest meteorites that fell to earth

The Ural meteorite for some time distracted scientists from another space object - an asteroid, which is approaching the Earth at this moment. According to calculations, it will approach the minimum distance to our planet at 23:20 Moscow time. This unique event will be broadcast live on the NASA website. The asteroid will be visible to residents of Asia and Australia, as well as, possibly, some parts of Eastern Europe.

In a little more than 2 hours, the DA14 object will pass the Earth at a distance of 28 thousand kilometers - this is closer than some satellites fly. If this asteroid weighing 130 tons and 45 meters in diameter collided with our planet, the explosion would be equal to one thousand Hiroshima. 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 it. However, most scientists do not see a connection with the DA14 asteroid and the Ural meteorite.

"As to whether we are threatened by Armageddon or not. It is now known for certain. All asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter, which bring such a catastrophe on a large scale to the Earth, they are all known and have well-known orbits, they are all proto-catalogued and observed There is no danger from them," Lidia Rykhlova, head of the department of space astrometry at the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, assured.

While watching a large asteroid, the meteorite that fell in the Urals was overlooked. However, it was practically 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 high. The military says that even if such a meteorite is found, modern air defense systems are not yet capable of destroying such objects. Already in hindsight, scientists deduced the data of a celestial body that had already fallen in the Urals - a mass of several tons, a speed of 15 kilometers per second, an angle of incidence of 45 degrees, and a shock wave power of several kilotons. At an altitude of 50 kilometers, the object collapsed into 3 parts and almost completely burned out 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 these destructions, people were injured not by fragments of a meteorite, but by a shock wave. Now, if a supersonic plane would pass on the same altitude, for example, God forbid over Moscow, the destruction would have been the same,” said the deputy director of the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg Sergei Lamzin.

Any space object that has reached the Earth's atmosphere and left 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 falls to Earth every day in the form of dust and fine 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 garbage dump in the solar system, where all the detrital material is concentrated. Collisions between asteroids occur in this belt. As a result, some fragments are formed that can acquire an orbit that intersects the Earth's orbit," said Mikhail Nazarov.

However, some scientists believe that it was not a meteorite that fell near Chelyabinsk at all. They are sure that no one will ever find any fragments, just as they did not find the fragments of the Tunguska meteorite. 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 almost completely burns up in the Earth's atmosphere, and it is impossible to find any remnants on the surface. This is similar to the Tunguska phenomenon, when no remnants of the body were found, but there was a large fall of the 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 the remains of a meteorite near Chelyabinsk continues. At the same time, not only rescuers and scientists are looking for, now dozens of meteorite hunters have already rushed to the area of ​​​​the alleged fall. The price of some of them on the black market can reach up to several thousand rubles per gram.

In 1790, the fall of a meteorite to Earth was recorded for the first time. True, scientists from the Paris Academy of Sciences recognized the fact of the collision of a comic body with the surface of our planet only 13 years later, at first considering the testimony of three hundred eyewitnesses as a joke. In this collection - the most sensational meteorites in the history of mankind.

Goba: the largest meteorite ever found (Namibia)

The largest meteorite found weighs more than 60 tons, and its diameter is about 3 meters. He fell into the territory of modern Namibia, presumably 80 thousand years ago. The celestial body was discovered relatively recently - in 1920, the owner of the Hoba West Farm, located in the southwest of the country, stumbled upon a huge piece of iron while plowing one of his fields. In honor of the farm, the find was named.

Composed of 84% iron, the meteorite is considered the largest nugget of this metal found on Earth. In order to prevent vandalism, in 1955 it was declared a national monument, because since the discovery, the mass of Gob has decreased by 6 tons. In 1987, the owner of the farm donated the meteorite and the land on which it is located to the state, and now the government of Namibia monitors its safety.

Allende: the most studied among meteorites (Mexico)

The unsuspecting residents of the city of Chihuahua woke up around one in the morning on February 8, 1969. They were awakened by noise and a bright flash resulting from the fall of a 5-ton meteorite. A lot of fragments scattered over tens of kilometers, the total weight of which is estimated at 2-3 tons. The collected pieces "scattered" around the institutes and museums of the world.

Scientists say that Allende (Spanish: Allende) is the largest and most studied of the recorded carbonaceous meteorites. The report of American astrophysicists from the Livermore National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy states that the age of calcium-aluminum inclusions, which are rich in meteorite, is approximately 4.6 billion years, that is, more than the age of any of the planets in the solar system.

Murchison meteorite: the most "alive" meteorite found on Earth (Australia)

Named after the Australian city near which it fell in 1969, the Murchison meteorite is believed to be the most "alive" meteorite found on Earth. This is due to more than 14 thousand organic compounds that make up the 108-kilogram carbonaceous stone, including at least 70 different amino acids.

Research led by Philipp Schmitt-Kopplin of the Institute for Environmental Chemistry in Germany claims that the meteorite contains millions of different kinds of organic molecules, which proves the existence of amino acids outside of our planet. According to scientists, the age of the meteorite is 4.65 billion years, that is, it was formed before the appearance of the Sun, whose age is estimated at 4.57 billion years.

Sikhote-Alin meteorite: one of the largest observed during the fall (Russia)

One of the largest meteorites in the world fell in Primorsky Krai in the Sikhote-Alin mountains in February 1947. The dazzling fireball he caused was observed in Khabarovsk and other settlements within a radius of 400 km. An iron body weighing 23 tons disintegrated in the atmosphere into many fragments in the form of a meteor shower.

The fragments formed on the surface of the Earth more than 30 craters from 7 to 28 m in diameter and up to 6 meters deep. The largest fragment of the Sikhote-Alin meteorite weighs about 1,745 kg. The pilots of the Far Eastern Geological Administration were the first to report the place where the celestial body fell. Chemical analysis showed 94% iron in the composition of the meteorite.

ALH84001: the most famous Martian meteorite (Antarctica)

This name hides perhaps the most famous of the 34 Martian meteorites found on Earth. It was discovered on December 27, 1984 in the Alan Hills mountains in Antarctica (the name of the mountains is recorded in the name with a three-letter abbreviation). According to studies, the age of the alien body is from 3.9 to 4.5 billion years. A meteorite weighing 1.93 kg fell to Earth about 13 thousand years ago.

There is a hypothesis according to which it broke away from the surface of Mars during the collision of the planet with a large cosmic body. In 1996, NASA scientists published sensational data suggesting the existence of traces of life on Mars. When scanning meteorite structures with a scanning electron microscope, microscopic structures were revealed that can also be interpreted as petrified traces of bacteria.

Tunguska meteorite: the most "powerful" meteorite (Russia)

One of the world's most famous meteorites hit the Earth in 1908, exploding at an altitude of 5 - 7 kilometers above Eastern Siberia. An explosion with a capacity of 40 megatons knocked down trees on an area of ​​​​more than 2 thousand square kilometers near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Its blast wave circled the globe twice, leaving behind a glow in the sky for several days. In addition, a series of consequences of the cataclysm was completed by a powerful magnetic storm that lasted five hours.

Several Italian scientists have hypothesized that the Tunguska crater may be Lake Cheko on the Kimchu River, which is located 8 km northwest of the epicenter of the explosion.

Lake Cheko on the Kimchu River

Chelyabinsk meteorite: No. 2 after Tunguska (Russia)

According to NASA estimates, the Chelyabinsk meteorite is the largest known celestial body that has fallen to Earth since the Tunguska meteorite. They started talking about him on February 15 and do not stop discussing six months later. Exploding in the sky above Chelyabinsk at an altitude of 23 km, the meteorite caused a powerful shock wave, which, as in the case of the Tunguska meteorite, circled the globe twice.

Before the explosion, the meteorite weighed about 10,000 tons and had a diameter of 17 meters, and after that it shattered into hundreds of fragments, the largest of which weighed half a ton. The space guest, who brought world fame to the region, is planned to be immortalized in the form of a monument.

A fragment of the Chelyabinsk meteorite found near Yemanzhelinsk. Weight is 112.2 g.

Incredible Facts

Often our planet is attacked by various space objects. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the surface of the Earth. Those that evaporate we call shooting stars or meteors (remnants of comets).

However, some of the larger lucky ones, meteorites, still manage to sometimes reach the surface of the Earth, on which they can lie for thousands of years unchanged.

The meteorite was found at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 1906. Before you get to the museum, an interesting story happened to the meteorite.

Initially, the meteorite was discovered by the Indians, who moved it to the territory of the Willamette Valley, Oregon. This assumption arose due to the fact that the impact crater was not found. It is believed to be in Canada.

The Indians worshiped the stone, calling it a guest from the moon, and the rainwater collected in the recesses of the stone was used by them to treat diseases.

In 1902, the meteorite was discovered by miner Ellis Hughes. The man immediately realized that it was not just a stone in front of him, so for three months he slowly moved the find to his site.

However, he was exposed, and the pebble was recognized as the property of a steel company in Oregon, on whose territory the meteorite was originally located.

In 1905, the meteorite was bought by a private individual for $26,000 and a year later donated to a museum in New York, where it still lives.

After the stone ended up in the museum, the Oregon Indians demanded the return of the meteorite, as it had been the subject of their religious cult for many centuries and took part in the annual ritual ceremony.

However, it turned out to be impossible to remove the meteorite from the museum without destroying the walls, so an agreement was concluded with the Indians, under which a ceremony could be held on the territory of the museum once a year.

The largest meteorites

Mbozi meteorite

This meteorite was discovered in the 1930s in Tanzania. The meteorite is almost 1 meter high, 3 meters long, and its weight is almost twice the weight of Willamette and is 25 tons.

For many centuries, local tribes considered Mbozi a sacred stone and did not tell anyone about it because of various taboos. They called it "kimondo", which is translated from the Swahili language as "meteor".

Interestingly, there is no crater at the place where the meteorite was discovered. This suggests that after the collision with the Earth, the meteorite rolled over the surface for some time.

90 percent of the meteorite consists of iron, like most of all its known counterparts, this also explains its dark color. Traces of melting and heating to very high temperatures are very noticeable on the stone, which is a consequence of passing through the upper layers of the atmosphere.

People dug a ditch around the meteorite, since Mbozi was originally partially submerged in the ground. They left a layer of soil under it, which later became a natural pedestal.

The largest meteorites

Meteorite Cape York

This is the third largest meteorite that fell to Earth about 10,000 years ago. The meteorite was named after the place where its most significant fragments were discovered in Greenland.

The largest fragment of the meteorite is called "Anigito" and weighs 31 tons. The history of his name is interesting. When the stone was delivered by ship to the American Museum of Natural History in 1897, the four-year-old daughter of explorer Robert Peary broke a bottle of wine on it and uttered a meaningless word in her own language: "a-ni-gi-to."

They decided to name the pebble, which before that the Eskimos, who were the first to find a meteorite, called "Tent". "Anigito" took root better.

The second largest fragment of the meteorite is called Agpalilik (the aborigines called it "Man"). It was discovered in 1963, weighs 20 tons and is now in the Geological Museum at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

Various meteorite fragments were found between 1911 and 1984. In addition to "Man" and "Anigito", they also found "Woman" (3 tons), "Dog" (400 kg), etc.

It is worth noting that for a long time, the Inuit tribes used fragments and fragments of the Cape York meteorite to create their harpoons and tools.

Meteorites that fell to Earth

Meteorite Bakubirito

This is the largest meteorite found in Mexico. It weighs about 20 tons, is 4.5 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1.75 meters high. It was discovered by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey near the city of Sinaloa de Leyva.

The pebble was found in 1863, and now it can be seen in the science center of the city of Sinaloa.

El Chaco meteorite

This meteorite is the second largest meteorite ever to hit the Earth. It weighs almost twice as much as the previous one on this list - 37 tons!

He fell in Argentina and is part of a group of meteorites called Campo del Cielo. As a result of its fall, a crater was formed, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich is 60 square meters.

Our planet is subjected to real cosmic bombardments every day. Hundreds of small and not very meteorites attack the Earth, fortunately burning up in the atmosphere. Only a few manage to reach the surface, while maintaining a significant size.

Today we propose to consider Top 10 largest meteorites that have fallen to Earth since the beginning of the 20th century. We did not include in the top ten huge cosmic bodies that left scars on the face of the planet millions of years ago.

Today, where those meteors fell, there are craters, often turned into lakes, for example, Mistastin Lake in Canada and the 45-kilometer Karakul Lake in Tajikistan.

10. Sutter Mill meteorite, April 22, 2012

A meteorite flew through the sky over the United States and exploded right over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT. Enthusiasts found many fragments of various sizes not only in Washington, but also in the states of Nevada and California.

9. A meteorite that fell in China February 11, 2012

On the night of February 11, the sky over China was lit up with hundreds of meteor shower lights. Space bodies covered an area of ​​100 square kilometers. The largest meteorite ever found weighed 12.6 kg.

8. Peruvian meteorite, September 15, 2007

This meteorite fell in broad daylight near Lake Titicaca. A crater 6 meters deep and 30 meters in diameter formed at the crash site. Shortly after the fall, more than 1,500 people reported experiencing severe headaches.

7. Meteorite Kunya-Urgench, Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998

A huge meteorite fell at night near the city of Kunya-Urgench. The largest fragment weighed 820 kg, and scientists determined its age at around 4 billion years.

6. Sterlitamak meteorite, May 17, 1990

A large meteorite weighing 315 kg left a crater with a diameter of more than 10 meters at the site of impact. The space guest was placed in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ufa Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where everyone can admire him.

5. Jilin meteorite. China, March 8, 1976

One of the largest meteorites found fell to Earth during a powerful meteor shower. Its weight was 1.7 tons. Simultaneously with this giant, thousands of smaller cosmic bodies were burning in the sky for 37 minutes.

4. Sikhote-Alin meteorite, Russia, Far East, February 12, 1947

This huge meteorite exploded in the atmosphere, and its fragments formed more than 30 craters on the Earth's surface from 7 to 28 m to 6 meters deep. Scientists have collected about 27 tons of fragments of various sizes, which makes it possible to judge the significant size of the meteorite.

3. Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920

This meteorite flew to earth about 20 thousand years ago, but was found only in 1920. The stone weighs over 60 tons. Moreover, scientists say that in the time that has passed since its fall, the meteorite has “lost weight” due to erosion and the actions of vandals.

2. Chelyabinsk meteorite, February 15, 2013

This meteorite, of course, is not the largest, but one of the most famous. Space bodies rarely fall in the area of ​​large settlements, as happened in Chelyabinsk. Before the explosion, the meteorite weighed about 10 thousand tons and had a diameter of 17 meters. According to NASA, this particular meteorite is the largest since the legendary Tunguska meteorite.

1. Tunguska meteorite, June 30, 1908

Scientists do not know the mass of the most famous meteorite, naming only its limits - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons. A blast wave from a meteorite that exploded over the taiga circled the globe twice. As a result, trees were felled on an area of ​​​​more than 2 thousand square meters. km, and in houses a hundred kilometers from the explosion, windows flew out. The glow in the sky over the taiga persisted for several days.

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