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1.5 Meter Long Meteorite Fragment Recovered From Russian Lake

Posted by Unknown on from the aliens-inside dept.

MancunianMaskMan writes "The BBC writes about the meteorite that fell from the sky 8 months ago: 'The object plunged into Lake Chebarkul in central Russia on 15 February, leaving a 6m-wide hole in the ice. Scientists say that it is the largest fragment of the meteorite yet found.'" This is one of the ten largest meteorite fragments ever recovered. Unfortunately, it broke into three pieces after being lifted from the lake, and managed to destroy the scale used to weigh it when it hit 570kg.

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. because photo op by decsnake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    happens all the time where I work.

    public affairs photog says "do something scientific looking"

    click

    et voila

  2. Re:Frist! by war4peace · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You over-analyze, mate :)
    Just take the joke as a joke, rather than compare the syntax and structure to an established one and yell if they don't match.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  3. Slashdot Officially Sucks by friedmud · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After reading the summary and scanning the article (in true Slashdot fasion!) I went to look at the comments... and they are all complete drivel. Tons of stupid jokes and no actual discussion of the event. What the hell has happened here??

    Anyway - back on topic: Does anyone else feel like that rock is WAY too big to have only left a 6m hole in the ice? That rock impacting the ice/water would have been an enormous event... it would have vaporized a ton of water and blown the ice away for at least several hundred feet.

    Something doesn't add up here.

    1. Re:Slashdot Officially Sucks by heypete · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The rock would have been at terminal velocity, which is typically less than 200 meters/sec (see here), since it has been slowed by the atmosphere. It's not landing in the lake at cosmic velocities (which would indeed be quite dramatic).

      Using the standard car analogy, imaging dropping a car into the ice from a skyscraper conveniently located next to the ice. The car would not obliterate huge amounts of ice and vaporize large amounts of water -- it'd punch a somewhat-larger-than-car-sized hole in the ice.