UrFU Scientists Were the First to Find Fragments of a Meteorite

14:30, June 27, 2018

In total, the expedition collected 1.2 grams of matter

The first fragment of a meteorite of about three centimeters was discovered by scientists of Ural Federal University in the Lipetsk Region near the town of Yelets on Monday, June 25. Employees of the laboratory UrFU Extra terra consortium are currently conducting search operations in the Central Chernozem District at the site of a possible fall of meteor shower. The expedition includes Grigory Yakovlev, Alexander Pastukhovich and Yevgenia Petrova.

‘On June 21, in Chernozemye at 4:16 Moscow time, a bolide entered the Earth atmosphere. On NASA's website, the flash power is registered as 2.8 kilotons. The bolide is unusual; it had a very steep trajectory of 79 degrees, the speed at the entrance to the atmosphere was 14 km/s, the flash is fixed at an altitude of 27 km, so it was seen even in Moscow. The possible place of the fall was calculated by associate professors of UrFU Institute of Physics and Technology Nikolai Kruglikov, Mikhail Larionov in collaboration with the colleagues from Helsinki University. Today the team has five fragments. The largest weighs 550 grams. In total, the expedition collected 1 200 grams of matter. The search will continue, most likely, for another day or two. By the way, our colleagues from Moscow have also found some fragments,’ said the professor of UrFU, the scientific leader of the expedition Victor Grokhovsky. 

This is the second case of successful meteorite searches initiated thank to the evolving network of bolide network, a number of video cameras installed in Russian and Finnish cities that record the fall of celestial bodies. The first discovery was made in 2014 when analyzing the trajectory of the fall of the Kolskiy bolide (Annam's meteorite).