The Chelyabinsk Meteor
A morning fireball brighter than the Sun crossed the Urals, and the shock wave that followed shattered windows across a city.
What was reported
Just after sunrise on 15 February 2013, a fireball streaked across the sky over the southern Urals, for a moment brighter than the Sun. Dozens of dashboard cameras, common in Russian cars, caught it from different angles.
About a minute and a half later the shock wave arrived. It blew out windows across Chelyabinsk and nearby towns, and around 1,500 people needed medical help, mostly for cuts from broken glass. A round hole appeared in the ice of Lake Chebarkul, west of the city.
Explanations offered
An asteroid roughly 20 metres across entered the atmosphere and broke apart about 30 km up. Fragments were recovered, including a piece of more than 500 kg lifted from Lake Chebarkul later that year. No one saw it coming, because it approached from the direction of the Sun. It's the largest known object to enter Earth's atmosphere since Tunguska in 1908.
- When
- 15 February 2013
- Where
- Chelyabinsk, Russia
- Witnesses
- Thousands of people, dashboard cameras and satellites
- Status
- Confirmed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.