Edmonton museum hosts Russian meteorite fragments

The meteorite that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in mid-February traveled billions of kilometres before it had its fateful encounter with our planet, but fragments from the meteorite have now traveled just a little bit further, to arrive in an Edmonton, Alberta museum this week.

The meteorite's original size, before it entered our atmosphere, has been estimated at roughly 18 metres wide and over 9,000 tons. Much of it was destroyed when it fragmented and then exploded above Chelyabinsk, but pieces of the meteorite were recovered starting a couple of days after the event. The vast majority of these fragments are tiny, about 1 cm wide at the most, but a few larger ones were recovered.

[ Related: Near-Earth asteroid 2003 DZ15 makes close pass by Earth ]

The largest discovered so far is an estimated 60 cm wide, with a mass of about 300 kg. Its size is 'estimated' because it still lies at the bottom of Lake Chebarkul, about 80 kms west of Chelyabinsk. After surviving the explosion, it continued on to punch a 6-m wide hole in the ice covering the lake at the time and then bury itself deep in the mud at the bottom of the lake. It was found using magnetic imaging, and as of late June, it still hadn't been brought to the surface.

As for the pieces that are now in Edmonton, they are generating some excitement, especially with meteorite experts like Chris Herd, who is a professor at the University of Alberta and the curator of their meteorite collection.

"All the [meteorites] in the exhibit in particular are of a type that sample the beginning of the solar system," Herd told the Edmonton Examiner. "They are leftover material that never got incorporated into planets. So they formed four and a half billion years ago, at the beginning of our solar system, and then remained mostly unchanged ever since, and so they give us a direct insight into the beginning of the solar system."

"If we can find out these rocks’ strengths, what they’re made of, what kind of factors influence how they explode in the atmosphere, we can better predict what kind of effects might happen in the future," he said.

[ More Geekquinox: UrtheCast to stream spectacular views of Earth from space station ]

The fragments on display in Edmonton, five in all, are part of the When the Sky Falls exhibit at the University of Alberta's Enterprise Square Galleries. The exhibit starts today, and will remain there only through Saturday, August 3rd, so if you're in the area, be sure to get out and see it!

Geek out with the latest in science and weather.
Follow @ygeekquinox on Twitter!