Buzz
Written by Chris Gayomali
Two weeks have passed since a fiery meteor streaked across Russia’s Ural region, only to explode moments later above Chelyabinsk. The aftermath was extensively reported: an estimated $33 million in damages, 1500 injuries, and miraculously, no fatalities—especially remarkable considering the meteor detonated with 30 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
But the real question remains: where did this meteor originate from in the first place?
By analyzing crowd-sourced videos, researchers Jorge Zuluaga and Ignacio Ferrin from the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, utilized "basic trigonometry to estimate the rock’s altitude, velocity, and position as it descended to Earth," reports BBC News. More crucially, they managed to determine the likely birthplace of Russia’s most famous meteor.
Using specialized astronomy software from the U.S. Naval Observatory, Zuluaga and Ferrin collected enough data to track the meteoroid’s origins in space. They examined the meteor’s angle relative to the horizon, the shadows it cast, and timestamps from the video footage of its dramatic fall.
By studying its path and velocity—travelling at an estimated 13 to 19 kilometers per second—the Russian meteor is believed to have come from the Apollo group of asteroids, which are "well-known near-Earth objects that cross Earth’s orbit," says Discovery News:
There are around 5,200 known Apollo asteroids, the largest being 1866 Sisyphus—an immense 10-kilometer-wide asteroid discovered in 1972. Large Apollos are seen as a significant threat to Earth, making the Chelyabinsk meteoroid act as an Apollo ‘warning shot.’ [Discovery News]
According to Popular Science, the asteroid likely "spent about 4.5 billion years drifting through the solar system before its fiery entry into Earth’s atmosphere." Weighing an estimated 10,000 tons, it was only slightly larger than your average asteroid—at least before Earth’s atmosphere caused much of it to disintegrate.
Dr. Stephen Lowry from the University of Kent, who wasn’t part of the study, expressed his agreement with Zuluaga and Ferrin's findings. "It certainly seems to be part of the Apollo asteroid group," Lowry stated in an interview with BBC News. "Its elliptical, low inclination orbit suggests a solar system origin, most likely from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter."
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