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Space Science

1.5 Meter Long Meteorite Fragment Recovered From Russian Lake 86

Posted by Unknown Lamer 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.
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1.5 Meter Long Meteorite Fragment Recovered From Russian Lake More

1.5 Meter Long Meteorite Fragment Recovered From Russian Lake

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  • Oh, and that was bloody clumsy of them.

  • they say space is HUUUGE

    • From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space, listen..."

  • In Soviet Russia, meteorite breaks scale!

    • Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Interesting)

      by CaptainLard ( 1902452 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @11:27AM (#45144239)
      Actually, if you read the manual, soviet russia "jokes" stopped being an obligation when taco left. None the less, given the subject of the story I calculate the overused meme will appear in 51% of all comments. Carry on, comrades.

      • Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)

        by ArcadeMan ( 2766669 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @11:47AM (#45144523)

        In Soviet Russia, slashdot leaves taco!

      • The change to the manual was a decision made by a minority, and it will ultimately be as successful as Prohibition in the United States.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )

          Prohibition was very successful. IT's goal was to drop domestic crime, and it did. In fact domestic crime reached very close to 0(Zero) percent.

          Even including the violent crime committed by the mob, it was still down. It was very successful.

          Interesting note, anything with any violence at all was splashed on the front page by newspaper who lost money becasue they lost liquor advertising.

          • {{citation needed}}
            • Due to the government shutdown crime statistics are unavailable.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Anonymous Coward

              Here are some:
              http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/06/long-term-trend-in-homicide-rates.html
              http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00492/Crime_Rate.htm
              http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/organized_crime1_final.html
              http://polyticks.com/polyticks/beararms/liars/usa.htm
              Of course, they completely contradict the gp's statement. Prohibition coincided with a strong uptick of violent crime.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            If people were drinking any alcohol at all, then crime was very much higher than zero.

            Reported crime? was zero? But, since selling alcohol was a crime then I suspect that there was a good deal of crime going on.

            • Drinking wasn't illegal. People who saw Prohibition coming and could afford it stocked up on booze, and as long as they weren't making/selling/distributing it, they were legal.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        give in the membership card.
        the manual was a trap to see if you read it.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by geekoid ( 135745 )

          Of course we read it. Usually twice. Then we fix it, send a note to the manufacture with correct instructions, then use whatever it is the manual was for. Now you geeks like to blow off the manual, and then whine about the device and how its no good becasue you don't understand it. Nerd on the other hand, actually like to know what they are doing.

    • In Soviet Russia, meteorite breaks scale!

      In America meteorite only breaks scissors.

  • More updates (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @10:59AM (#45143885)

    From the Russian site:

    "Scientists were initially baffled with reports that the meteorite fragments were hollow, but after arriving at the site stated that this was in fact completely normal as was the trail of slime leading into the nearby forest. Russian military sources state that the ongoing training exercises in this forest are completely unrelated."

  • There is a picture in that article of someone measuring a smaller fragment with some calipers. Is this how scientists measure rocks? It looks like they are only measuring the length of a portion of the rock because the calipers are too shallow to allow complete enclosure.

    If that's the case, then what's the point?

    • Maybe they are measuring the average diameter, apart from the points and such?

    • because photo op (Score:5, Insightful)

      by decsnake ( 6658 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @11:25AM (#45144201)

      happens all the time where I work.

      public affairs photog says "do something scientific looking"

      click

      et voila

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The point is similar to place a coin next to something when you take a picture. To give scale.
      They could have mentioned the surface area in football fields but the size of the rock didn't fit that unit that well.

      It wouldn't surprise me if they took another picture without the calipers first before they realized that there was no way for the viewer to get a sense of the size of the object.

    • Re:Measuring? (Score:4, Funny)

      by SJHillman ( 1966756 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @11:40AM (#45144431)

      They're actually calibrating the calipers to the standard Russian measurement of One Space Thingy.

    • It's a pair of calipers specifically intended for use in photo ops.

  • lake hits meteorite

  • Unobtanium. Only possible explanation...
  • Why place it ON a scale when Crane scales [stlcrane.com] can be used.. This could even have been done under water with a lift bag.

    At least it will be easier to move now.

    • It's about the visual I imagine.

    • The object was weighed suspended from a scale clearly visible at 00:36 in the linked BBC video. The video does not show if the failure was the scale mechanism itself or the collapse of the A-frame/pulley it was suspended from.

  • Is it because they hate freedom?

  • Slashdot Officially Sucks (Score:5, Insightful)

    by friedmud ( 512466 ) on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @12:03PM (#45144755)

    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.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by PIBM ( 588930 )

      I felt the same. Then I stopped caring. Well, rather, so far they've retrieved 20+ 'fragment' of 'something' yet only 4-5 were confirmed to be from a meteor. Let's wait till they confirm that this one was or wasn't before wondering what's going on =)

    • Not necessarily. The fact that it broke into two pieces as it passed over Chelyabinsk (watch the videos of the event, there were two large sonic booms, hence two large pieces) implies that it had already been melted down quite a bit. And, yes, there were two large pieces; one of the online videos I've seen (one of the ones taken with a dashboard camera) clearly shows two large flareups.

    • Re:Slashdot Officially Sucks (Score:4, Insightful)

      by heypete ( 60671 ) <pete@heypete.com> on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @02:22PM (#45146195) Homepage

      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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      The only thing that doesn't add up is the amount of knowledge you have on the subject.
      For example:

      ". it would have vaporized a ton of water and blown the ice away for at least several hundred feet."
      no, no it wouldn't of. Not even close.

      • Cool - I'm ok with that - that's why I came here to see some discussion ;-)

        Mind providing some insight on why it wouldn't have? The car "analogy" above does give a good "feel" for why that hole wouldn't have been larger (although the terminal velocity of a rock would be somewhat higher than a car).

        A bit of math / physics here would be insightful....

  • Chebarkul was an inside job (Score:3)

    by royallthefourth ( 1564389 ) <royallthefourth@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 16, 2013 @12:26PM (#45145035)

    Why didn't the meteorite leave a hole exactly the same size and shape as the object itself?
    Clearly this means explosives were used in a controlled demolition of the lake's frozen surface.

    • I think you're giving Truthers a bit too much credit when you compare their models of the world to Looney Tunes cartoons. Looney Tunes physics were at least consistent.

    • Why didn't the meteorite leave a hole exactly the same size and shape as the object itself?

      The initial hole was probably smaller and less circular. However, the warm water rising from the meteor has melted the edge.

  • Why does Russia seem to get more than it's fair share of rocks falling on it?

  • ...my unintended moderation.
  • Here you have this great line:

    and managed to destroy the scale used to weigh it when it hit 570kg

    and nobody makes a "your Mom" joke?

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