The scientists from the Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg), who took part in the search for fragments of the meteorite that exploded on February 15 in the skies over the Chelyabinsk region, have officially announced the discovery of the meteoritic material.
A broadcast from the UrFU Laboratory of UFU showed the fragments of the celestial body: they are black pieces of up to 1 cm large, ITAR-TASS reports.
"The mission of the UrFU brought the fragments of the substance discovered near Chelyabinsk. Scientists say that this is the meteorite that caused so much trouble last week," UrFU News reports.
According to experts, the extraterrestrial nature of the fragments has been confirmed as a result of a chemical analysis. It has also been reported that the scientists intend to call the meteorite Chebarkul - after the lake, near which the fragments were found.
"We have just finished the research, and we confirm that the fragments of the matter that was found during our expedition to Lake Chebarkul do have the meteorite nature. This meteorite is classified as an ordinary chondrite. This is a rocky meteorite with an iron content of about 10%. Most likely, it will be called " Chebarkul Meteorite," Victor Grokhovsky of UrFU said.
Earlier it was reported that the search for the fragments of the meteorite that exploded over the territory of the Chelyabinsk region, was stopped after no fragments were found.
Meanwhile, experts say that the Chelyabinsk bolide split into millions of small particles during the explosion.
The appearance of the meteorite was recorded in the morning of February 15 in five regions of Russia: Tyumen, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Kurgan regions and Bashkortostan. As a result, of the "meteor attack," more than a thousand people suffered, 50 were hospitalized.
The Chelyabinsk meteorite can be comparable to the Sikhote-Alin meteorite.
"The invasion of the celestial body in the outer atmosphere of the Earth is a normal phenomenon. This time, we saw quite a good bolide over the Urals. I think that the object that entered the Earth's atmosphere was much larger than what fell down on the ground. Usually, about 90 percent of the mass burns. Judging by the tail that was left in the sky, it was a bolide that can be compared to the Sikhote-Alin meteorite," said Grokhovsky.
The Sikhote-Alin meteorite is the largest iron meteorite that was observed during the fall. The total weight of the meteorite was about 70 tons. It fell on 12 February 1947 at 10.38 a.m. local standard time in the western part of the Sikhote-Alin, the Primorye region of the RSFSR.
When passing through the Earth's atmosphere, the celestial body collapsed into thousands of pieces and fell down on the area of 3 square kilometers. The fall was accompanied with a bright fireball observed in the Khabarovsk and Primorye regions of the Russian Federation.