spacetoday.net: Chelyabinsk meteorite fragment pulled from lake

Posted: Thu, Oct 17, 2013, 9:26 AM ET (1326 GMT)
Chelyabinsk meteorite recovered from lakebed (RIAN)

The largest fragment of the meteor that exploded above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February has been recovered from the bottom a lake. A team of divers pulled the meteorite from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul Tuesday, hauling it ashore while a crowd of more than 1,000 people watched. The fragment, about 1.5 meters across, broke into three pieces as it was hauled onto a scale. The scale itself broke as it weighed the fragments, reading 570 kilograms when it malfunctioned. The meteorite is the largest fragment of a parent body estimated to be about 17 meters across that entered the atmosphere over southern Russia on the morning on February 15, exploding in the upper atmosphere. That blast created a shock wave that damaged buildings in the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring more than 1,000 people.