Confusion on Meteorite or Comet: February 18, 2013 – News n Analysis by Dr. Raj Baldev, Cosmo Theorist, on the issue of Russian Meteor, whether it was a comet?
I described its size equivalent to around a Dreamliner 787 and it could also be a comet and the scientist say it was a comet just because there were many pieces of the meteorite which fell on the earth, the rock broke into many pieces, it fell on the earth near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk last week.
It could not be in so many fragments but could be separated from a single rock piece of meteorite or comet, the scientists have found 53 rock fragments of the extraterrestrial origin on the suface of Lake Chebarkul. The
Urals Federal University collected them in the early hours on Monday.
But this is just the start of the process of gathering the debris left by the large meteorite, which exploded on entering the earth’s atmosphere and hit the ground in a series of fireballs on Friday.
Viktor Grokhovsky, a member of the Russian Academy of Science’s meteorite committee, has been put in charge of the scientific search operation. “There are a lot more fragments to be discovered in many other places … it’s only a matter of time,” he said.
The search is being concentrated at the moment around a six-metre wide hole in Lake Chebarkul, about 50 miles from Chelyabinsk, discovered by locals shortly after the meteorite hit the ground.
Military divers spent much of the weekend scouring the bottom of the lake, but were hampered by poor visibility and found nothing.
Despite the failure of the divers, there was still likely to be a piece of meteorite in the lake of at least 50cm in diameter, said Grokhovsky.
Certain local officials said on Sunday that the formal search was being abandoned, but scientists will continue the hunt. No one from the eight-strong scientific team has yet been able to examine the whole surface of the lake because of a cordon put in place by the authorities over the weekend.
Analysis of the pieces recovered so far, none of which had a diameter greater than 1cm, suggests that 10% of the meteorite was made up of iron. Traces of sulphite and the mineral olivine were also present.
Whatever may be the outcome of the scientific search and analysis being conducted by them within the suspected area, it is a novel experience for the scientists who may be able to find out some good details about the fall of this object from the space.
As per Grokhovsky:
“It was a stone meteorite that belongs to a class of ordinary chondrite meteorites.”
With due regard, I don’t agree with the view of Mr. Grokhovsky that it was a stone meteorite that belongs to a class of ordinary chondrite meteorites.
It shall be too early to conclude the result whether it was a meteorite or a comet and its exact class.
