The meteorite that falls in Russia contains a tremendous amount of energy

On November 6, researchers from the Czech Republic and Canada reported that meteorites fell on Chelyabin province in central Russia in mid-February, bigger and heavier than originally estimated.

This meteorite carries the energy equivalent of dozens of US atomic bombs used to throw down the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Analyzing images of hearing, sight and debris, scientists said the asteroid at first was 19m long, possibly once part of the giant 2km long cosmic object named 86039 first discovered. First in 1999 and often approached the Earth.

Many houses were destroyed after the meteor shower in Chelyabin.(Source: THX / VNA)

According to an article published in the British journal Nature, when plunging into the atmosphere of Earth, meteorite weighing 12,000 tons, synonymous with energy source equivalent to 500,000 tons of TNT, 27-41 times more powerful. explosives in the first bomb used by the US in Hiroshima in 1945.

It was originally estimated that the meteorite was 17m long and weighed 10,000 tons, with an energy source that was equivalent to 20 atomic bombs.

According to the above article, the meteorite that fell on Chelyabin broke into small pieces when it was 30-45km from Earth, otherwise it would have a bigger impact when "grounded." The total volume of debris weighing over 100 grams is lower than the initial estimate.

The asteroid explosion affected five Russian regions, damaging many buildings and injuring 1,200 people.