Pieces of meteorite found in Altai

In the Altai Territory, enthusiasts from the Cosmopoisk organization managed to find several fragments that may turn out to be pieces of a meteorite that fell in the area four months ago. Yesterday, expedition coordinator Vadim Chernobrov told RIA Novosti that searchers even managed to discover the supposed place where the heavenly stone fell. He believes that “the meteorite exploded in the air, its fragments scattered in an ellipse over a distance of up to ten kilometers.” Having calculated the possible trajectory of the fireball, the expedition found a crater in the vicinity of the village of Razdolnoye, Rodinsky district, which, as Kosmopoisk believes, was formed by the fall of the January meteorite.

A strange fireball was noticed by residents of the regional center Ugly on January 10 this year. According to eyewitnesses, he moved at a fairly high speed. It should be noted that in these parts, various kinds of unidentified objects in the skies are not uncommon, but they often turn out to be fragments of the stages of space rockets launching from Baikonur. But on January 10, the rocket scientists had nothing to do with it: no launches were carried out. And since the fall of the object was accompanied by a bang, it was suggested that meteorite fragments could be found on the surface of the earth.

The Cosmopoisk expedition set off for this area with the onset of spring. The forest where the fireball supposedly crashed began to be combed in early May. In addition, local residents also brought found stones. As Vadim Chernobrov told the agency, among those discovered there are about six candidates for the role of meteorite debris. Promising finds will be sent to Moscow for examination. In addition, Chernobrov noted that local residents also spoke about earlier cases of meteorite falls. In particular, a number of stones may turn out to be fragments not of the January fireball, but of meteorites that fell in this area in previous years.

Representatives of Kosmopoisk also took soil samples in the surveyed area. According to Chernobrov, traces of meteorite dust were discovered, as well as the so-called. chondrules. These are traces of the melting of silicon minerals during the passage of a celestial body through the atmosphere. They are small, up to a millimeter in diameter, rounded formations inside fragments of a meteorite that fell to the ground. According to Vadim Chernobrov, this picture “fits into the most classic chondritic meteorite”

Mikhail MANSKOY