Space bodies are constantly falling on our planet. Some of them are the size of a grain of sand, others can weigh several hundred kilograms and even tons. Canadian scientists from the Ottawa Astrophysical Institute claim that in a year meteor shower with a total mass of more than 21 tons, and individual meteorites weigh from a few grams to 1 ton.

In this article, we will recall the 10 largest meteorites that fell to Earth.

Meteorite Sutter Mill, April 22, 2012

This meteorite called Sutter Mill appeared near the Earth on April 22, 2012, moving at a breakneck speed of 29 km / s. It flew over the states of Nevada and California, scattering its red-hot fragments, and exploded over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT. For comparison, yesterday's capacity was 300 kilotons of TNT.

Scientists have found that the Sutter Mill meteorite appeared in the early days of its existence, and the cosmic progenitor body was formed over 4566.57 million years ago.

Almost a year ago, on February 11, 2012, about a hundred meteorite stones fell over an area of ​​100 km in one of the regions of China. The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg. The meteorites are believed to have come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorite from Peru, September 15, 2007

This meteorite fell in Peru near Lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia. Eyewitnesses claimed that at first there was a loud noise, similar to the sound of a falling plane, but then they saw a certain falling body, engulfed in fire.

A bright trail from a cosmic body heated to white heat that entered the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor.

A crater 30 meters in diameter and 6 meters deep formed at the site of the fall from the explosion, from which a fountain of boiling water gushed. Probably the meteorite contained toxic substances, as 1,500 people living nearby developed severe headaches.

By the way, most often stone meteorites (92.8%), consisting mainly of silicates, fall to the Earth. , was iron, according to the first estimates.

Meteorite Kunya-Urgench from Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998

The meteorite fell down Turkmen city Kunya-Urgench, hence its name. Before the fall, the inhabitants saw bright light. The largest part of the meteorite, weighing 820 kg, fell into a cotton field, forming a funnel about 5 meters.

This one, over 4 billion years old, has been certified by the International Meteoritic Society and is considered the largest among stone meteorites from all fallen in the CIS and the third in the world.

Fragment of the Turkmen meteorite:

Meteorite Sterlitamak, May 17, 1990

iron meteorite Sterlitamak weighing 315 kg fell on a state farm field 20 km west of the city of Sterlitamak on the night of May 17-18, 1990. When a meteorite fell, a crater with a diameter of 10 meters was formed.

First, small metal fragments were found, and only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters, the largest fragment weighing 315 kg was found. Now the meteorite (0.5 x 0.4 x 0.25 meters) is in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Ufa scientific center Russian Academy Sciences.

Fragments of a meteorite. On the left is the same fragment weighing 315 kg:

The largest meteor shower, China, March 8, 1976

In March 1976, the world's largest meteorite rock shower took place in the Chinese province of Jilin, lasting 37 minutes. Space bodies fell to the earth at a speed of 12 km/sec.

Fantasy on the theme of meteorites:

Then they found about a hundred meteorites, including the largest - the 1.7-ton Jilin (Girin) meteorite.

These are the pebbles that rained down from the sky on China for 37 minutes:

Meteorite Sikhote-Alin, Far East, February 12, 1947

The meteorite fell on Far East in the Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on February 12, 1947. It was crushed in the atmosphere and fell out in the form of iron rain over an area of ​​10 sq. km.

After the fall, more than 30 craters with a diameter of 7 to 28 m and a depth of up to 6 meters were formed. About 27 tons of meteorite material was collected.

Pieces of iron that fell from the sky during a meteor shower:

Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920

Meet Goba - largest meteorite ever found! Strictly speaking, it fell about 80,000 years ago. This iron giant weighs about 66 tons and has a volume of 9 cubic meters. fell in prehistoric times, and was found in Namibia in 1920 near Grotfontein.

The Goba meteorite is mainly composed of iron and is considered the heaviest of all celestial bodies of this kind that have ever appeared on Earth. It is preserved at the crash site in southwestern Africa, in Namibia, near the Goba West farm. It is also the largest piece of iron of natural origin on Earth. Since 1920, the meteorite has decreased slightly: erosion, Scientific research and vandalism did their job: the meteorite "lost weight" to 60 tons.

The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite, 1908

On June 30, 1908, at about 07:00 in the morning, a large fireball flew over the territory of the Yenisei basin from the southeast to the northwest. The flight ended with an explosion at an altitude of 7-10 km above the uninhabited area of ​​the taiga. The blast wave circled the globe twice and was recorded by observatories around the world.

The power of the explosion is estimated at 40-50 megatons, which corresponds to the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb. The flight speed of the space giant was tens of kilometers per second. Weight - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons!

Area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River:

As a result of the explosion, trees were knocked down over an area of ​​​​more than 2,000 square meters. km, window panes in houses were broken several hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. Animals were destroyed by the blast wave within a radius of about 40 km, people were injured. For several days, an intense glow of the sky and luminous clouds were observed in the territory from the Atlantic to central Siberia:

But what was it? If it was a meteorite, then a huge crater half a kilometer deep should have appeared at the site of its fall. But none of the expeditions could find him ...

Tunguska meteorite belongs, on the one hand, to the number of the most well-studied phenomena, on the other hand, to one of the most mysterious phenomena the past century. The celestial body exploded in the air, and no remnants of it, except for the consequences of the explosion, were found on the ground.

Meteor shower of 1833

On the night of November 13, 1833, a meteor shower fell over the eastern United States. It went on continuously for 10 hours! During this time, about 240,000 meteorites of various sizes fell to the Earth's surface. The most powerful meteor shower known was the source of the 1833 meteor shower. meteor showers. Now this stream is called the Leonids in honor of the constellation Leo, against which it is visible every year in mid-November. On a much smaller scale, of course.

Incredible news has spread around the world - a huge heavenly body. Asteroid in 2017 year will come to a record close distance to our planet and some scientists suggest that even a collision is possible.

Of course, one does not want to believe in the worst and one must hope that all the calculations of astronomers will turn out to be false, but it is advisable to analyze the approaching catastrophe in advance. This will allow us to be prepared for any outcome that comes in the future. Moreover, many different cataclysms of cosmic nature are known.

O great and terrible asteroid

The Phaeton asteroid was discovered back in 1983. Even then, it attracted the attention of researchers with its scale and original orbit. Astronomers did not stop trying to properly deal with this cosmic “inhabitant” and tried to accurately calculate its trajectory around the Sun. In addition, scientists were able to unravel the period of its rotation, as well as understand its main thermophysical characteristics.

Phaeton can be safely attributed to the Apollo group. This celestial body, moving around the Sun, each time approaches the maximum distance that is not inherent in objects of this type, namely 0.14 astronomical units(approximately 21 million kilometers). The researchers suggested that Phaeton is the main celestial body of the Geminid meteor shower, which is perfectly visible from Earth in the middle of winter.

It is worth noting that this space object in its orbit is more like a comet than an asteroid. Its trajectory around the Sun resembles a highly elongated ellipse (eccentricity 0.9). In addition, during its continuous movement, the asteroid crosses the orbits of four planets. terrestrial group. All these data give scientists a lot of reasons for reflection, and also confirms their guesses regarding the nature of Phaethon. They believe that it is the silicate nucleus of a comet that lost its icy shell in the process of flying around the Sun.

To accurately determine the shape and size of a given celestial body, it is necessary to collect photographs taken from different angles. As a rule, such photographs can be obtained after several decades. Astronomer Josef Hanus and his team were able to use 55 Phaeton images taken between 1994 and 2015. In addition, scientists were able to obtain 29 light curves, thanks to state-of-the-art telescopes located around the world.

Hanus noted that all these data helped to study in detail the shape, exact dimensions (5.1 km) and rotation period (3.6 hours) of the studied space body.

Danger from Phaeton

Meeting of earthlings with a celestial body, the size of which is much larger Chelyabinsk meteorite, should take place on October 12, 2017. For several years in a row, scientists have been trying to predict the exact path of Phaeton's flight, because no one wants the predicted meeting to happen. But it is not yet possible to say for sure whether the predictions will come true or not. One thing is clear - the cosmic body will approach our planet at a distance of about 10 million kilometers. What the consequences of such an approach might be, one can only guess. In the meantime, astronomers continue to closely monitor the movements of this celestial body and try to find out its composition in order to get even closer to unraveling its connection with the Geminid meteor shower.

The largest meteorites that have fallen to Earth

Goba

This meteorite is considered the largest in the world. It fell in Namibia back in prehistoric hours. For a long time, the block lay underground and was discovered in 1920. It has been established that during the fall, the cosmic body weighed 90 tons, but over the millennia of being underground, as well as in the process of research operations, its mass has decreased to 60 tons. In addition, many tourists still prefer to appropriate at least a small particle of a celestial body, so Goba continues to “lose weight”.

Tsarev

In 1922, the entire Astrakhan province was able to observe the fall of a large fireball, accompanied by a deafening roar. The sudden explosion was followed by a rain of rocks. The next day after the fall, the residents found boulders of various sizes in their yard. The largest cobblestone weighs 284 kg and this moment is located in the museum. Fersman, in Moscow.

Tunguska

In 1908, a powerful explosion of 50 megatons occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. Such power is possible only with the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. This phenomenon was followed by a strong blast wave, during the propagation of which, huge trees were uprooted. Residents of nearby villages lost all windows, many animals and people died. Local residents claimed that a few minutes before the fall they saw a bright ball in the sky, which was rapidly approaching the earth. Remarkably, but none research group failed to detect the remains of the Tunguska meteorite. However, in the area of ​​impact found huge amount silicate and magnesium balls, which could not have formed in this area, therefore they are credited with cosmic origin.

Chelyabinsk

On February 15, 2013, the whole of Chelyabinsk shuddered from the blast wave - a meteorite fell near the city. About 1,600 people were injured and windows were broken in 300 houses. Scientists have proven that this meteorite was the second largest after the Tunguska. The weight of the largest piece that was found in the area of ​​impact is 503.3 kg. Scientists are still trying to understand why it exploded, and how they could have missed the appearance of such a large cosmic body within our planet.

Video rubric

Every day, up to 6 tons of meteorites fall to Earth: some of them cause serious damage, others scatter in the atmosphere. The catalog of meteorites contains about 23 thousand objects. We will mark the most curious space aliens.

Officially, the oldest meteorite that has reached the Earth's surface is considered to be a space object discovered on Mount Huashitai near the Chinese city of Xi'an. According to scientists, he fell to Earth about 2 billion years ago. Interestingly, the inhabitants of these places from ancient times revered Mount Huashitai as sacred.

This meteorite can also be called the largest. Chinese scientists estimated the dimensions of the celestial giant - 160x50x60 meters, with a weight of almost 200 tons. To get to the core of the meteorite, scientists had to drill a hole 50 meters long.

Today, China's first meteorite park has been opened at the crash site of a cosmic body, where visitors can increase their knowledge of unusual celestial aliens.

The most "iron"

In 1920, on the territory of present-day Namibia, the farmer Jacob Germanus, plowing the land, stumbled upon a huge stone block - he did not know that he had discovered a meteorite. The heavenly guest was named after the nearby Hoba West Farm. The meteorite mainly consists of iron, due to which, despite its rather modest size - a diameter of 2.5 meters and a volume of 9 cubic meters. meters - its weight reaches 6o tons.

According to scientists, the meteorite fell about 80 thousand years ago. It is curious that for its dimensions it left too small a crater, but most likely, according to scientists, the object had a small angle of incidence, and before colliding with the Earth's surface, it greatly slowed down its speed. The possibility of such a fall is also confirmed by the shape of the celestial body - it is flat on both sides.

From the moment the meteorite turned into a landmark, according to experts, it has lost at least 6 tons - the result of the actions of vandals, who all strive to chip off a piece for themselves as a keepsake. In order to somehow prevent the meteorite from being stolen for souvenirs, local authorities in 1955 declared it a national monument.

The most mysterious

The catastrophe that happened on June 30, 1908 in the sky over Siberia in the region of Podkamennaya Tunguska is associated with the fall of a meteorite. The explosion, which occurred at an altitude of about 5-10 kilometers, was so powerful that it was recorded by observatories around the world. According to scientists, the power of the explosion was 40-50 kilotons - this corresponds to the power of a hydrogen bomb.

A blast wave in a radius of 40 kilometers knocked down a forest, and flows of combustible gases provoked a severe fire. Due to the clouds formed after the passage of the celestial body on the line from the Southern Yenisei to the French city of Bordeaux, the effect of “bright nights” could be observed for several days. This phenomenon became possible due to the intense reflection of the sun's rays by the clouds.

The site of the Tunguska meteorite crash was visited by several research expeditions, but no fragments unambiguously belonging to a celestial body were found, with the exception of microscopic silicate and magnetite balls, which are attributed to extraterrestrial origin. A number of other finds at the crash site - conical holes in the ground and quartz cobblestones with mysterious signs still baffle scientists.

The largest meteor shower

In March 1976, the inhabitants of the Chinese province of Jilin literally fell "stone rain" that lasted more than half an hour. However, despite the intensity of the meteorite bombardment, there were no reports of damage.

Scientists have found that the speed of the meteor shower was approximately 12 km / s, and the weight of its fragments reached 12.5 kg. Later, the largest of the objects was also discovered - a 1.7-ton meteorite, named Jirin.

As a rule, meteor showers are possible during destruction due to severe overheating in upper layers atmosphere of a larger meteorite. This is evidenced by the testimony of eyewitnesses who reported a strong cannonade of explosions before the fall of stones.

The most unusual

In 1980 on the territory of the Soviet military base near the town of Kaydun in Yemen, a seemingly unremarkable meteorite the size of a fist fell, if not for one circumstance: it was not like any of the meteorites found so far. According to an employee of the Institute of Geochemistry. Vernadsky Andrei Ivanov, this two-kilogram meteorite most likely flew to us from Phobos, a satellite of Mars.

Studies using an electron microscope have shown that the body of a space guest consists of substances that are completely different both in origin and in chemical properties, it also contained fragments of volcanic rocks and a high carbon content.

American scientist Michael Zolensky suggests that carbonaceous matter is a consequence of the "asteroid past of Phobos", and volcanic fragments hit the meteorite from Mars.

The most "alive"

The meteorite that fell in 1969 near the Australian town of Murchison does not differ in special dimensions - 108 kilograms, but it is known for having more than 14 thousand stars. organic compounds, including about 70 amino acids. True, a real debate arose about the latter, since some scientists considered that some amino acids got into the celestial body from the earth's soil.

The debate continued for 27 years until American scientists conducted a decisive experiment, during which they proved that the ratio organic matter in a meteorite "is different from that characteristic of all terrestrial objects." The Murchison meteorite is primarily of interest to those who believe that life on Earth occurred due to the introduction of organic compounds from outer space.

The largest collection of meteorites

The ice shell of Antarctica is an ideal place to discover the remains of celestial bodies, since its white surface does not allow anything to escape the gaze of researchers. Scientists have calculated that about 700 thousand meteorites are scattered on the surface of the continent - here you can find real "deposits" of stellar matter. In the places of the greatest accumulation of space objects, according to scientists, "meteorites are literally lying under their feet."

Space bodies are constantly falling on our planet. Some of them are the size of a grain of sand, others can weigh several hundred kilograms and even tons. Canadian scientists from the Ottawa Astrophysical Institute claim that a meteor shower with a total mass of more than 21 tons falls on Earth every year, and individual meteorites weigh from a few grams to 1 ton.
In this article, we will recall the 10 largest meteorites that fell to Earth.

Meteorite Sutter Mill, April 22, 2012

This meteorite called Sutter Mill appeared on the Earth on April 22, 2012, moving at a breakneck speed of 29 km / s. It flew over the states of Nevada and California, scattering its red-hot ones, and exploded over Washington. The power of the explosion was about 4 kilotons of TNT. For comparison, the power of yesterday's meteorite explosion when it fell on Chelyabinsk was 300 tons of TNT. Scientists have found that the Sutter Mill meteorite appeared in the early days of our existence. solar system, and the cosmic progenitor body was formed over 4566.57 million years ago. Fragments of the Sutter Mill meteorite:

Meteor shower in China, February 11, 2012

Almost a year ago, on February 11, 2012, about a hundred meteorite stones fell over an area of ​​100 km in one of the regions of China. The largest meteorite found weighed 12.6 kg. The meteorites are believed to have come from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Meteorite from Peru, September 15, 2007

This meteorite fell in Peru near Lake Titicaca, near the border with Bolivia. Eyewitnesses claimed that at first there was a loud noise, similar to the sound of a falling plane, but then they saw a certain falling body, engulfed in fire. A bright trail from a cosmic body heated to white heat that entered the Earth's atmosphere is called a meteor.

A crater 30 meters in diameter and 6 meters deep formed at the site of the fall from the explosion, from which a fountain of boiling water gushed. The meteorite probably contained toxic substances, as 1,500 people living nearby developed severe headaches. Meteorite impact site in Peru:

By the way, most often stone meteorites (92.8%), consisting mainly of silicates, fall to the Earth. The meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk was iron, according to the first estimates. Fragments of the Peruvian meteorite:

Meteorite Kunya-Urgench from Turkmenistan, June 20, 1998

The meteorite fell near the Turkmen city of Kunya-Urgench, hence its name. Before the fall, the inhabitants saw a bright light. The largest part of the meteorite, weighing 820 kg, fell into a cotton field, forming a funnel about 5 meters.

This one, more than 4 billion years old, received a certificate from the International Meteoritic Society and is considered the largest among the stone meteorites of all those that fell in the CIS and the third in the world. Fragment of the Turkmen meteorite:

Meteorite Sterlitamak, May 17, 1990

The Sterlitamak iron meteorite weighing 315 kg fell on a state farm field 20 km west of the city of Sterlitamak on the night of May 17-18, 1990. When a meteorite fell, a crater with a diameter of 10 meters was formed. First, small metal fragments were found, and only a year later, at a depth of 12 meters, the largest fragment weighing 315 kg was found. Now the meteorite (0.5 x 0.4 x 0.25 meters) is in the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Fragments of a meteorite. On the left is the same fragment weighing 315 kg:

The largest meteor shower, China, March 8, 1976

In March 1976, the world's largest meteorite rock shower took place in the Chinese province of Jilin, lasting 37 minutes. Space bodies fell to the earth at a speed of 12 km/sec. Fantasy on the theme of meteorites:

Then they found about a hundred meteorites, including the largest - the 1.7-ton Jilin (Girin) meteorite.

These are the pebbles that rained down from the sky on China for 37 minutes:

Meteorite Sikhote-Alin, Far East, February 12, 1947

The meteorite fell in the Far East in the Ussuri taiga in the Sikhote-Alin mountains on February 12, 1947. It was crushed in the atmosphere and fell out in the form of iron rain over an area of ​​10 sq. km.

After the fall, more than 30 craters with a diameter of 7 to 28 m and a depth of up to 6 meters were formed. About 27 tons of meteorite material was collected. Pieces of iron that fell from the sky during a meteor shower:

Goba meteorite, Namibia, 1920

Meet Goba - the largest meteorite ever found! Strictly speaking, it fell about 80,000 years ago. This iron giant weighs about 66 tons and has a volume of 9 cubic meters. fell in prehistoric times, and was found in Namibia in 1920 near Grotfontein.

The Goba meteorite is mainly composed of iron and is considered the heaviest of all celestial bodies of this kind that have ever appeared on Earth. It is preserved at the crash site in southwestern Africa, in Namibia, near the Goba West farm. It is also the largest piece of iron of natural origin on Earth. Since 1920, the meteorite has slightly decreased: erosion, scientific research and vandalism have done their job: the meteorite has “lost” up to 60 tons.

The mystery of the Tunguska meteorite, 1908

On June 30, 1908, at about 07:00 in the morning, a large fireball flew over the territory of the Yenisei basin from the southeast to the northwest. The flight ended with an explosion at an altitude of 7-10 km above the uninhabited area of ​​the taiga. The blast wave circled the globe twice and was recorded by observatories around the world. The power of the explosion is estimated at 40-50 megatons, which corresponds to the energy of the most powerful hydrogen bomb. The flight speed of the space giant was tens of kilometers per second. Weight - from 100 thousand to 1 million tons!

Area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River:

As a result of the explosion, trees were knocked down over an area of ​​​​more than 2,000 square meters. km, window panes in houses were broken several hundred kilometers from the epicenter of the explosion. Animals were destroyed by the blast wave within a radius of about 40 km, people were injured. For several days, intense sky glow and luminous clouds were observed in the territory from the Atlantic to central Siberia.

In a previous post, an assessment of the danger of an asteroid threat from space was given. And here we will consider what will happen if (when) a meteorite of one size or another still falls to Earth.

The scenario and consequences of such an event as a fall to the Earth of a cosmic body, of course, depends on many factors. We list the main ones:

Space body size

This factor, of course, is paramount. Armageddon on our planet can arrange a meteorite 20 kilometers in size, so in this post we will consider scenarios for the fall of cosmic bodies on the planet ranging in size from a grain of dust to 15-20 km. More - it makes no sense, since in this case the scenario will be simple and obvious.

Compound

Small bodies of the solar system can have different composition and density. Therefore, there is a difference whether a stone or iron meteorite falls to the Earth, or a loose comet nucleus consisting of ice and snow. Accordingly, in order to inflict the same damage, the comet nucleus must be two to three times larger than the asteroid fragment (at the same fall velocity).

For reference: more than 90 percent of all meteorites are stone.

Speed

Also a very important factor in the collision of bodies. After all, here there is a transition of the kinetic energy of motion into thermal energy. And the speed of entry of cosmic bodies into the atmosphere can vary significantly (from about 12 km / s to 73 km / s, for comets - even more).

The slowest meteorites are those that are catching up with the Earth or being overtaken by it. Accordingly, those flying to meet us will add their speed to orbital speed Earths will pass through the atmosphere much faster, and the explosion from their impact on the surface will be many times more powerful.

Where will it fall

At sea or on land. It is difficult to say in which case the destruction will be greater, everything will just be different.

A meteorite may fall on a nuclear weapons storage site or on a nuclear power plant, then harm to environment could be more from pollution radioactive substances than from a meteorite impact (if it was relatively small).

Angle of incidence

Doesn't play a big role. At those huge speeds at which the cosmic body crashes into the planet, it does not matter at what angle it falls, since in any case the kinetic energy of motion will turn into heat and be released in the form of an explosion. This energy does not depend on the angle of incidence, but only on mass and velocity. Therefore, by the way, all craters (on the Moon, for example) have a circular shape, and there are absolutely no craters in the form of some trenches drilled at an acute angle.

How do bodies of different diameters behave when they fall to the Earth

Up to several centimeters

They burn up completely in the atmosphere, leaving a bright trail several tens of kilometers long (a well-known phenomenon called meteor). The largest of them reach heights of 40-60 km, but most of these "dust particles" burn out at an altitude of more than 80 km.

A massive phenomenon - within just 1 hour, millions (!!) of meteors flare up in the atmosphere. But, taking into account the brightness of the flares and the radius of the observer's view, at night in one hour you can see from a few to dozens of meteors (during meteor showers - more than a hundred). During the day, the mass of dust from meteors that has settled on the surface of our planet is estimated in hundreds, and even thousands of tons.

From centimeters to several meters

Fireballs- the brightest meteors, the brightness of the flash of which exceeds the brightness of the planet Venus. The flash may be accompanied by noise effects up to the sound of an explosion. After that, a smoky trail is left in the sky.

Fragments of cosmic bodies of this size reach the surface of our planet. It happens like this:

At the same time, stone meteoroids, and especially icy ones, are usually crushed into fragments from the explosion and heating. Metal can withstand pressure and fall to the surface entirely:

Iron meteorite "Goba" about 3 meters in size, which fell "entirely" 80 thousand years ago on the territory of modern Namibia (Africa)

If the entry velocity into the atmosphere was very high (oncoming trajectory), then such meteoroids are much less likely to reach the surface, since the force of their friction against the atmosphere will be much greater. The number of fragments into which the meteoroid breaks up can reach hundreds of thousands, the process of their fall is called meteor Rain.

Several tens of small (about 100 grams) fragments of meteorites can fall to Earth in the form of cosmic precipitation per day. Given that most of them fall into the ocean, and in general, they are difficult to distinguish from ordinary stones, they are quite rare to find.

The number of entries into our atmosphere of cosmic bodies about a meter in size is several times a year. If you are lucky, and the fall of such a body will be noticed, there is a chance to find decent fragments weighing hundreds of grams, or even kilograms.

17 meters - Chelyabinsk fireball

Superbolide- this is sometimes called especially powerful explosions of meteoroids, like the one that exploded in February 2013 over Chelyabinsk. According to various expert estimates, the initial size of the body that entered the atmosphere then varies, on average it is estimated at 17 meters. Weight - about 10,000 tons.

The object entered the Earth's atmosphere at a very sharp angle (15-20°) at a speed of about 20 km/sec. It exploded in half a minute at an altitude of about 20 km. The power of the explosion was several hundred kilotons of TNT. This is 20 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb, but here the consequences were not so fatal because the explosion occurred on high altitude and the energy was dispersed over a large area, largely away from populated areas.

Less than a tenth of the initial mass of the meteoroid reached the Earth, that is, about a ton or less. The fragments scattered over an area more than 100 km long and about 20 km wide. Many small fragments were found, several weighing kilograms, the largest piece weighing 650 kg was raised from the bottom of Lake Chebarkul:

Damage: almost 5,000 buildings were damaged (mostly broken glass and frames), about 1.5 thousand people were injured by glass fragments.

A body of this size could easily reach the surface without falling apart into fragments. This did not happen due to acute angle entrance, because before exploding, the meteoroid flew several hundred kilometers in the atmosphere. If the Chelyabinsk meteoroid had fallen vertically, then instead of an air shock wave breaking the glass, there would have been a powerful impact on the surface, resulting in a seismic shock, with the formation of a crater with a diameter of 200-300 meters. About the damage and the number of victims, in this case, judge for yourself, everything would depend on the place of the fall.

Concerning repetition rate of similar events, then after the Tunguska meteorite of 1908, this is the largest celestial body that fell to Earth. That is, one or more such guests from outer space can be expected in one century.

Tens of meters are small asteroids

Children's toys are over, let's move on to more serious things.

If you read the previous post, then you know that the small bodies of the solar system up to 30 meters in size are called meteoroids, more than 30 meters - asteroids.

If an asteroid, even the smallest one, meets the Earth, then it will definitely not fall apart in the atmosphere and its speed will not slow down to the speed of free fall, as happens with meteoroids. All the huge energy of its movement will be released in the form of an explosion - that is, it will turn into thermal energy, which will melt the asteroid itself, and mechanical, which will create a crater, scatter earth rock and fragments of the asteroid itself around, and also create a seismic wave.

To quantify the magnitude of such a phenomenon, consider an asteroid crater in Arizona as an example:

This crater was formed 50 thousand years ago from the impact of an iron asteroid with a diameter of 50-60 meters. The force of the explosion was 8000 Hiroshima, the diameter of the crater is 1.2 km, the depth is 200 meters, the edges rise above the surrounding surface by 40 meters.

Another event comparable in scale is the Tunguska meteorite. The power of the explosion was 3000 Hiroshima, but here there was a fall of a small comet nucleus with a diameter of tens to hundreds of meters, according to various estimates. Comet nuclei are often compared to dirty snow cakes, so in this case no crater appeared, the comet exploded in the air and evaporated, knocking down a forest over an area of ​​2 thousand square kilometers. If the same comet exploded over the center of modern Moscow, it would destroy all the houses up to the ring road.

Fall frequency asteroids tens of meters in size - once every few centuries, hundred meters - once every several thousand years.

300 meters - Apophis asteroid (the most dangerous known at the moment)

Although, according to the latest data from NASA, the probability of the Apophis asteroid hitting the Earth during its passage near our planet in 2029 and then in 2036 is almost zero, we will still consider the scenario of the consequences of its possible fall, since there are many asteroids that have not yet been discovered, and such an event can still happen, not this time, but another time.

So .. the asteroid Apophis, contrary to all forecasts, falls to Earth ..

The power of the explosion is 15,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. When it hits the mainland, an impact crater appears with a diameter of 4-5 km and a depth of 400-500 meters, the shock wave demolishes all brick buildings in a zone with a radius of 50 km, less durable buildings, as well as trees fall at a distance of 100-150 kilometers from the place fall. A column of dust rises into the sky like a mushroom from nuclear explosion several kilometers high, then the dust begins to spread into different sides, and spreads evenly over the entire planet within a few days.

But, despite the greatly exaggerated horror stories that the media usually scare people with, nuclear winter and the end of the world will not come - the caliber of "Apophis" is too small for this. According to the experience of powerful volcanic eruptions that took place in a not very long history, in which huge emissions of dust and ash into the atmosphere also occur, with such an explosion power, the effect of “nuclear winter” will be small - a drop in the average temperature on the planet by 1-2 degrees, through six months to a year everything returns to its place.

That is, this is not a catastrophe of a global, but a regional scale - if Apophis gets into a small country, he will completely destroy it.

When Apophis enters the ocean, coastal areas will suffer from the tsunami. The height of the tsunami will depend on the distance to the place of impact - the initial wave will have a height of about 500 meters, but if Apophis falls into the center of the ocean, then 10-20-meter waves will reach the coast, which is also quite a lot, and the storm lasts with such mega- waves will be several hours. If the impact into the ocean occurs close to the coast, then surfers in coastal (and not only) cities will be able to ride such a wave: (sorry for the dark humor)

Recurrence frequency events of this magnitude in the history of the Earth is measured in tens of thousands of years.

Let's move on to global catastrophes ..

1 kilometer

The scenario is the same as during the fall of Apophis, only the scale of the consequences is many times more serious and already reaches the global catastrophe of the low threshold (the consequences are felt by all mankind, but there is no threat of the death of civilization):

The power of the explosion in "Hiroshima": 50,000, the size of the crater formed when it fell to land: 15-20 km. The radius of the destruction zone from the explosive and seismic waves: up to 1000 km.

When falling into the ocean, again, it all depends on the distance to the coast, since the resulting waves will be very high (1-2 km), but not long, and such waves fade rather quickly. But in any case, the area of ​​flooded territories will be huge - millions of square kilometers.

The decrease in atmospheric transparency in this case from emissions of dust and ash (or water vapor falling into the ocean) will be noticeable for several years. If you enter a seismically dangerous zone, the consequences can be aggravated by earthquakes provoked by the explosion.

However, an asteroid of this diameter will not be able to noticeably tilt the earth's axis or affect the period of rotation of our planet.

Despite not all the drama of this scenario, for the Earth this is a rather ordinary event, since it has already happened thousands of times throughout its existence. Average repetition frequency- once every 200-300 thousand years.

An asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers is a global catastrophe on a planetary scale

• The power of the explosion in "Hiroshima": 50 million
• The size of the crater formed when falling on land: 70-100 km, depth - 5-6 km.
• cracking depth earth's crust will be tens of kilometers, that is, up to the mantle (the thickness of the earth's crust under the plains is on average 35 km). Magma will come to the surface.
• The area of ​​the destruction zone can be several percent of the Earth's area.
• During the explosion, a cloud of dust and molten rock will rise to a height of tens of kilometers, possibly up to a hundred. The volume of ejected materials - several thousand cubic kilometers - is enough for a light "asteroid autumn", but not enough for an "asteroid winter" and the beginning of an ice age.
• Secondary craters and tsunamis from fragments and large pieces of ejected rock.
• Slight, but by geological standards, a decent slope earth's axis from impact - up to 1/10 of a degree.
• When it hits the ocean - a tsunami with kilometer-long (!!) waves that go far deep into the continents.
• In the case of intense eruptions of volcanic gases, acid rain is possible later.

But this is not quite Armageddon yet! Even such grandiose catastrophes our planet has already experienced dozens or even hundreds of times. On average, this happens one once every 100 million years. If this happened at the present time, the number of victims would be unprecedented, in the worst case it could be measured in billions of people, moreover, it is not known what social upheavals this would lead to. However, despite the period of acid rain and several years of some cooling due to a decrease in the transparency of the atmosphere, in 10 years the climate and the biosphere would have fully recovered.

Armageddon

For such a significant event in the history of mankind, an asteroid the size of 15-20 kilometers in the amount of 1 piece.

There will come another glacial period, most of the living organisms will die, but life on the planet will continue, although it will no longer be the same as before. As always, the fittest will survive.

Such events have also happened more than once since the emergence of life on it, Armageddons have happened at least a few, and maybe dozens of times. It is believed that last time it happened 65 million years ( Chicxulub meteorite), when dinosaurs and almost all other species of living organisms died, only 5% of the elect remained, including our ancestors.

Full Armageddon

If a cosmic body the size of Texas crashes into our planet, as was the case in the famous film with Bruce Willis, then even bacteria will not survive (although, who knows?), life will have to arise and evolve anew.

Conclusion

I wanted to write a review post about meteorites, but the scenarios of Armageddon turned out. Therefore, I want to say that all the events described, starting with Apophis (inclusive), are considered as theoretically possible, since they will definitely not happen in the next hundred years at least. Why this is so is detailed in the previous post.

I also want to add that all the figures given here regarding the correspondence between the size of the meteorite and the consequences of its fall to Earth are very approximate. The data in different sources differ, plus the initial factors in the fall of an asteroid of the same diameter can vary greatly. For example, everywhere it is written that the size of the Chicxulub meteorite is 10 km, but in one, as it seemed to me, authoritative source, I read that a 10-kilometer stone could not do such troubles, so my Chicxulub meteorite entered the 15-20 km category .

So, if suddenly Apophis still falls in the 29th or 36th year, and the radius of the affected area will be very different from what is written here - write, I will correct