Urals meteorite unable to cause major atmospheric pollution - scientists
NOVOSIBIRSK. Feb 15 (Interfax) - Urals meteorite combustion products will not stay in the atmosphere, Academic Secretary of the Zuyev Atmosphere Optics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian division Olga Tikhomirova said.
"Most probably, combustion products will not linger in the low atmospheric layers but will come down with the rain soon," the division's public relations center quoted the expert.
Meteorite combustion in the upper atmospheric levels creates lesser pollution than industrial and household waste, but it will be possible to say which substances got into the air after the meteorite fragments are tested, she said.
This is the fourth event of the scale in Russia over the past twelve years, Director of the Irkutsk State University Astronomical Observatory Sergei Yazev said. "Judging by the impact, it was the most powerful event of all," he noted.
The presumably stone meteorite of three meters in diameter weighed approximately 50 tons and travelled at the velocity of 20 kilometers per second, the scientist said.
Meanwhile, the Altai-Sayany branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian branch Geophysical Service did not report any anomalies.
"We did not see any change in the magnetic field; there were some ionospheric disturbances but we could not say whether they were caused by the meteorite. We have not done a profound analysis. Judging by what we can see, everything is normal," said Anastasia Belinskaya from the solar-earth physics laboratory of the Altai-Sayany branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian branch.
Yazev told Interfax earlier that the space object that exploded above Chelyabinsk on Friday was similar with the Vitim meteorite that fell down in the north of the Irkutsk region in 2002.