CHELYABINSK, Russia, Feb. 25 (UPI) — Scientists say they have recovered the largest fragment yet found, weighing about 2.2 pounds, of the meteor that exploded over Russia Feb. 15.
It’s the largest of more than 100 meteorite fragments that have been found by an expedition from the Urals Federal University searching along a 30-mile trail along the object’s flight path, expedition leader Viktor Grokhovsky told RIA Novosti Monday.
Many fragments have been found in a 25-foot-wide crater in the frozen ice of the region’s Lake Chebarkul.
When the massive meteor streaked across the sky over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk and exploded, it damaged buildings and injured more than 1,500 people, most of whom were hurt by flying glass as windows exploded from the meteor’s shock wave.
Researchers at NASA have estimated the meteor was about 50 feet in diameter and entered the Earth’s atmosphere over Russia’s Urals region at several times the speed of sound.
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