Chelyabinsk Meteorite Had Previous Collision or Near-Miss

D-brief
By Gemma Tarlach
Aug 27, 2013 7:36 PMNov 19, 2019 9:57 PM
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Fragment of Chelyabinsk meteor currently being analyzed for mineral composition and signs of previous melting. Credit: Victor Sharygin. The meteor that starred in a thousand and one tweets as it shot across the Siberian sky last February apparently had a rough history. The Chelyabinsk meteor, estimated to have been 55-65 feet in diameter before breaking up, may have had previous fiery encounters — either colliding into another body in the solar system or traveling too close to the Sun — before its spectacular crash to Earth, according to analysis of fragments from its crust and interior.

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