NASA Scientists Map Dust Belt Created by Russian Meteor
August 27, 2013
Dust particles from the meteor that exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in western Siberia on February 15 formed a belt that circled the Northern Hemisphere for months, NASA scientists have found. The scientists, working out of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said that within four days of the explosion, the faster, higher part of the belt had encircled the Earth and returned to Chelyabinsk. Although larger pieces of the belt slowly lost speed and altitude over time, small, light particles remained in the stratosphere for at least three months. The scientists mapped the dust belt using data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite and computer simulations of atmospheric circulation patterns.
The higher faster particles (red) in a dust plume created by the explosion of a meteor over Siberia circled the Northern Hemisphere within only four days. (NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio)
The meteor, which measured 59 feet (18 meters) across, created a powerful sonic boom as it slammed into Earth’s atmosphere at 41,600 mph (18.6 kilometers per second) and exploded at an altitude of 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometers) above Chelyabinsk. The explosion injured more than 1,000 people and shattered windows, dishes, and television screens over a large area near the city. Numerous videos taken by residents captured the fireball as it blazed across the sky and the ground-shaking shockwave that followed.
Additional World Book articles:
- When Worlds and Comets Collide (a special report)
- What Has Caused Mass Extinctions (a special report)
